Do you have any information from your Kurdish friends in Afrín about the current situation at the Afrín battlefield? What does it look like there right now?

We keep getting information incessantly. Fortunately, the modern technology makes it possible. Today it has been the twenty-second day since the Turkish Army entered, unlawfully, the territory of the sovereign state (the interview took place on Saturday, February 10, 2018 – editor’s note) started. The Turkish invasion contradicts international law – both the Charter of the United Nations (UN), which bans offensive wars and the Washington Treaty regarding establishment of the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO).

The UN Charter, which, besides other things, founded the UN and set up the mechanisms to keep international peace, has some instruments that enable the international community to provide help for the attacked ones in stopping the aggression and establishing peace. The world superpowers, however, just watch violating the law. They just watch one country, a member of the UN and NATO, attacking another sovereign country while their soldiers commit war crimes, side by side with the jihadist terrorists who had been fought by the international community until short time ago.

The UN Security Council, which was established to deal with exactly that kind of situations, keeps silent. And so do the NATO authorities. For three weeks, the second largest army in the ranks of NATO has been attacking Syrian Kurds with the state-of-the art technology originating from the US, Germany and other Alliance members. The Kurds, who, as the only effective force in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS), sacrificed their children, are being murdered by Western weapons. Using German and American technology outside Turkey and for the purpose of attacks also contradicts the agreements that enabled selling the weapons to the Turks. The governments of the countries which sold the weapons also keep silent.

The Turkish Army advanced just 6 or 8 km away from the border inside the Canton of Afrín in the attack against the Kurds, though the Kurds defend themselves with practically “bare hands”. Luckily, the ground units did not get through deeper in the country thanks to the brave resistance of the defenders. Regrettably, the Turks also make attacks from the air. Let me recall the fact that Turkey deployed 73 of their F-16 airplanes on the first day of attack.