A group of local activists, relatives and families of officers of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) who have been in the custody of the militia of Democratic Union Party (PYD) since 2013 held a sit-in in the town of Afrin on Wednesday to demand to know the fate of the abducted officers.
Activists pointed out that the officers who were abducted by the PYD militia intended to form the nucleus of a free national army that would have defended Syria and its people against the Assad regime and its allied Iranian terrorist groups.
Participants in the sit-in called upon international organizations, the Free Syrian Army and human rights watchdog groups to help reveal the fate of the officers in the custody of the PYD militia.
The abductees included Kurdish officers who defected from the Assad regime army in 2011 to join the revolution and protect civilians from the Assad regime’s brutal crackdown against its opponents.
The officers back then issued a statement pledging to overthrow the Assad regime with all its symbols and pillars and expressed commitment to establish a national army whose task would be to defend the homeland and build a democratic, pluralistic and democratic state that is based on the principle of equal citizenship and the separation of powers. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)