Turkey is carrying out a systematic ethnic cleansing in the Syrian Kurdish canton that it has illegally occupied for three years. The Kurds, who used to make up more than 95% of its population, are now less than 25%. More than 250,000 of them have been expelled by the Turkish occupation forces and their Syrian Islamist auxiliaries, who are waging a reign of terror. More than 400,000 Arabs, mostly families and relatives of Syrian militias in the pay of the Turkish army, have been settled in this canton.

The land, the rich olive groves, the houses, the Kurdish businesses have been plundered, confiscated by Syrian auxiliaries who kidnap, ransom and murder Kurdish peasants who refuse to leave. Cemeteries and Yazidi holy places are desecrated, Kurdish historical and cultural sites are destroyed to eradicate the Kurdish identity from this territory.

These war crimes are known, widely documented and denounced by Kurdish and international NGOs but they remain unpunished because Turkey is a NATO ally. The European Parliament adopted on March 11, 2021 a resolution demanding "the withdrawal of Turkish troops from the Syrian Kurdish territories they occupy in violation of international law. In response, Ankara acknowledges "the transfer of more than 400,000 Syrian refugees" and calls on its allies to be "sympathetic to its security concerns".

Mr. President,

We, French people from Afrin, gathered in Collectif Afrin to testify and defend our compatriots, victims of the Turkish occupation, appeal to you.

The Kurds have no state and therefore no voice at the UN. They are our allies in the war against ISIS and more than 11,000 of them have died for our security and freedom.

We have a duty of solidarity towards them.

France, the home of human rights, must act to bring before the European Union, NATO and the UN Security Council the issue of the ethnic cleansing underway in Afrin, which constitutes a crime against humanity, to demand the dispatch of an international commission of inquiry and the withdrawal of the Turkish occupation troops and the Syrian militias in their pay.

Our democracies remained silent when Saddam Hussein gassed and massacred Kurdish civilians because he was "our ally" against Iran. Will they remain silent against the crime against humanity of ethnic cleansing in Afrin because Turkey is a NATO ally?

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