Turkish border guards fire on fleeing Syrians, 8 dead: monitor
Syria’s main opposition group expressed surprise that Turkish border guards opened fire on Syrians fleeing into their country
#asile #migrations #réfugiés #Turquie #Syrie #fermeture_des_frontières #meurtre #décès #frontières #réfugiés_syriens
Turkish border guards ’kill 11 Syrian refugees’ in indiscriminate shooting
Syrian groups condemn ’massacre’ – but Turkey denies reports
▻http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/refugee-crisis-turkish-border-guards-kill-syrian-refugees-shooting-as
Turkish border guards shoot civilians on border with Syria, two killed
QAMISHLO – Turkey’s border police on Sunday opened fire on a number of Syrian civilians who were trying to cross the border illegally, escaping the ongoing war in Syria, local sources reported.
‘No hope’ Turkish border guards killing Syrian civilians will face justice, HRW tells RT
Human Rights Watch is investigating reports that Turkish border guards killed an entire family of Syrian refugees fleeing the war-torn country. As Ankara denies the accusations, HRW told RT it holds “no hope” that those responsible will face justice.
Turkish soldiers arrested after video shows horrific beatings and abuse of Syrian refugees
The Turkish authorities have arrested several soldiers over their role in a video which shows them physically and verbally abusing several young Syrian men trying to illegally cross the border into the country.
▻http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/turkey-soldiers-syria-refugees-video-beatings-abuse-turkish-army-a787
#vidéo
Turquie : Expulsions massives de demandeurs d’asile syriens
L’Union européenne devrait évoquer cette question et s’engager à renforcer son aide lors du prochain sommet UE-Turquie
Nearly 900 undocumented migrants rounded up in Turkey
Turkey continues to serve as a key route for refugees trying to cross into Europe, particularly since the outbreak of the civil war in Syria 2011.
Turkish security forces have captured 899 undocumented migrants in Turkey, according to a statement released by the Turkish General Staff on April 1.
Turkish border guards rounded up 641 migrants trying to illegally enter Turkey from Syria, in addition to 123 more migrants attempting to illegally enter Turkey from Iran.
The statement noted that 111 kilograms of illegal drugs were also seized along with the migrants.
Furthermore, an additional 135 migrants were held while trying to illegally enter Greece from Turkey, according to the statement.
Turkey is home to more than 3 million Syrian refugees who have been arriving in neighboring Turkey steadily since the outbreak of war in 2011. However, in 2017, most of those detained undocumented migrants came from Pakistan (15,000) and Afghanistan (12,000), as compared to migrants coming from Syria (10,000).
L’Observatoire des réfugiés de l’Université d’Egée publie un témoignage terrifiant d’un jeune de 18 ans, arrêté par les gardes côtes turques, lors d’un passage raté en #Grèce, et renvoyé en Syrie manu militari sans autre forme de procédure, avec un groupe d’autres syriens. Etant donné les récentes déclarations d’Erdogan, comme quoi qu’il a l’intention de renvoyer en Syrie les millions de réfugiés actuellement sur le territoire turque, cela laisse présager le pire.
A New Nightmare : Picked up in the Aegean and Returned to Syria
For the past ten days I have been waiting for news from Mohammad. Like me he comes from Aleppo but for the past 6 years he has been with his mother and brother living in Istanbul. Mohammad is 18 years old.
We became friends through Facebook where he saw that I was involved with many refugees in Athens and in Samos. He had read my story in the Samos Chronicles. As a young gay man he turned to me for advice and help which I was happy to give. Over the past six months we have talked a lot and a good friendship has developed. I know that he trusts me.
For Mohammad his determination to leave Turkey and to seek a life in Europe was decided when his bosses refused to pay him. After three months of working in factory manufacturing textiles he went to his boss and asked to be paid. They refused. Even after much pleading they still refused and told him to go. They would never pay him and if he didn’t like it he should go to the police. This is what he did. But the police told him that without papers they could and would do nothing. Mohammad again pressed them, asking them to go to the factory where they could meet the people he worked alongside who could tell the police how he had worked there for three months. But they took no notice. They did nothing.
For Mohammad this was the final straw. He would leave Turkey and come to Greece. As he told me he wanted to be a human being with rights. He would no longer be a slave or be treated as garbage. We started to discuss options. I told him that he should come as quickly as possible to Athens and together we could sort out the next steps. I thought the fastest way would be to come through Evros in the north of Greece and then travel down to Athens where I was ready to care for him. But he was shy about this idea. He only had 400 euros. He did not want to be a burden on me. So he decided that the best way for him was to go down to Izmir and find a smuggler to get him to one of the Greek islands. He told me that by going to the islands first he would at least get some help with accommodation and food.
These were tense days for me waiting to know what was happening to Mohammad. For over a week I heard nothing from him. Then came his call. He was not in Greece but in Idlib province in Syria. I was completely shocked. As for Mohammad he was crying and crying. Very very upset.
In Izmir he had found a smuggler to take him for 400 euros. But they had not long left the shore when they were caught by the Turkish coastguard who returned them to Izmir. Then he was in the prison for 6 days. The police then came and handcuffed all the people he had been travelling with and loaded them onto a bus. Of course, he said, people were asking their guards what is happening, where are you taking us. But their only reply was a beating. “So we were silenced and scared. After many hours we were eventually put into cars, still handcuffed. The next thing we knew they were releasing us not far from a small town. Then they told us we were free to go and that we were now inside Idlib province in Syria”.
At no point did they meet anyone who could help . No lawyers came to the prison. The police took their Turkish papers and destroyed them. “One of the young guys with us kept pleading with the police to let him go back to his elderly mother. But all he got was a beating. I was very frightened”.
Mohammad is devastated to find himself in this position. He is back in Syria but in an area where war still rages; where the Free Army and Daesh roam the streets and which is simply not safe.
As he had no family nor friends in this province it was the solidarity from those he travelled with that found him a place in a family home. There is not much space but at least he feels safe for the moment. He hopes to find a smuggler who can take him back to Turkey. But I am afraid for him as the border is now harder to cross and the Turkish border guards are shooting and killing those trying to cross. I have heard many stories about this bad situation around the Turkish border near Idlib but this is the first time I have heard about refugees who are trying to cross to the Greek islands being returned to Syria in this way.
Now all I can do is to wait for news from Mohammad. I write his story because I want his situation known. What has happened to him is wrong and I am sure it is not legal under international law. I know that Turkey is unlikely to be punished. But as a refugee I know that many of us only survive because we help one another and get the best help from those so called ordinary people in the streets who we meet as try to get to a safe place. These are the people I want to reach out to. Not governments.
TRANSLATED: Half of 52-strong “FSA” force leave Kobani fight after disputes with Kurds
▻http://mideastwire.wordpress.com/2014/11/03/translated-half-of-52-strong-fsa-force-leave-kobani-fight-aft
On November 3, the Saudi-owned, London-based Asharq al-Awsat daily newspaper carried the following report: “Sources at the Free Syrian Army and others from the Kurdish People Protection Units revealed that differences took place between the fighters of the Free Army and the Kurds in the Syrian city of Kobani (Ain Arab) near the Turkish borders, which is now witnessing massive battles aimed at repelling the attacks of the ISIL group.
“A source at the military council, which is affiliated to the Free Army told Asharq al-Awsat that “differences occurred between the Kurds and the Free Army’s fighters who entered Kobani from Turkey a few days ago.” They added that around 20 out of 52 fighters left the region and returned to Turkey. The differences likely occurred as a result of failing to supply the opposition members with ammunition or fighting equipment that the International Alliance had previously tossed to the Kurdish fighters by air.
“On the other hand, a source at the People Protection Units told Asharq al-Awsat that “the fighters of the Free Army that recently entered Kobani had a political rather than a military objective.” He also accused them of following Turkey’s orders…”
The Violence of the Revolution Between Legitimacy and Deviance: Syria and the Need for Corrective Action (via Angry Arab)
►http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/7743/the-violence-of-the-revolution-between-legitimacy-
Where does the armed opposition, or what is called the Free Army or several other names, derive its popular legitimacy when it carries out sectarian assassinations, torture, humiliation, and executions against its prisoners from amongst the [regime’s] security services and army? This was precisely what we described as brutality when it was committed by the criminal regime. Where does it derive its popular legitimacy when it speaks of a war between Sunnis and Shi’is, or Alawis, as is wished for by those that call themselves the Friends of Syria or the friends of the regime? What distinguishes the discourse of the opposition from the discourse of the regime when one of them speaks of Sunnis, Shi’is, and Alawis, while the other speaks of Salafis, Islamists, and terrorists? Both discourses operate beneath the national level, which gathers and views all as equal with respect to human rights. Both discourses indirectly call for a long-term Iraq-like divisive civil war. How can the people consider the armed opposition to be the military arm of the revolution, for which one of its principles were “one, one, one … the Syrian people are one,” and that offered the lives of its sons for the sake of building a civilian state, not a religious emirate or a Muslim Brotherhood state? If we take into consideration the external role of exporting a militant religious or Salafist discourse—that is a stranger to the moderate religious discourse of Syrian society—to the ranks of combat battalions, then this only increases the deviation of the revolution from its national level. In this view, the enemy is no longer the sectarian authoritarian Syrian regime, but rather the Alawis, the Shi’is, or other categories of people.
Arab League mounts pressure on Syria as Free Army calls for air strikes
►http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/11/24/179003.html
The Arab League has given Syria a day to sign a protocol allowing monitors into the country or the regional body will press ahead with plans to impose economic sanctions, Egypt’s envoy to the League said on Thursday as Free Syrian Army called for foreign air strikes on “strategic targets” in Syria.