The U.S.-backed People's Protection Units (YPG)/Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has systematically violated the rights of thousands of Arabs in northern Syria using the excuse that it is fighting Daesh.
A six-month investigation by the U.S. weekly magazine
, shows that the terrorist group evicted Arabs from their homes at gunpoint from 2013 onwards, and blew up, torched or bulldozed their homes and villages in an attempt to alter the region's demographic from Arab to Kurdish.
Expulsions increased dramatically in 2015 when the U.S. launched joint operations in Syria against Daesh. The YPG/PKK threatened Arabs with air strikes if they refused to leave their villages. To this day, expulsions are continuing.
Syrian Kurds have fled the region to neighboring countries in order to escape forced conscription and political suppression. At least 300,000 have fled to Iraqi Kurdistan and more than 200,000 have fled to Turkey.
The YPG is the Syrian offshoot of the PKK. Despite listing the PKK as a terrorist group, Washington claims that the YPG is separate and supplies them with military aid and training.
When asked whether the YPG is separate from the PKK, a PKK defector with the alias Mohar says, “What's the difference?"
The policy for the Syrian region implemented by all Kurdish factions comes directly from the PKK headquarters.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights reported that there were 26 completely destroyed villages, 40 partially destroyed villages and 48 villages with no inhabitants in the Hasakah region alone.
The U.S. supports the YPG under the guise that the terror group is fighting against Daesh, but the YPG captured villages from Daesh without a fight.
In 2013, the YPG attempted to oust the Syrian opposition in Tel Hamis and Husseiniya in the Hasakah province but failed. In 2015, Daesh succeeded and handed them to YPG without confrontation.
In 2014, the YPG left the outskirts of Kobani to Daesh, and ordered residents to leave their villages.
The YPG is also backed by the Assad regime, and some argue that the expulsions are politically motivated and target the anti-Assad opposition.
The terror group attacked the last supply route into the oppositon-held eastern Aleppo in the neighborhood of Sheikh Maksud last July, enabling the Assad regime to close the road and complete the siege. The city collapsed and was taken over by Assad's forces in July.
Assad's forces provided artillery, tanks and soldiers to the YPG, recounted Mohar, who was once a member of the YPG/PKK.
The orders the YPG follows are from the top, and only PKK commanders and the ruling council have the right to decide, said Mohar.
