Report
Kurdish National Council in Syria – Geneva Office
Last week numerous persons were forcefully recruited in the district of ‘Afrin by the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the militia of the Democratic Union Party (PYD). Contrary to the provisions in the law “Duty of Self-Defense”, which was passed by the PYD-controlled legislative council, men above thirty years are recruited by force, too: Thus, Izat Khalil (born in 1951), Muhsen Khalil (born in 1973) und Abdo Habash (born in 1974) were amongst the conscripts. They were from the village of Tel Ajar and members of the Kurdistan Democratic Party – Syria (PDK-S). On December 19, they were arrested. The very same evening their families were informed that they perished in a tent fire. The cause of the fire remains unclear. Currently, this account cannot be confirmed due to the refusal of the YPG to hand over the corpses to their families. The relatives assume a direct involvement of the PYD-militia in the men’s death.
The Kurdish National Council in Syria (KNC) offers its sincere condolences to the victims’ families and calls on the population of the areas under the control of the PYD to stand up against the oppression of this party.
Furthermore, the KNC denounces forced recruitment by the militias of the PYD in general. People are forced into a brutal war and abused as diplomatic bargaining chip on the international stage. Hundreds of thousands mostly young Kurds already fled the country to avoid becoming cannon fodder of the PYD.
In this respect, Siamend Hajo, member of the Foreign Relations Committee of the KNC, warns: “As long as the human rights violations on a daily basis continue and the world community remains silent, people won’t have any other prospect than fleeing from the PYD-controlled areas.”