Turkish Border Guards Indiscriminately Shoot, Block Displaced Syrians Trying to cross into Turkey – Watchdog

MOSCOW – Turkey’s border guards are indiscriminately shooting and forcibly returning Syrian asylum seekers, who are trying to cross into Turkey, the Human Rights Watch said.

According to the watchdog, Syrians are trying, in particular, to escape fighting in Idlib and Afrin and find asylum in Turkey, however, the border remains closed to all but critical medical cases, Sputnik reported.

“Syrians fleeing to the Turkish border seeking safety and asylum are being forced back with bullets and abuse… As fighting in Idlib and Afrin displaces thousands more, the number of Syrians trapped along the border willing to risk their lives to reach Turkey is only likely to increase,” Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said as quoted in the press release on Saturday.

 Those refugees who succeeded in crossing to Turkey told the watchdog that the Turkish border guards shot at them, as well as beat asylum seekers and denied them medical assistance.

Last month, the Turkish Armed Forces launched a military operation dubbed “Olive Branch” in Syria’s Afrin city, an area controlled by the US-backed Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which are considered by Ankara to be affiliates of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

 H.M