Turkish offensive in Syrian Kurdistan violates international law: German FM
Germany’s Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, June 10, 2019. Photo: DPA
BERLIN,— Turkey’s offensive in Syrian Kurdistan, the Kurdish region in northeastern Syria, falls foul of international law, Germany’s Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Sunday.
“We don’t believe that an attack on Kurdish units or Kurdish militia is legitimate under international law,” Heiko Maas told Germany broadcaster ZDF.
“If there is no basis in international law for such an invasion, then it can’t be in accordance with international law,” he said, in his strongest comments yet on the assault.
Ankara launched a cross-border attack against Syria’s Kurds on October 9, 2019 after the United States announced a military pullout from the north of the war-torn country, to widespread international criticism.
NATO member Turkey has justified the offensive as necessary to secure its borders.
A US-brokered ceasefire was announced late Thursday, giving Kurdish forces until Tuesday evening to withdraw from a buffer area Ankara wants to create inside Syrian Kurdish territory along its southern frontier.
On Sunday, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces fully withdrew from a Turkish-encircled Kurdish town in northern Syria, in what appeared to be the start of a wider pullout under the ceasefire deal.
“We will do everything we can to ensure that this ceasefire lasts longer than five days and puts a halt to the invasion for the time being,” Maas said.
Germany, along with a string of other European countries, has suspended arms exports to Turkey over the offensive.
Turkish-led bombardment and fire since October 9 has killed 114 civilians and displaced at least 300,000 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.
More than 250 SDF fighters — the de facto army of Kurdish authorities in northeastern Syria — and 190 pro-Ankara fighters have lost their lives over the same period, it says.
The Kurdish PYD and its powerful military wing YPG/YPJ, considered the most effective fighting force against IS in Syria and U.S. has provided them with arms. The YPG, which is the backbone of the SDF forces, has seized swathes of Syria from Islamic State.
The Kurdish forces expelled the Islamic State from its last patch of territory in the eastern Syrian village of Baghouz in March 2019. But in December 2018 U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly announced the pullout from Syria.
Syria’s Kurds have established a semi-autonomous region in northeastern Syria during the country’s eight-year war.
In 2013, the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party PYD — the political branch of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) — has established three autonomous Cantons of Jazeera, Kobani and Afrin and a Kurdish government across Syrian Kurdistan in 2013. On March 17, 2016, Kurdish and Arab authorities announced the creation of a “federal region” made up of those semi-autonomous regions in Syrian Kurdistan.
Copyright © 2019, respective author or news agency, Ekurd.net | AFP
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