Turkish forces occupying N. Syria prevent Syriac Orthodox from worshiping in their church

dzheremi

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I'm not sure if it's related to today or not (all the videos on this press agency's channel appear to have been uploaded today), because I don't know the calendar of the Syriac Orthodox Church in Syria, but this short video tells of how the Turkish occupation of northern Syria is threatening the religious freedom of the Syriac Orthodox people in Serekaniye/Ras El Ain, where they would normally be celebrating the Feast of St. Thomas in their local church of St. Thomas there. Thanks to the Turkish occupation, they must now do so elsewhere, in the Church of St. Asya in Derbasiya, not in their church in Serekaniye (both are in Ras El Ain district).


Note especially the wording "under the control of the Turkish military and their affiliated armed opposition groups" (emphasis added). Turkey has its own affiliated armed opposition groups within Syria, which it is using to abuse, dispossess, and even kill people within its reach. From the Cooperation in Mesopotamia webpage (news aggregator concerning Syrian/Iraqi/Turkish news that impacts the economic cooperatives that are being run there), we can read concerning Serekaniye the very grim assessment of the Turkish impact on the local Syrians:

On the morning of 9 October 2019, Turkish state military forces began to bombard cities of Rojava – and also began incursions across the border, particularly in the region around Girê Spî and Serê Kaniyê, which are now under full occupation by Turkish forces.

Turkey has faced accusations of ethnic cleansing and war crimes, including the use of banned chemical weapons. On top of this, and emboldened by it, ISIS regaining strength in the region and sleeper cell attacks have increased by 48% since the start of the invasion.

The Turkish military and their allied Jihadist militias are attacking civilians, as well as military positions, with aerial bombardment and tanks on the ground; destroying hospitals, houses, electricity and water supplies. The illegal invasion has so far killed over 300 civilians, and around 300,000 people have been displaced.​
 

Barney2.0

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I wish I could say I'm surprised. Religious freedom isn't exactly something Turkey is known for even within its own borders. It's a shame that the West has not given any sort of support to Rojava in Northern Syria.
Rojava is an extreme Socialist/leftist group that wants to carve a Kurdistan out of Syria, in all honesty as bad the the Syrian regime is its the only organization that should be backed by the West in my opinion, everyone else is just somehow worse.
 
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Barney2.0

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Why am I not surprised, the Turks have always been after Syria, we suffered for centuries under Turkish colonialism in Lebanon and Syria, they never bring anything good wherever they go, they used to just take, take, and take and leave people to starve and suffer. The Ottoman Empire is probably one of the main reasons why most of the Arab world is in the terrible shape it is today.
 
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dzheremi

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Rojava is an extreme Socialist/leftist group that wants to carve a Kurdistan out of Syria, in all honesty as bad the the Syrian regime is its the only organization that should be backed by the West in my opinion, everyone else is just somehow worse.

I think the Sutoro (Syriac Orthodox protection force based in Qamishli) are doing good things, because they protect the Christians and others in their area from Islamist groups, but yeah...it should be an obvious decision, if the choice is between the regime and the Islamist wolves that are circling the country. It's not the regime is necessarily good (they jailed Syriac/Assyrian nationalists since long before the current war, and even just regular members of Syriac/Assyrian political parties), but there's no question that it is better than the alternative of being ruled by ISIS or ISIS' friends in Turkey.
 
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tbstor

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Rojava is an extreme Socialist/leftist group that wants to carve a Kurdistan out of Syria, in all honesty as bad the the Syrian regime is its the only organization that should be backed by the West in my opinion, everyone else is just somehow worse.
A secular socialist government that has direct democracy and religious freedom is better than all of the alternatives.
 
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