By Anoush Baghdassarian and Sherin Zadah

Introduction

“We weren’t even able to take a spoon...even the doors and windows on our house there is nothing left.” [1]

This paper provides a legal overview of Turkey’s 2018 invasion of Afrin and the violations committed by its army and proxy forces. It argues that Turkey committed crimes of arbitrary detention, torture, persecution, sexual violation, forced displacement, property theft, and extrajudicial killing against the Kurdish population of Afrin. We identify these violations based on the UN-HRC-45-31 report (hereafter referred to as the “UN Report”), reports by activists located in Afrin, and interviews conducted by the authors with activists and residents living in, or displaced from, Afrin. The crimes committed against the predominantly Kurdish population in Afrin violate international law and send a dangerous message to Turkey and the international community that its crimes against humanity are permissible. Shedding light on these crimes is especially crucial within the context of Turkey’s increasingly irredentist, interventionist foreign policy. This paper offers policy recommendations that aim to hold Turkish officials and proxies accountable for their ongoing crimes, and to ensure that international responses are informed by what those affected see as the path forward. 

Identifying Turkey’s Crimes Against Humanity: The UN Report and Author Interviews

Turkey’s “Operation Olive Branch” initiated its January 2018 invasion of Afrin, a northwestern Syria city with a majority Kurdish population, under the guise of fighting the Kurdistan Worker’s party (PKK).[2] The Turkish Armed Forces’ statement said that the operation aims to “neutralize the terrorists belonging to PKK/KCK/PYD/YPG”[3] and the Islamic State “in the Afrin region in the northwestern part of Syria in order to ensure security and stability in our borders and the region.”[4] However, at the time of the invasion, there was no known credible Islamic State presence in Afrin.[5]

Although the invasion “officially ended” in March 2018, Turkish-backed forces continue to commit crimes against the Kurdish population in Afrin, which has been deemed by the European Parliament to be an illegal occupation of a sovereign part of Syria. Subsequently, the European Parliament has demanded that Turkey withdraw from Afrin.[6] The authors interviewed twelve people over the course of six months about what they witnessed during and after the 2018 Turkish invasion. The accounts collected shed light on the extent of Turkish military, political, and economic involvement in Afrin and the nature of the crimes committed. 

The UN Report and the author interviews detail numerous human rights violations that meet international legal standards for war crimes and crimes against humanity.[7] Article 8 of the Rome Statute details conduct that can constitute a war crime, and while the UN Report discusses these acts in terms of war crimes, it also discusses them in terms of crimes against humanity, which will serve as the legal lens for this piece. Article 7 of the Rome Statute defines crimes against humanity as those crimes “committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack.”[8] It includes within this definition such crimes as persecution, imprisonment or severe deprivation of liberty, and torture. Its chapeau defines the common elements of a crime against humanity: (1) there must be an attack; (2) the attack must be directed against a civilian population; (3) the attack must be widespread or systematic; (4) the conduct of the perpetrator must be part of such an attack; and (5) the perpetrator must have knowledge that, or intend that, his or her conduct is part of such an attack.[9] The prohibited acts can only be considered a crime against humanity if the common elements in the chapeau are met; presuming they are, this piece argues that the substantive elements are also met in Afrin’s context.

While this piece identifies rights violations and claims that they amount to crimes against humanity, the subsequent step is to determine where prosecution might be possible for such crimes. As crimes against humanity are part of customary international law, and constitute jus cogens norms, they are accepted as prohibited everywhere, in all circumstances.[10] Accordingly, the focus on crimes against humanity in this paper is not necessarily for an International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecution, but rather, to demonstrate the gravity of the crimes committed by the Syrian National Army (SNA) against the Kurdish civilians of Afrin and urge international institutions to hold Turkey accountable, which begins with the withdrawal of Turkish proxy forces and allowing Kurdish civilians back into Afrin.[11]

Imprisonment or Other Severe Deprivation of Physical Liberty [12]

The legal requirements to hold someone accountable for severe deprivation of liberty are that the deprivation was arbitrary and grave enough to violate the fundamental rules of international law.[13] The UN Report details how civilians were forcibly taken from their homes and arbitrarily detained by the SNA to be “beaten, tortured, denied food or water, and interrogated about their faith and ethnicity.”[14] The SNA, a Turkish proxy group,[15] would often threaten, extort, or detain the civilians who would complain “while others were abducted and forced to pay ransom directly to SNA senior members for their release.”[16]

Afrin civilians were interrogated by SNA officials in high schools that were converted into detention centers, Afrin’s central prison, and SNA police headquarters.[17] One detainee reported to UN investigators that in mid-2019 he spent five months detained in the SNA military police headquarters before being transferred to the Afrin central prison and finally released in March 2020.[18]  He was “handcuffed and hung from a ceiling. He was then blindfolded and repeatedly beaten with plastic tubes.”[19] Notably, detainees reported that Turkish speaking officials were present at the interrogation showcasing the linkage between Turkey and the proxy forces in Afrin. This UN Report is the first UN documentation that officially stated there was ongoing Turkish involvement in Afrin in the form of proxy militias, gravely abusing human rights. 

The authors’ interviews corroborate the UN Report’s findings. Interviewees recounted horrendous treatment in detention facilities at the hands of joint SNA and Turkish police forces.[20] The arbitrary arrests along with the inhumane treatment during their deprivation of liberty demonstrate a severe disregard for individual rights.[21] One elderly female interviewee told the authors how she was forcibly taken from her home to a prison in Kilis, Turkey where she was greeted with “the screams of prisoners that were getting tortured by Turkish soldiers.” Then, she was taken by the SNA back into Syria where she was arbitrarily detained for seventeen days in a prison occupied by the SNA’s Sultan Murad Brigade. 

These joint forces arbitrarily arrested each person we interviewed without providing reason other than their perceived and fabricated participation in the PKK. The above quote highlights the partnership between Turkish soldiers and Syrian rebel groups like the SNA and illustrates Turkey’s military presence within Syria. It also identifies the persecution of a peoples on the basis of ethnicity, which is important to meet the persecution element in the Rome Statute. Upon asking what reasons were given for their arrest and detention, interviewees stated consistently that the only clue Turkish officials had to arbitrarily detain them was knowledge of their Kurdish ethnicity. This modus operandi was transparent, demonstrating that Turkish officials and Syrian mercenaries supporting them were primarily focusing on the Kurdish population.[22] One interviewee said they detained her “because they said that I was working for the PKK. I told them to look at me. I’m an old woman. How can I be working with the PKK?” Another interviewee supported the idea that Kurds were the sole target group, sharing that he too was stopped and accused of being a part of the PKK, but that, “if they stopped an Arab, they would let them go.” Once arbitrarily detained and denied their liberty, the Kurds who were imprisoned were severely tortured.

Torture [23]

Torture has been defined through international criminal law jurisprudence to include: beatings, sexual violence, prolonged denial of sleep, food, hygiene, and medical assistance, and solitary confinement.[24] All these acts have happened to Kurdish prisoners in Afrin. Additionally, torture includes mental suffering arising from those same acts, or through intimidation, coercion, threats, humiliation, and degradation, can also constitute torture.[25]

Turkish sexual violence against Afrin civilians meets the definition of torture amounting to crimes against humanity.[26] At least thirty women had reportedly been raped in just February of 2020.[27] The UN Report maintains that the “acts of intimidation” from SNA members instilled widespread fear amongst women in Afrin. One of the victims recounted how during interrogation she was threatened with rape and beaten on the head by the SNA in the presence of Turkish officials.[28]

Sexual violence has also been a tactic to instill fear within male detainees. Former male detainees told the Commission that they were threatened by SNA members to forcibly watch a minor be raped. One reported that a “minor was gang-raped, as the male detainees were beaten and forced to watch in an act that amounts to torture.”[29] A few weeks, another minor was gang-raped by the SNA in front of the detainees. All these acts constitute the humiliating and degrading treatment of torture, as well as the sexual violence component, and amount to crimes against humanity. 

Turkish authorities kidnapped one of the authors’ interviewees from her house in Afrin and took her to a Turkish detention center where she recounted her experiences. She described an eleven-year-old girl who tried to strangle herself as she heard her mother’s screams from being tortured in a nearby cell. Other methods of torture that she recounted included ripping skin, breaking teeth, cutting hair, and multiple times a day bringing a knife to peoples’ throats threatening to slaughter them like animals. Detainees were also starved, including the elderly, women, and children. These reports are corroborated by other interviewees who similarly spent months in Turkish detention centers. Several accounts detailed how the joint officials accused the Kurdish prisoners of being infidels to justify their torture. For example, one interviewee recounts that one man’s torture was so extreme, including electrocution, because they accused him of taking a paper from the Quran and of using it to roll a cigarette. One thirteen-year-old boy was kidnapped and detained three times and has recounted that starvation was a consistent element of the inhumane conditions. He recounted, “We would get one potato and a piece of bread once a day and told us that was too much for us and that we were whores and ‘hungry Kurds.’” 

The authors interviewed two Kurdish men recently detained by Turkish authorities and SNA soldiers. One man, who spent twenty-three days in Turkish custody, detailed the brutal torture he experienced, infamously named “the roasted chicken,” which entailed tying his hands to his legs and being hanged from the ceiling. “They kept me like that for an hour or more,” he described, “and if you're not answering their questions, they continue torturing you until you're paralyzed. For almost two weeks I couldn’t eat because my hands were paralyzed.” Guards threatened to rape their families and to take over the city, “telling us, it’s not our city anymore.”

Our interviews substantiate that the joint Turkish-SNA actions constituted torture against the Kurdish community in Afrin. Our interviews only scratch the surface of the testimonies that exist from those who survived such treatment. As demonstrated, many of these horrendous acts were carried out against the Kurdish population merely for their being Kurdish, and this is a necessary element of meeting the threshold for persecution. 

Persecution [30]

The joint forces also persecuted Kurdish civilians in Afrin. Persecution includes murder, deportation or forcible transfer, cruel and inhumane treatment, and acts against property.[31] What differentiates persecution from the other underlying crimes is that the victims must have been targeted due to their group identity. In this case, the Kurds were targeted as an ethnic group. 

For example, a SNA senior member requested proof of ownership only from Kurdish inhabitants of the building he inspected.[32] One Kurdish resident explained he was sent to speak with the Suleiman Shah Brigade and was verbally abused and told “if it were up to me, I would kill every Kurd from 1 to 80 years old.”[33]

Turkey also targeted towns in Afrin with historically majority Kurdish villages, such as Komrock village, which now houses multiple Syrian National Army bases.[34] Since the invasion, there has been an active campaign of demographic engineering by deporting the indigenous population. Afrin’s Kurdish population has reduced from 97 percent to 35 percent.[35] That many victims are imprisoned and tortured by the SNA for their perceived affiliation with the PKK, a group comprised of solely Kurds, constitutes ethnic [36] and political discrimination,[37] which are both protected categories in the UN’s persecution definition. One interviewee shared, “They did this to us because we were Kurdish. They would call us slurs like ‘you dirty Kurd.’”

Not only is the persecution of Kurds on the basis of their ethnic identity apparent when it comes to the living, but also is demonstrated by a disrespect for the dead.  The names on Kurdish graves are often changed, and one narrator felt this was part of a systematic approach to eradicate the Kurdish culture in Afrin: “The goal is to make sure that there is no evidence that Afrin was a Kurdish town at one time.”[38]

Persecution jurisprudence has included property theft and forced displacement. The UN Report details property theft violations based on investigations that occurred from January 11, 2020 to July 1, 2020.[39] It showcased targeted attacks by the SNA to forcibly obtain property from Kurdish residents in Afrin. The UN Report displayed substantial evidence that the SNA brigades participated in systematic property theft and looting targeting civilians “primarily of Kurdish origin.”[40] This was done through “threats, extortion, murder, abduction, torture and detention.”[41] The Committee noted that in September 2019  members of the SNA’s Division 14, Brigade 142 (the Suleiman Shah Brigade) “had gone door to door instructing Kurdish families with fewer than three members to vacate their houses to accommodate individuals arriving from outside of Afrin.”[42] These individuals coming from outside of Afrin are presumably Turkish proxy members or Arabs from other cities in Syria.  Civilians reported that they were demanded to pay LS 10,000 to LS 25,000, depending on their capacity to pay the extortion fee.[43]

Reaffirming the violations outlined in the UN Report, one author interviewee declared that “they were driven away from their home by threats of violence and when they returned, they were threatened by the SNA members who were now living inside their home.”’[44] Another interviewee described how Turkish forces stole her house, and she was forced to pay a bribe to leave Afrin: “I wasn’t allowed to stay in my own house because members of Sultan Murad Brigade were occupying it.” She later described how in her village “they burned seven houses out of 150 houses. And they burned those houses based on the allegations that they were affiliated with the PKK.” 

Another interviewee described how forces operating under Turkish military supervision removed an entire neighborhood and confiscated what was left behind. “[E]verything is stolen from my house even the doors and windows. There was nothing left.” Another woman described how the SNA burned her house and 110 of her olive trees and she was left with no economical means to survive, so she fled Afrin and now lives in Aleppo. Other reports based on field visits by the Lekolin Institute list the properties looted by SNA members, and document that Kurdish residents who attempted to return to their homes were turned away by SNA officials.[45]

The targeted destruction of cultural shrines and buildings in Afrin as described in the UN Report is another example of persecution.[46] Interviewees warned that Turkish proxy forces are destroying cultural icons and stealing ancient items in Afrin, attempting to eradicate Kurdish culture. The Commission corroborated that repeated patterns of systematic looting and property appropriation were perpetrated by various SNA brigades in the Afrin and Ra’s al-Ayn region.”[47] The coordinated lootings of property, destruction of cultural sites, and conversion of property for the SNA’s military bases and islamic schools are all examples of targeted attacks against the Kurds constituting persecution and providing reason for redress and justice for the Kurds of Afrin. 

Policy Proposals 

The UN Report and author interviews demonstrate that many of the SNA’s actions against Afrin’s Kurdish populations constitute crimes against humanity. State and nonstate actors often pursue prosecution in these situations through hybrid tribunals, ad-hoc tribunals, regional courts, or foreign national prosecutions through universal jurisdiction. Perhaps more notable is prosecution through the ICC. Given that Turkey is not a State Party to the Rome Statute, nor would it accept ICC jurisdiction with respect to the crimes in question, the ICC could only obtain jurisdiction over the aforementioned crimes through a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) referral under its Chapter VII powers.[48] The ICC can only exercise jurisdiction if there is a failure on the part of the national judicial system to act.[49] It is unlikely that Turkish officials would act to hold themselves accountable, so the ICC could open a preliminary investigation due to Turkey’s failure to act. However, achieving a unanimous referral from the five permanent Security Council members with veto power would prove challenging, given their important political relationships with Turkey and aversion to jeopardizing them for a humanitarian cause.[50] But in the case that the UNSC did refer the case to the ICC and it was determined that the ICC had jurisdiction over it, then a case could be initiated against Turkish individuals responsible for crimes against humanity in Afrin. 

While prosecution in an international tribunal represents one type of justice, other forms of justice are worth considering in this instance. For instance, the aspirations of Afrin’s Kurdish population remain crucial to understanding what justice efforts and policy proposals should be considered. Many interviewees shared their notions of justice with the authors, guiding the policy prescriptions at hand.

One person hoped the UN would provide a suitable forum to “facilitate a solution. I believe that everyone should go back to their respective towns and that there needs to be a full withdrawal of Turkish forces in Afrin to allow for the rebuilding of Afrin for any lasting resolution.” This sentiment was echoed by a number of other interviewees who shared that their desired solution is the immediate withdrawal of Turkish forces from Afrin, which will allow for the return of Kurds who were forced out due to persecution. Similarly, many interviewees wished for more significant international attention on the crimes committed, allowing for appropriate legal action and restoring the rule of law in Afrin, which they now deem a lawless town.  Many believe the international community should help because it gave Turkey a green light during Operation Olive Branch to invade Afrin and therefore is accountable for helping repair the city and redress the harms. 

Based on insights gleaned from the interviews conducted, the authors see a number of problems to address. If left unchecked, Turkey will continue its aggressive military expansion beyond its borders and pose a threat to international order. Their policies of persecution and demographic engineering are not new, and ongoing impunity only serves to encourage and legitimize their acts. The authors propose that the international community can help end the conflict through both legal and political means.

Legitimate and impartial documentation of this kind can be an important legal strategy, which preserves evidence and builds the record of abuses for litigation in a proper forum down the line.[51] The UN might help facilitate a fact-finding mission, or investigative mechanism, for such documentation, as well as continue generating more reports on the abuses committed.[52]

An important political avenue rests with the United States and the European Union, which should take stronger roles in combating Turkey’s acts of aggressions and illegal invasions. One immediate action these bodies might take is to pass a bill mandating stronger sanctions on Turkey. Economic sanctions will be effective because they lessen the government's ability to pay the salaries of the Turkish proxy forces that now have de facto control of Afrin.[53] Additional sanctions also signal to Turkey that their increasing acts of aggression will not continue with impunity.  Additionally, the UN might consider establishing a peacekeeping mission in Afrin to monitor the situation and create an important international presence that will be central to ending Turkey’s illegal occupation.[54]  Accordingly, Afrin should be at the forefront of transitional justice efforts in Syria in order to ensure a sustainable solution for a society rooted in law and legitimacy.

Conclusion 

This paper has detailed some of the crimes against humanity that Turkey’s proxy forces continue to commit against Kurdish civilians in Afrin. The UN Report provides evidence that Turkish backed forces are imprisoning and torturing Kurdish civilians on the basis of being Kurdish, which constitutes persecution. Turkish proxy members use systematic sexual violence and torture in Afrin to force Kurds from their villages and towns. To date, Afrin is now less than 40 percent Kurdish, a dramatic reduction from over 97 percent Kurdish prior to the Turkish intervention in 2018.[55] If the violence from Turkish proxy forces continues unchecked, the Kurdish population will continue to be driven out until they are eradicated from the region. As echoed by those most affected, to help prevent further violations, the international community must act through political, legal, and humanitarian means. Whether by ridding the region of Turkish militias, helping Kurds return to Afrin, or the UNSC issuing an ICC referral, action is imperative. If the international community does not address the unraveling humanitarian situation in Afrin, the region will further destabilize, presenting immense problems to regional and global security. Without holding Turkey accountable, the international community is condoning their actions and allowing for its crimes against humanity to go unchecked. 

About the Authors

Anoush Baghdassarian is a Juris Doctor candidate at Harvard Law School. She has a Master’s in Human Rights Studies from Columbia University, and a Bachelor’s in Psychology, Spanish, and Genocide Studies from Claremont McKenna College. She is the co-founder of the Rerooted Archive, the largest documentation project about the Armenian community of Syria before, during, and after the Syrian conflict: http://www.rerooted.org/.

Sherin Zadah is an upcoming MIA student at SIPA, and has worked on international development issues in Jordan and Turkey. Sherin is a humanitarian activist and former State Department intern. She is the Founder of Kurdish Refugee Relief Foundation, the first NGO dedicated to mitigating the menstrual hygiene gap in the Kurdistan region.

Endnotes

1. We would like to acknowledge the Lekolin Institute for their integral help in securing interviews and for their tireless documentation of the crimes committed in Afrin. The work they do is critical to raising awareness about the situation there and helping achieve justice for the community. In particular, we extend our gratitude to Dr. Imad Hasan and Dr. Ihsan Efrini.

2. “Turkey Launches 'Olive Branch Operation' against 'PKK Threat in Syria' - Turkey News.” Hürriyet Daily News, January 20, 2018. https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkey-launches-major-land-operation-into-ypg-militants-in-syrias-afrin-126031.

3. PKK is the Kurdistan Worker’s Party; KCK is the Kurdistan Communities Union; PYD is the Democratic Union Party; and the YPG is the People's Protection Unit. These are all either Kurdish militant groups or political parties focused on Kurdish political representation or autonomy.

4. Wladimair Van Wilgenburg, “Turkey Conducts First Airstrikes against Efrin in Syria after Russia Withdraws Troops.” The Defense Post, July 4, 2019. https://www.thedefensepost.com/2018/01/20/turkey-efrin-syria-airstrikes-operation-olive-branch/. See also: United Nations Security Council,  Letter dated 24 July 2015 from the Chargé d’affaires a.i. of the Permanent Mission of Turkey to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council United Nations, S/2015/563, 24 July 2015, http://www.securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/%7B65BFCF9B-6D27-4E9C-8CD3-CF6E4FF96FF9%7D/s_2015_563.pdf.

5. Zeina Karam, “AP Fact Check: Shades of Gray in Turkey's Stated Syria Goals.” AP News. Associated Press, January 25, 2018. https://apnews.com/article/787a0624296f40b8b936d67d14699cb9.

6. European Parliament, “Texts Adopted - The Syrian Conflict - 10 Years after the Uprising - Thursday, 11 March 2021”, March 11, 2021, https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-9-2021-0088_EN.html.

7. Guénaël Mettraux, International Crimes and the Ad Hoc Tribunals (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006).

8. Kai Ambos, “Article 25. Individual Criminal Responsibility.” The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, 2016, 980–1030. https://doi.org/10.5771/9783845263571-980.

9. International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC), Crimes in Burma (Cambridge: Harvard Law School, 2009) http://hrp.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/Crimes-in-Burma.pdf.

10. Crimes against humanity are non-derogable, which means there is no state of emergency or violent conflict that would excuse them, regardless if the crimes are committed by individuals or states.

11. The Syrian National Army (“SNA”) is a non-state armed group composed of the former free Syrian Army fighters and its brigades, including some of those which were classified under US sanctions lists for involvement in international terrorism. The SNA is formed, sponsored and trained by Turkey. Their uniforms carry the Turkish flag. Their offices have large portraits of President Erdogan of Turkey and the Turkish flag.

12. IHRC, Crimes in Burma.

13. Ibid. Some examples of international law violations include solitary confinement, lack of accessibility to counsel, and inhumane conditions and treatment.

14. United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Human Rights Council, Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, A/HRC/45/31, August 14, 2020. https://undocs.org/A/HRC/45/31.

15. “Turkey-Backed SNA Opens 1st Military Post in Syria's Azaz.” Daily Sabah, December 4, 2020. https://www.dailysabah.com/world/syrian-crisis/turkey-backed-sna-opens-1st-military-post-in-syrias-azaz.

16. UNGA Human Rights Council, Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic.

17. Ibid.

18. Ibid.

19. Ibid.

20. Ibid.

21. “International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY): Prosecutor V. Krnojelac.” International Legal Materials 43, no. 2 (2004): 288–380. doi:10.1017/S0020782900007804. See also: Prosecutor v. Mladen Naletilić and Vinko Martinović, Case No. IT-98-34-T, Judgement (TC), March 31, 2003. https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/f2cfeb/.

22. Mercenary is a legal classification which entails a person taking part in hostilities by the desire for private gain. “Amnesty Annual Report Documents Turkish and SNA Crimes in Tel Abyad, Rish Ayno, and Afrin,” SyriacPress, February 20, 2020, https://syriacpress.com/blog/2020/02/20/amnesty-annual-report-documents-turkish-and-sna-crimes-in-tel-abyad-rish-ayno-and-afrin/.

23. Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, July 17, 1998. https://www.icc-cpi.int/resource-library/Documents/RS-Eng.pdf.

24. “Art. 7(1)(f) Crime against Humanity of Torture,” Art. 7(1)(f) Torture: Case Matrix Network (n.d.).  https://www.casematrixnetwork.org/cmn-knowledge-hub/proof-digest/art-7/7-1-f/.

25. Ibid.

26. See, for example, Prosecutor v. Dragoljub Kunarac et al., Cases No. IT-96-23-T and IT-96-23/1-T, Judgement (TC), February 22, 2001, paras. 654-656, https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/fd881d/; Prosecutor v. Dragan Nikolić, Case No. IT-94-2-T, Judgement (TC), December 18, 2003, para. 184, https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/f8722c/ (amongst many others).

27. UNGA Human Rights Council, Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic.

28. Ibid., 1.

29. Ibid.

30. Rome Statute, Article 7(1)(h) and 8(2)(b)(xxii).

31. “Art. 7(1)(f) Crime against Humanity of Torture,” Art. 7(1)(f) Torture: Case Matrix Network.

32. UNGA Human Rights Council, Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic. 11.

33. Ibid.

34. Ibid.

35. “Afrin: Kurdish population more than halved since 2018 offensive, says rights group” Rudaw, April 20, 2020. https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/syria/20042020.

36. The Trial Chamber’s assessed that these killings were carried out with intent to discriminate on the basis of Croat ethnicity. See e.g Prosecutor v Milan Martić, Case No. IT-95-11-T, Judgement (TC), June 12, 2007, https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/06634c/.

37. “The Chamber observes that the evidence indicates that the      perpetrators killed and forcibly displaced persons primarily belonging to the Kikuyu, Kamba and Kisii communities on the basis that they were perceived as PNU supporters.” See e.g. Prosecutor v. Vlastimir Dorđević, Case No. IT-05-87/1-A, Judgement (AC), January 27, 2014, para. 273, https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/e6fa92/.

38. Similar comparisons can be drawn from cases at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), particularly Krajisnik, where it was established that the systematic attacks against the Bosnians and Croats were carried out with discriminatory intent and this constituted persecution. See Prosecutor v. Momćilo Krajišnik, Case No. IT-00-39-T, Judgement (TC), September 27,  2006, paras. 829-831. http://www.legal-tools.org/doc/62a710/.

39. UNGA Human Rights Council, Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic.

40. Ibid., 12.

41. Ibid., 11.

42. Ibid.

43. Ibid.

44. Interview with former Afrin resident, conducted by the authors, March 2021.

45. Lekolin Center for Legal Studies and Research, Reports On The Documentation And Monitoring Of Violations In Afrin / Syria (Chicago: Lekolin Center for Legal Studies and Research, 2020), 2-45.

46. Prosecutor v. Vlastimir Dordevic, 567. The Dordevic case declared the targeted attack against Muslims and Croat cultural sites as a crime against humanity.Though not persecution, there are also cases which discuss the destruction of cultural sites as war crimes under the Rome Statute, see e.g. “Al Mahdi Case: The Prosecutor v. Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi” International Criminal Court (n.d.), https://www.icc-cpi.int/mali/al-mahdi.

47. UNGA Human Rights Council, Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, 11.

48. United Nation Charter, Chapter VII. https://www.un.org/en/about-us/un-charter.

49. Rome Statute, Article 17.

50. There are numerous examples where the UNSC did not take action or even deliberate on Turkey’s action in Syria. See here for one example: “US, Russia veto UN Security council statement on Turkey's op in Syria.” Daily Sabah, October 10, 2019. https://www.dailysabah.com/war-on-terror/2019/10/10/un-security-council-fails-to-issue-joint-statement-on-turkeys-op-in-syria.

51. Whether it be the victims bringing a case against Turkey at the European Court of Human Rights, another state bringing a claim against Turkey at the ICJ, or any of the different tribunals listed above, there are a number of legal avenues that can be taken advantage of, but only with the requisite documentation.

52. While this piece focused on crimes against humanity, it is important to note that these events could be analyzed under the crime of genocide per the Rome Statute given the ethnic cleansing and deportation of the Kurds, and there are a plethora of war crimes to be documented and analyzed as well, such as the pillaging of Afrin’s resources, or the destruction of cultural heritage.

53. See, for example, the sanctions imposed on Russia for its occupation of Crimea. “Ukraine and Russia Sanctions” United States Department of State, (n.d.), https://www.state.gov/ukraine-and-russia-sanctions/.

54. European Parliament, “Texts adopted - The Syrian conflict - 10 years after the uprising”.

55. “Afrin: Kurdish population more than halved,” Rudaw.