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Asharq Al-Awsat
Asharq Al-Awsat
World
Qamishli – Kamal Sheikho

Syrian Democratic Council Urges Int'l Community to Prevent Turkish Offensive

A general view shows Qabasin town northeast of the Syrian town of al-Bab, Syria January 7, 2017. (Reuters)

The Kurdish Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) urged on Thursday member states of the international anti-ISIS coalition to intervene to prevent Turkey's planned offensive on regions in northeastern Syria.

It called on the international community and Untied Nations to "seriously deal with the rising threats and to immediately intervene and take strong and brave stances."

In a statement, the SDC noted that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had announced the offensive shortly after he revealed a plan to return a million Syrians in the safe zone in northern Syria.

The zone is home to Kurds, Syriacs, Yazidis, Armenians and Arabs, it added.

Erdogan's plan "exposes Syria to more occupation, threatens the social fabric, poses a real danger to the future of the region, and dashes all efforts and sacrifices that have been made in combating terrorism," it warned.

Moreover, it is a real danger "to the shape and future of the political solution" in Syria.

The targeted area houses prisons and detention centers holding fighters that had joined ISIS. The area struggles with the danger of the reemergence of the terrorist group and its cells are very active.

The SDC noted that earlier this year the area witnessed a prison break by ISIS at the Gweiran jail that led to a bloody standoff with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Gweiran Prison held some 5,000 ISIS detainees. The weeklong fighting left 350 ISIS members and 130 SDF fighters dead.

Executive chief of the SDC, Ilham Ahmed told Asharq Al-Awsat that Turkey's plan to naturalize Syrians "in regions that aren't their own after the displacement of the North's original inhabitants aims to create demographic change among the Kurdish population."

"This is a crime against humanity" and a violation of United Nations Security Council resolution 2254, she said.

Turkey, and its allied Syrian factions, have not established any safe zones in the areas they have occupied in each of Idlib, Afrin city, Tal Abyad, al-Bab and Ras al-Ain, she added. Rather it has committed the ugliest of atrocities against the original locals and used Syrians as mercenaries in it foreign wars.

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