Thousands of Syrian Kurds demonstrated in Kamechliye in northeastern Syria on Sunday, November 27, to protest recent Turkish airstrikes targeting the region controlled by the semi-autonomous Kurdish administration.
Ankara has been conducting an air campaign dubbed “Sword Claw” for a week against Kurdish forces in Syria and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Iraq, blamed by Turkish officials. Six people were killed in the November 13 attack in Istanbul. Kurdish forces have denied any involvement.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) said Turkey launched fresh airstrikes early Sunday against Kurdish-held areas north of Aleppo, after a three-day ceasefire.
Five Syrian soldiers were killed in a Turkish drone strike on a village near the town of Tal Rifaat, north of Aleppo, in an artillery barrage between Kurdish forces and Turkish forces backed by Syrian units loyal to them, the OSDH said. region.
Since November 20, Turkish strikes have killed at least 64 people, concentrated mainly in northeastern Syria: 35 fighters from the (mostly Kurdish) Syrian Democratic Forces and their allies, 28 members of the Syrian regime, as well as a journalist working for a Kurdish news agency, according to the OSDH. Most of them failed on the first day of the test.
“How long are we going to die? »
On Sunday, in the town of Kamechliyé in the Hassaké region, thousands of demonstrators denounced Turkey’s attacks and threats of an ongoing offensive. They waved the red, yellow and green Kurdish flag and portraits of the PKK’s historic leader Abdullah Ocalan, who is jailed in Turkey, and shouted slogans hostile to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“The will of the Kurdish people will not be broken (…)We will not leave our historical land”said Siham Sleiman, 49, a protester. “We are victims of an erasuresaid another protester, Salah El-Dine Hamov, 55. When are we going to die while the world watches? »
Backed by the US-led international coalition, Syrian Kurdish forces led the fight against the Islamic State group in 2019, driving it from its strongholds in Syria. Between 2016 and 2019, Turkey led three major operations in northern Syria against Kurdish militias. and settings. Ankara reiterates that he wants to create a “Safe Area” 30 kilometers wide at its southern boundary.
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