AINA ACCUSES KURDS OF ROJAVA OF HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

AINA, a new news agency pretenbding to represent the Syriac minority in al-Hasakeh governorate, re-launches from Sweden accusations of human rights violations thus echoing reports from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. However they didn’t mention in their report the answers provided by the Democratic Forces and the Self Democratic Administration on the cases mentioned in the two reports.

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AINA statement accuses the Democratic Union Party (YPD) which is the driving force behind the campaign to re-conquer the territories occupied by ISIS, of human rights violations, expropriation of private property, illegal military conscription and interferences in church school curricula.

Some of the alleged violations, is said in the communiqué, are supposed to impact the Christian Assyrian population and are classified as:

• Enforcement of new curricula in private and public schools
• Conducting forced recruitment of young people
• Enforcing special taxes
• Occupation of Assyrian owned public buildings (AINA 2015-08-13)

AINA accuses the Kurds in al-Hasaka to increasingly act as occupiers of the region. AINA recall the killing of David Jendo, the commander of the Assyrian Khabour village guards, in April this year as additional prove of their accusations, but they are silent about the investigation carried out by the Self Democratic Administration on this case and their engagement to punish the criminals.

Under the chapter of forced expropriation AINA mentions the decision to confiscate what it calls “abandoned emigrant property” which is the property of internally displaced Syrians, driven away from their homes by the Syrian conflict. But no evidences are provided for what concerns the context of the “Law on Emigrant Property” and, more important, specific applications and cases are not properly investigated within the war contexts.

Nevertheless this issue remain relevant for the evaluation of the political trends in Rojava, first of all because Christians own nearly 35% of all real estate in the area, but also because the “Institution for Emigrant Properties Redistribution and Management” needs to be closely scrutinized in the light of the ‘socio-anarchist’ tendencies of the mainstreaming Kurdish parties in the Region. This is probably the most important issue raised by recent reports.

The letter published by 16 organisations, which mentions also the newly issued “Conscription Law” and alleged interferences of the Self Democratic Administration into private schools affairs, is signed by 16 organisations:

• Syriac Orthodox Church
• Armenian Apostolic Church
• Al-Jazeera and Euphrates Armenian Diocese
• Chaldean Syrian Church in Qamishli
• Assyrian Church of the East
• Assyrian Ancient Church of the East
• Syriac Catholic Church
• Syriac Orthodox Civil Peace Committee
• National Evangelical Church
• Assyrian Democratic Organization
• Aramean Free Party
• Assyrian Committee on Rural Agricultural Land
• Christian Civic Union
• Mother Syria Youth Association
• Youth Institute for National Reconciliation
• Center for Syrian Christian Youth

However the name of the signatories and their power of attorney are not mentioned, therefore suspicions are raised by other local and European Assyrian organisations on the effective participation of some of the organisations mentioned in the letter.

AINA accusations are rejected by the Christian parties and forces supporting the Self Democratic Administration in al-Jazirah Canton. Executive Board Member of People’s Brotherhood Assembly Ishaq Aziz Bihee in city of Hesekê denied the claims. He  noted that “since the beginning of the Syrian and Rojava revolution all constitent people in Hesekê and all other regions of Rojava have been working together to establsh and rule their own democratic autonomy. The situation of the constitent people in Rojava has been very different from the rest of Syria. We, all together, fought ISIS to defend us and the autonomous administration.”

THERE ARE POLITICAL PLANS BEHIND SUCH CLAIMS AND MOSTLY DIRECTED BY ANTI-ROJAVA COUNTRIES AND ORGANIZATIONS.

Referring to the claims on suppression by PYD and YPG towards Assyrians and Armenians, said “These are claims of some anti-Rojava countries, parties, and organizations. These are not new. A few weeks ago Amnesty International (AI) also reported such clams, but we have responded to the claims of AI. AI’s report was based on the claims of the Turkish government. They are not true. They are completely contrary to the reality of Rojava. There are political plans behind such claims and mostly directed by anti-Rojava countries and organizations.”