(Zaman Al Wasl)- Syrian women's rights activists have decried detaining seven Kurdish women by Turkish-backed opposition faction in the border city of Afrin last week, demanding to hold the perpetrators accountable, according to a statement issued Saturday.
Al-Hamza Brigade has released the detaind women on Friday but such an incedent has sparked anger of residents who demanded Turkey to implement full force on its proxies as violations mount against civilians.
The activist women group called for a fair and un independent civil justice system and referring those involved in its corruption to be held accountable and to form a committee to investigate the facts about crimes and violations committed against women in the various areas controlled by local forces and documenting them in order to hold all the violators and those involved, and, finally, they called for reversing the hate speech towards the forcibly displaced, those who had no choice in leaving their homes and coming to Afrin.
The members of the Hamza faction tried to camouflage the main cause of the accident, which was the unlawful attack on the owner of the abandoned commercial store in addition to justifying their detention of women on the grounds of criminal offenses, and the fact that they were brought before judges before they arrived at the headquarters.
This incident was exploited, as in many similar cases, to stir nationalist strife between residents of the city of Afrin, and to seek victory for one party over the other. The right of these detained Syrian women to receive justice and punish those who arrested them should not be burdened with the deceitful agendas of political fights and interests.
Turkey's military and its rebel allies seized Afrin, a mainly Kurdish district, from the YPG militia in March 2018 in a major offensive.
Local activists have reported mounting abuses against Kurdish residents by Hamza faction in Afrin and thr Ras Al-Ayn region.
The Syrian laws that are usually applied in the presence of a stable state require that any arrest should be based on solid evidence and should include civil trials. But in light of the absence of the state and the lack of clarity of laws governing the "Afrin" region, in addition to the breakdown of the civil courts and the many cases of kidnappings of women happening in the city, the "Hamzat" faction is accused of kidnapping and detaining these Syrian women, and it should be held accountable before the Turkish government.
Al -Hamza faction is a key unit in the Turkihs-backed Syrian National Army which is an umbrella group in northern Syria consisting of an assortment of rebel forces. Many of the group’s factions, made up largely of Arab fighters, had already fought at Turkey’s behest in two previous military operations over the past three years.
Zaman Al Wasl
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