Turkey, Syrian Kurds accuse each other for mass grave in Afrin

 (Updates with comments from Syrian Kurdish officials)

Turkish officials say the Kurdish-led People’s Protection Units (YPG) bear responsibility for a mass grave discovered in northwestern Syria, AFP reported on Thursday.   

The mass grave in Syria’s Afrin province contains at least 61 bodies, the governor of Turkey’s neighbouring Hatay province, Rahmin Doğan, told reporters.

“This is a crime against humanity,” Doğan said, adding that he believed “the number of bodies recovered will rise”.

Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency raised the number of bodies discovered to 68 later in the day, citing Afrin Local Council Chairman Mohammad Sheikh Rashid.

Governor Doğan said that Turkey believed the site was made up of civilians who were executed by the YPG before Turkey captured the region in 2018. Turkish officials’ claims have yet to be independently verified.

Mazloum Abdi (also known as Mazloum Kobani), commander general for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that the YPG is a part of, refuted Turkey’s allegations and accused the country himself in turn.

“Invading Turkish forces have distorted the truth and presented to the global public that the graves of martyrs who defended Afrin during the invasion were a ‘mass grave’,” Kurdish news agency Mezopotamya cited Abdi as saying.

According to Iraqi Kurdish news network Rudaw, Afrin Human Rights Organisation spokesman İbrahim Şêxo said the bodies belonged to civilians and YPG fighters who had lost their lives during clashes in 2018. Şêxo said:

“This graveyard started at the time when the Turkish army and armed groups started to attack. The people couldn’t properly bury their dead at the cemeteries at the time, so they buried them here. This is not a mass grave, it is a graveyard that belongs to the people.”

An association for family members of deceased YPG fighters also issued a statement, saying some of the newly discovered dead had been members of the YPG, Rudaw said.

Turkey invaded Afrin in early 2018, capturing it from the YPG after weeks of fighting, and installing Syrian militia proxies in place of the Kurdish group.

The invasion displaced tens of thousands of Kurdish civilians and destabilised a region that had previously been spared the levels of violence seen elsewhere in the Syrian conflict.

Ankara says the YPG is part of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The YPG has been the main ally of the United States in its campaign against the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria for the past seven years.