Turkey violates international law in Syria – bombings have left 1 million without water

Access to electricity and water for more than a million people have ceased the air raids launched by the north-eastern , according to a BBC survey, which saw the light of day on Tuesday (19.11.2024). Turkey has carried out more than 100 attacks from October 2019 to January 2024 in Syria, targeting oil deposits, gas installations and power stations in the region controlled by the Kurds, BBC data reports. The attacks are exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in Syria, which is suffering from a long civil war and four years of extreme drought, which, according to experts, may constitute a violation of international law by Turkey. The attacks on electricity infrastructure last October turned off the power at the main water station in the region, Aluk, and has since not worked. Turkey argues that it has targeted the “sources of income and potential” of Kurdish separatist groups it considers terrorists. AANS has previously accused Turkey of seeking “to destroy the existence of our people”. There’s not enough water to meet everyone’s needs. More than a million people in Hasaque Province, who once took their water from Aluk, are now based on deliveries of water from trucks. Hundreds of deliveries are carried out in tankers every day, but not enough for everyone. In the city of Hasaque, the BBC reports seeing people waiting for the tankers, begging drivers to give them water and threatening them. “Water is more valuable than gold here,” said Ahmad al-Ahmed, a truck driver. “Citizens or civilian infrastructure were not among our goals and were never,” Turkey said in a statement to the BBC. However, last October, the country’s foreign minister Hakan Fidan said that all the “infrastructures and energy installations” belonging to the PKK and YPG – especially Iraq and Syria – were “legal targets” for the Turkish army. ‘War Crime’, according to the UN As of 2020, an extreme drought has covered northeastern Syria and parts of Iraq. The Khabour River once powered Hasaque with water, but levels fell very low and people were forced to turn to Aluk’s water station. But in 2019, Turkey took control of the Ras Al-Ain area, where Aluk is located, aiming to create a “security zone” to protect its borders from terrorist attacks. Two years later, the UN expressed concerns about a repeated shutdown of Aluk water supply in northeastern Syria, saying that the water supply had been discontinued at least 19 times. And in February 2024, a report published by an independent UN commission said October 2023 attacks on electricity infrastructure could amount to war crimes, because civilians were deprived of access to water. Patrick Crocker, an international criminal lawyer at the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights, said that “the indications that international law was violated here are so strong that they should be investigated by a prosecutor.” The Turkish government states that it ” fully respects international law”, adding that the UN report of February 2024 did not provide “no substantiated evidence” of its “reliable claims”. He accused that water shortages in the region are due to climate change and maintenance of “water infrastructure neglected long ago”. source: OnAlert.gr