By Abdullah Asiran
ROTTERDAM, The Netherlands (AA) – PYD/YPG terrorists in northern Syria are kidnapping and forcing Aramean (Syriac) children to join their group, according to an association of Syriac Christians.
“The PYD/YPG is threatening Syriacs and still forcibly detaining some children to join them,” Johny Messo, head of the World Council of Arameans (Syriacs), told Anadolu Agency on Thursday.
Telling how the terrorist PYD/YPG fought other terrorist groups only to pursue its own territorial aims, he explained: “The aim of the PYD/YPG in its struggle against Daesh was to seize their territories and integrate them as part of the autonomous Kurdish region envisaged by them.”
The U.S. had enlisted the PYD/YPG to fight Daesh, while Turkey objected that using one terror group to fight another makes no sense.
Messo said the PYD/YPG and Daesh are both terror groups, differing only in aims, and sometimes even working together.
“For example, the BBC showed that the PYD/YPG signed an agreement with Daesh. And, according to our own sources, the PYD/YPG took former Daesh members with them,” he added.
Messo said it is the PYD/YPG -- the Syrian branch of the terrorist PKK -- which is responsible for the current conflict in the region.
“I hope that YPG will stop its irresponsible actions, lay down its weapons, and reach an agreement to ensure that no more civilian lives are sacrificed,” he added.
In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU -- has been responsible for the deaths of some 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants.
- US cutting off YPG/PYG 'a step forward in region'
Messo also praised the U.S. decision to take out its troops and cut off support to the YPG/PYG.
“Withdrawing U.S. troops from Syria and halting financial and arms support to the YPG Kurds may help restore peace and security in Syria,” he said in a statement on the World Council of Arameans website.
U.S. President Donald Trump late Sunday announced a pullback of U.S. forces from their positions in northern Syria ahead of Turkey's operation against the terrorist YPG/PKK there.
On Wednesday, Turkey launched Operation Peace Spring east of the Euphrates River in northern Syria to secure its borders by eliminating terrorist elements and to ensure the safe return of Syrian refugees as well as Syria’s territorial integrity.
Messo said that YPG/PKK are "responsible for the current escalation in the northeast [Syria] and that they hold the key for peace in this part of our ancestral homeland.”
“If other countries follow [the U.S.’] suit, primarily those whose foreign policies largely follow America’s course, and stop arming their proxies, violence will soon end,” he stated.
Then the region “can finally focus on seeking a genuine political solution for Syria, beginning in a few weeks through the UN-facilitated Constitutional Committee," Messo added.
- ‘Two sides of same coin’
Messo called the PKK and the PYD/YPG, who sometimes use the name SDF, “two sides of the same coin.”
“The communist ideology and violent nature of these nationalist organizations discredit democratic and liberal values,” he wrote.
“These ‘heroes’ have oppressed vulnerable Arameans, taken their innocent lives, Kurdified their lands and still use a tiny Christian group as their mouthpiece to represent Kurdish interests.”
The YPG “had ample time and opportunities to take away the security concerns of Damascus and/or Ankara,” he stated.
“Inspired by North Iraq, the envisioned autonomous Kurdish region in North Syria would give a huge boost to the PKK Kurds in Southeast Turkey. Instead of striking a deal for their people, though, Western support made them haughty,” he wrote.
Messo called on the PKK/PYD/YPG “to end its violent struggle for independence so that Arameans, Kurds, Arabs, and Turks can work together on a mutually enriching co-existence between different ethnicities, religions, and languages in Turkey and Syria.”
“Whether in Southeast Turkey or Northeast Syria, the PKK/PYD/YPG Kurds hold the key in their hands to peace, security, and prosperity for their own people and for other peoples in the lands which we need to be sharing today,” Messo said.
Separately, on Twitter, Assyria TV, an independent channel based in Sweden, wrote: "According to first-hand reports from Syria, YPG is shelling #Turkish town of Nsibin [Nusaybin, in Mardin] from Assyrian quarters in Kamishli [Qamishli] to draw Turkish fire on #Assyrians, to use #Christian victims as propaganda."
"#YPG using Assyrians as human shields. #Syria #Turkey #Kurds," it said.
- Operation Peace Spring
Turkish troops along with the Syrian National Army (SNA) on Wednesday launched Operation Peace Spring against PKK/YPG and Daesh terrorists in northern Syria, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced.
The operation was launched east of the Euphrates River in northern Syria to secure Turkey’s borders by eliminating terrorist elements and to ensure the safe return of Syrian refugees and Syria’s territorial integrity.
Turkey has said the terrorist group PKK and its extension the YPG/PYD constitute the gravest threat to Syria’s future, jeopardizing the country’s territorial integrity and unitary structure.
* Writing by Nilay Kar Onum and Busra Nur Bilgic Cakmak