Turkey forcibly moved, detained 60 Syrians, HRW says

Over 60 Syrian nationals were arrested and illegally moved from northeast Syria to Turkey to face trial on serious charges that could lead to life in prison by Turkey and Syrian National Army, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said today.

The international human rights group said documents it obtained show that the detainees were arrested in Syria and transferred to Turkey in violation of Turkey’s obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention as an occupying power in northeast Syria.

Deputy Middle East Director at Human Rights Watch, Michael Page says Turkey must respect people’s rights under the law of occupation in northeastern Syria.

“Human Rights Watch was able to obtain 4,700 pages of official Turkish government documents that detail the names, indictments, medical reports, and alleged evidence against 63 Syrian nationals who were detained in Syria and transferred to Turkey between October 11, 2019 and December 6, 2019,” the organisation said on its website.

Turkish authorities and an armed group affiliated with the Turkish-backed anti-government group, the Syrian National Army, arrested the Syrian nationals, both Arabs and Kurds, between October and December 2019 in Ras Al-Ayn (Serekaniye), in northeast Syria, after Turkey took effective control of the area following its incursion into northern Syria, the group explained.

The paperwork, it added, showed “that the Turkish prosecutorial authorities made a de facto decision to extend the authority of the Turkish governorate of Şanlıurfa to designated areas in Syria.”

“According to the documents, all but 10 of the detained men were members of or linked with the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the Kurdish-led political party that formed part of the Kurdish Self-Administration.”

In October 2020, five of the 63 Syrians, including one whose relatives Human Rights Watch interviewed, were sentenced to life in prison without parole for “undermining the unity and territorial integrity of the state,” their lawyers said.

Turkey has been battling Kurdish groups both within its own territory and in Syria, and calling on international powers not to support them in the fight against Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.

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