Kurdish Civilians in Aleppo Under Massacre and Mass Displacement Threat

The Kurdish neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud (Şêx Meqsûd) and Ashrafiye (Eşrefiye) in Aleppo have been under heavy bombardment in recent days. Turkey-backed Islamist militias wearing Syrian army uniforms have besieged these two densely populated areas, targeting civilian neighborhoods, hospitals, schools, and infrastructure. Civilians, including children, are being killed, and tens of thousands are being forcibly displaced.

The groups participating in the attacks – Sultan Murad, Suleiman Shah (Amshat), Hamzat, and Nureddin Zengi brigades – are the same factions that previously carried out ethnic cleansing, abductions, torture, and forced displacement of the Kurdish population in the Turkish-occupied regions of Afrin, Serêkaniyê, and Girê Spî. Today, the Kurdish population in Serêkaniyê has fallen from 85% to less than 1% as a result of these policies.

Approximately 400,000 Kurdish civilians live in these two neighborhoods under bombardment. The majority of them are internally displaced people who had previously fled Islamist violence backed by Turkey and sought refuge in Aleppo. They are now being targeted again by the same forces.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) has confirmed that the forces attacking these areas are the same ones that assaulted Kurds in Afrin. Using tanks, heavy weapons, and armed drones supplied by Turkey, this operation aims to forcibly eliminate the Kurdish population from Aleppo.

This military assault is also an ecological catastrophe. The bombardment is destroying Aleppo’s water network, sewage systems, food supply chains, and agricultural areas. Tens of thousands of people are being deprived of access to clean water, food, electricity, and healthcare. This situation represents a slow-moving environmental collapse and a mass humanitarian crisis for the Kurdish community.

More than 46,000 people have already been displaced. Airports are closed, safe routes are unavailable, and civilians are trapped in active conflict zones.

The Kurdish Red Crescent (Heyva Sor a Kurd) has issued an urgent appeal to the international community to open humanitarian corridors and protect civilians.

We strongly echo this appeal and call upon the United Nations (OCHA, UNHCR, UNICEF), the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the European Union and its member states, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and all humanitarian mechanisms operating in Syria to take immediate action.

In this context, we demand:

1- The establishment of UN-supervised humanitarian corridors for Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiye.

2- The immediate activation of international protection mechanisms for civilians.

3- The cessation of attacks by Turkey-backed armed groups and the withdrawal of heavy weapons.

4- The urgent delivery of humanitarian aid — water, food, health, and shelter assistance — to the affected population. 

What is happening in Aleppo is not merely a military conflict, but a systematic attempt to annihilate a people, displace them, and destroy their living environment. The silence of the international community equates to complicity in these crimes.

We therefore extend a call to all defenders of life, ecological organizations, and movements: stand in solidarity with the neighborhoods defending their self-governance, freedom, and living spaces against genocidal aggression and international silence.

Time is running out. Civilian lives, ecological habitats, and a community’s very existence are under threat of extinction. 

TEV-EKO — European Ecology Movement For Kurdistan

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