ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The governing Kurdish authority in northeastern Syria (Rojava) on Friday welcomed United States sanctions on two pro-Turkey militia groups and called for an international investigation into alleged crimes committed by the militias in Afrin.
“We welcome the decision of the US Treasury regarding imposing sanctions on some leaders of the mercenary factions for committing war crimes and displacing Kurds from Afrin,” Bedran Ciya Kurd, co-president of the external affairs department of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, said on Twitter.
In January 2018, Turkish forces and their Syrian proxies launched Operation Olive Branch in Afrin, seizing control of the Kurdish enclave from the People’s Protection Units (YPG) by March of the same year. The YPG is the backbone of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Turkey considers the YPG a terror organisation and a threat to its national security.
Local and international rights groups have repeatedly accused pro-Turkey militias of committing human rights crimes against Kurdish residents of Afrin since 2018.
The US Department of Treasury on Thursday announced sanctions on the Sulaiman Shah Brigade and the Hamza Division, both of whom operate in Afrin, and their leaders for committing “serious human rights abuses against those residing in the Afrin region.”
Ciya Kurd described the sanctions as a step towards “achieving justice,” but not enough “to take back the complete rights of the people of Afrin.” He called for international investigators to visit the region in order to bring those accused of crimes before an international court.
“The international community bears the full responsibility for what is happening in the occupied territories,” Ciya Kurd said. “They must protect and implement the laws they created to preserve human rights and dignity.”
The SDF also welcomed “decisive measures” taken by the US Treasury against the militias, while pointing out that the sanctioned groups are “closely associated” with Turkey.
The SDF said they believe "that American institutions have the capability to improve methods of holding these groups accountable and tracking them,” adding that the groups are supported by Ankara to execute “demographic change, enforced displacement, abduction, sexual abuse, and theft of property.”
“We want to draw attention to the fact that these terrorist acts against the indigenous populace are not sporadic incidents but rather systematic and strategic crimes committed under the directives of the Turkish occupying State,” added the statement.
The US Treasury accused the Sulaiman Shah Brigade of subjecting civilians in Afrin to “abductions and extortion” and targeting Kurdish residents, noting that many people “are subjected to harassment, abduction, and other abuses until they are forced to abandon their homes or pay large ransoms for return of their property or family members.”
The US also accused the Hamza Division of operating detention facilities “in which it houses those it has abducted for extended periods of time. During their imprisonment, victims are held for ransom, often suffering sexual abuse at the hands of Hamza Division fighters.”
Both groups were designated for their direct or indirect involvement in “serious human rights abuses against the Syrian people.”
UPDATED at 11:15 pm with the SDF statement
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