ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A Twitter storm under the hashtag #BreakSilenceOnAfrin is bringing international attention to Turkey’s offensive against the Kurdish enclave of Afrin, including US government officials, celebrities, and rights activists worldwide who are using their voices to raise awareness of the conflict.
The #BreakSilenceOnAfrin Twitter campaign is backed by Turkey Untold, a war monitor following human rights violations in Turkey and northern Syria.
“There is a bloody and unequal war going on in Afrin. International human rights organizations are suspiciously silent. Since we promised to be the voice of the weak, we decided to support the hashtag campaign that is being organized by a group of activists,” read a statement from Turkey Untold on Saturday announcing the upcoming launch of the campaign.
Chris Van Hollen, a US Senator from Maryland tweeted, “Why is Trump silent while our allies in the fight against ISIS, the Syrian Kurds, are brutally forced out of Afrin, by Turkish forces. Silence is complicity & sends the terrible message that the US will not stand by our allies in the face of aggression.”
“I stand with the Kurdish people of Afrin,” Nazanin Boniadi, a British-American actress and human rights advocate of Iranian origin tweeted. “We must break the silence and stop the brutal genocide by Turkish forces.”
“The world is silent while the humanitarian crisis is escalating in a once peaceful city,” tweeted Ari Murad, an award-winning film maker and human rights activist.
“For no reason other than racism against Kurdish self-determination, the beautiful and ancient city is being hit constantly by Turkish Army and civilian losses rise dramatically,” Murad added to his Facebook account using the same Twitter hashtag.
The Kurdish Students Union in the UK tweeted, “Turkish army and allied jihadi thugs have been committing war crimes in Afrin, with little or no report on mainstream media. Where is the media?”
Operation Olive Branch forces entered Afrin city center on Sunday morning. The incursion into the northwest Syrian canton, involving Turkish troops and their Syrian proxies, including Free Syrian Army (FSA), began on January 20.
Images have emerged appearing to show the Syrian proxy forces looting businesses and the belongings left behind by families who fled.
The fighters were photographed by AFP breaking into shops, restaurants and homes and seen making off with food, livestock, tractors, electronic equipment, blankets and other goods in trucks and trailers.
Footage has also surfaced showing fighters shooting up then pulling down the statue of Kawa the blacksmith – a famous Kurdish icon associated with Newroz.
Ankara framed its offensive as a counter-terror operation with the aim of creating a buffer zone along Turkey’s southern border, pushing back the People’s Protection Units (YPG) who Turkey says are affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a named terrorist organization. The group denies the link.
Since the January 20 operation began, the humanitarian situation has deteriorated, forcing at least 250,000 to flee.
There have also been more than 289 civilian casualties reported and at least 1,500 Kurdish fighters killed, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The YPG claimed on Sunday evening that Afrin city has not fallen to Olive Branch forces, insisting its fighters are still resisting advances in districts of the town. They have pledged to launch a guerrilla campaign to push back the “invasion” and halt what they called the “ethnic cleansing” of Afrin.
Afrin supporters in Halabja burn photos of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
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