Asia

Home page

Asia

Syrian Turkmens being subjected to massacre â€“ Turkmen lawyer

23 November 2015 14:31 (UTC +04:00)

This mountainous area is covered with forests. As the population of other regions, the Turkmens also oppose Assad, the lawyer said.

“At the moment, the only place of Turkmens is the Turkmen Mountain. A part of this territory was captured by opposition forces which also include Turkmens. The larger part of the mountain is under the control of Assad’s forces,” he added.

The Turkmen lawyer confirmed the massacre being committed against Syrian Turkmens.

“Turkmens suffered heavy losses in the Homs region. They were subjected to massacre. Dozens of Turkmen villages were set on fire and looted,” Ozturkmen noted.

The lawyer went on to add that IS militants also carried out heavy attacks against Turkmens in the north of Aleppo and Al-Raqqah, the border regions with Turkey.

“Today, Turkmen regions are completely lost. They are forced to leave their lands and live as refugees in Turkey and other bordering regions. 3.5 mln Turkmens are the former nations of Syria and the survived representatives of Turks settled there in the period of the Ottoman Empire and earlier periods. Those Turks were subjected to great pressures and massacres by Arabian nationalists. There is not and cannot be a Turkmen fighting for Assad. Turkmens, like all the people of Syria, demand their rights from Assad. They demand the Assad regime to become a democratic system. Like other nations, they also try to maintain their identities,” he completed.