Widespread Violations Displace Tens of Thousands of Al Hassaka Residents
I- Introduction and Methodology:
Al Hassaka governorate is one of the culturally rich and most diverse cities in northeast Syria. The governorate is inhabited by a mixed population of Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen, Assyrians, Armenians, Chechnens, Yazidis, and Chaldeans.
Kurdish forces joined other conflict parties in Syria when YPG forces, (the armed wing of the PYD party), established the Kurdish Self-Management Forces which was announced in January 2014 and seized control over some regions in north and east of Syria. The PYD party constitutes the main core of the movement that was called later on the “Kurdish Self-Management Forces”.
In this report we document the most significant violations that were committed by the Kurdish Self-Management Forces in Al Hassaka governorate since February 2015 and up till August 2015. During that period of time and up till now, this party has been committing widespread violations against human rights in Syria.
SNHR sent letters which discussed the violations that were committed by the Kurdish Self-Management Forces to each of:
– A leader in the Kurdish Self-Management Forces, Abdul Karim Omar and have not received any reply from his behalf up to the moment of making this report.
– Head of the PYD party, Saleh Mouslem, and have not received any reply from his behalf up to the moment of making this report.
Most of the time, Kurdish Self-Management Forces justify its violations by stating that it happened while it was fighting ISIL. Additionally, these forces accused in a statement, Amnesty International in its report “WE HAD NOWHERE TO GO’ – FORCED DISPLACEMENT AND DEMOLITIONS IN NORTHERN SYRIA”and SNHR, of being aligned with ISIL; even though SNHR issued an extensive study about ISIL’s violations in January 2014, not forgetting several of other reports that document ISIL’s breaches and violations, especially in Ein Al Arab region (also known as Kobani), Al Hassaka, Raqqa and other regions.
