Ongoing Criminal Acts In Northeast Syria: Kurdish PYD-YPG Terrorize Aramean Christian
- Post 04 June 2021
Yesterday, 3 June 2021, the Kurdish PYD/YPG militia in Northeast Syria had once again abducted an Aramean Christian. This time, they assaulted and kidnapped Husam Alkass, a young journalist and human rights activist who is known for exposing their crimes.
Husam, a critic of the Western-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that is controlled by the Kurdish PYD/YPG, was attacked by a group of 10 masked armed men at 4.30 pm local time. These crimes were committed in broad daylight in the street of Derik (Al-Malikiyah) in the Al-Hasakah governorate. The agents violently put Husam in their white van, while beating up a bystander who came to his rescue, and then drove him to an unknown destination.
This afternoon, Husam was released after he was subjected to maltreatment and threats. However, the World Council of Arameans (Syriacs) (“WCA”) vehemently condemns this latest abuse of power, terrorization and fear tactics. Last night, Husam’s sister released this “family statement” that places the blame of his ‘political abduction’ on the SDF (PYD/YPG) as follows:
“We, Husam’s family hold the de-facto military and political authorities in the area fully accountable for the abduction. We completely reject any attempt to consider this abduction a mere security or criminal incident, we have all the reasons to believe that this abduction has a political background, and it is related to Husam’s political views to promote and defend human rights and freedom of expression in the region under Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and it’s political wing the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC).
… we immediately contacted the political leaders of SDF but we didn’t receive any information or answers on the whereabouts of Husam, neither have we seen any serious efforts to contact us nor to follow up the case.
The freedom of our son and his immediate release as well as his physical and psychological safety should be the priority of those who present themselves as controlling the authority of the region, both militarily and politically, in front of the international community.”
Husam Alkass with his family in Derik (Al-Malikiyah) in the Hasakah province of Northeast Syria
The WCA President, Johny Messo, condemns the ongoing intimidation of the native Arameans and adds: “Are we, Europeans and Americans, still supposed to believe that Northeast Syria is a model for a liberal multi-ethnic democracy? Or that those who govern this area, while being internationally depicted as victims and brave freedom fighters, even care about Western values such as freedom of expression, diversity, equality and basic human rights?”
This case is just one of many that Arameans have been going through in Northeast Syria since the PYD/YPG rose to power with the support of certain states. Because the mainstream media are not reporting on this and other egregious human rights violations and politicians similarly remain silent, the crimes of the perpetrators keep being whitewashed whereas the real victims continue to suffer and disappear from their ancestral homeland that is increasingly Kurdified.
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Download the Press Release here.
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POSTSCRIPT: THE ARAMEAN PEOPLE IN (NORTHEAST) SYRIA |
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Unfounded statements appearing sometimes in the media mention the number of 100,000 to 150,000 Christians in Northeast Syria. In reality, however, there are no more than 50,000 Christians left in this region. Virtually all of them had left the area between 2011 and early 2019. Either because of the death and destruction caused by Jihadist groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra and ISIS whose aim was the establishment of a Caliphate in which the state should be governed under sharia or as a result of the self-declared tyrannical rule of the PYD/YPG (PKK) Kurds whose stated goal was the creation of an independent Kurdish statelet called Kurdistan, which should be administrated by authoritarian Marxist-Leninist or communist principles. |