Turkey Committing War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity – Again by Uzay Bulut from The Gatestone Institute

 Turkey Committing War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity – Again and Again!

by Uzay Bulut  

The Turkish government uses the pretext of "fighting terrorism" for its military attacks against Iraq and Syria. Its "fight against terrorism", however, does not mainly target the Islamic State (ISIS), al-Qaeda or its affiliates such as the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).

• Turkey, home to leaders of Hamas until just a few days ago, has for several years been granting citizenship to collaborators of ISIS.

• Instead of targeting and defeating jihadist forces in Syria and Iraq, Turkey's military evidently chooses to cooperate with them and targets the [People's Defense Units] YPG, which is the principal military ally of the United States on the ground against Islamic State. Turkey's military attacks thus weaken the US-led global coalition against ISIS and continue to devastate the Yazidis, Christians, Kurds, and other civilians in the region. Turkish leader Erdogan is pictured below.

  
  
  

• "Many governments, including the USA and others, as well as the UN, are trying to rebuild Sinjar. Meanwhile, Turkey is bombing the city regularly." — Pari Ibrahim, Executive Director of the Free Yezidi Foundation, to Gatestone, February 2022.

• "While Turkey claims it is trying to attack PKK in Sinjar, in reality they are killing the Yezidis who fought and defended Sinjar against ISIS. Turkey, by the way, did not express any interest in bombing Sinjar when it was occupied by ISIS. It is only now, when the area is once again inhabited by Yezidis, that Turkey is bombing. So we see a very nefarious hand by Turkey, which is bombing basically all of the allies of the Global Coalition against ISIS. While the Coalition is fighting ISIS, Turkey is fighting the Coalition's allies on the ground." — Pari Ibrahim to Gatestone, February 2022.

Turkey has for years been cooperating with jihadists in Syria and bombing Yazidis in Iraq. On February 1, Yazidis (an indigenous non-Muslim minority) in Iraq and Syria were once again terrorized by Turkish airstrikes. "Many governments, including the USA and others, as well as the UN, are trying to rebuild Sinjar. Meanwhile, Turkey is bombing the city regularly," says Pari Ibrahim, Executive Director of the Free Yezidi Foundation. Pictured: Battle-damaged buildings in the town of Sinjar, Iraq photographed on February 5, 2019. (Photo by Zaid Al-Obeidi/AFP via Getty Images)

Turkey has for years been cooperating with jihadists in Syria and bombing Yazidis in Iraq. Yazidis, exposed to a genocide at the hands of ISIS in Iraq in 2014, are an indigenous non-Muslim minority in the Middle East who have for centuries faced persecution because of their religion and ethnicity.

On February 1, Yazidis were once again terrorized by Turkish airstrikes targeting parts of Iraq and Syria. The Turkish government-funded TRT channel reported:

"Turkiye [Turkey] has launched an aerial operation in northern regions of Iraq and Syria to target YPG [People's Defense Units]/PKK [Kurdistan Workers' Party] terrorist bases, hideouts and tunnels that Ankara said was part of its fight against terrorism and right to self-defense.

"The operation dubbed 'Winter Eagle' began early on Wednesday and targeted YPG/PKK in Syria's Derik and Sinjar, Karacak regions in Iraq, the Turkish Defence Ministry said on Wednesday in a statement."

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