President of the Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC), Nasr al-Hariri, called for stopping the provision of a cover-up for the PYD militia’s atrocious crimes in the areas under its control east of the Euphrates River. He also called for allowing the local population to administer the region through elected local councils supervised by the SOC, the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.
In a televised speech delivered on Saturday, al-Hariri said: “We stand ready – through the Syrian Interim Government and the special department for Al-Jazeera and the Euphrates region, to take over the management of the region; set up a new local council; and manage its resources for the good of everyone.”
Al-Hariri warned of the dangerous escalation being caused by the PYD militia east of the Euphrates River. He said: From taking control of land by force of arms to mass forced displacement, demographic change, burning of whole villages and agricultural crops, bringing in mercenaries from Qandil Mountain, the forcible recruitment of the people of the region, including children and women, arrest campaigns and murder under torture, looting the region’s resources, sending car bombs to civilian areas, assassinations, imposition of ideology-based educational curricula, threatening the social fabric and risking the eruption of a war between the social components, and most recently the issuance of a law regarding absentees’ property in an attempt to legitimize its ongoing violations of property rights.”
“Our people today in Al-Jazeera region east of the Euphrates are suffering the same repressive, racist practices of the Baath Party and the Assad regime’s security agencies. This injustice does not differentiate between Arab, Kurds, Assyrians, or Turkomans or between Muslims, Christians, or Yazidis.”
Al-Hariri concluded his speech by stressing that “this injustice must not be allowed to continue. We hope that our friends, especially the United States, will stand on the side of our people to get rid of this terrorist militia.”
(Source: SOC’s Media Department)
Watch Al-Hariri’s speech here.