Turkey is guilty of war crimes, says Rojava Peoples’ Tribunal

FEBRUARY 12, 2025

Lawyers at the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT) on Rojava vs. Turkey in Brussels have found evidence that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, former Minister of Defence Hulusi Akar, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Defence Minister General Ümit Dündar are criminally responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity and the international crime of aggression in North and East Syria from 2018-present.

The Tribunal was held at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), and was convened by nine legal and human rights organisations. The PPT is intended as a grassroots forum, to hear evidence of the crimes committed by Turkey and its proxies in North and East Syria (Rojava). It is hoped that the Tribunal’s findings will open pathways for Turkey’s war crimes to be examined at an official level.

The evidence against Turkey was presented by a prosecution team made up of renowned international lawyers Jan Fermon (Belgium); Şerife Ceren Uysal (Turkey); Rengin Ergül (Kurdistan); Urko Aiartza Azurtza (Basque Country); Efstathios C. Efstathiou (Cyprus); Socrates Tziazas (Cyprus); Dr Anni Pues (Germany); Barbara Spinelli (Italy); Declan Owens (Ireland); Ezio Menzione (Italy); Heike Geisweid (Germany) and Florian Bohsung (Germany).

A testament to the courage of the people of Rojava

The preliminary statement from the judges was read by Frances Webber, a retired barrister, and formerly vice-chair of the UK’s Institute of Race Relations. She began by acknowledging and paying tribute to the “courage” of the people of Rojava, northeast Syria.

The Tribunal’s judges found Turkey guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity and the international crime of aggression. As the judges put it:

“Turkey’s attacks on Syrian territory, without UN Security Council authorisation, amounts to an international crime of aggression. The pattern of attacks, bombings, shellings, drone attacks and atrocities against civilians, the forced displacements and demographic engineering through replacement of populations, the destruction of power and damage to water supplies, the environmental damage, the destruction of cultural heritage and educational institutions, the use of rape, torture, secret detention – are all contrary to international law, constitute crimes against humanity and war crimes, and are indicative of genocide.”

Webber and the other judges expressed “horror and outrage” at the crimes uncovered by the Tribunal, and found that Erdoğan, as well as Hulusi Akar, Minister of Defence between 2018 to 2023; Hakan Fidan, head of Turkish intelligence in the period and now Foreign Minister; Yaşar Güler, Chief of the General Staff during the period examined by the tribunal and now Minister of Defence; and General Ümit Dündar were criminally responsible for these crimes.

The Tribunal found that the international community had failed in its obligation to prevent the crimes being committed against the Kurdish people. Webber read out their statement:

“The international community is aware of the continuing suffering of the Kurdish people and the crimes of the defendants, but has taken no meaningful action. There is no state recognition of DAANES [the Democratic Administration of North and East Syria] and no possibility of domestic or international redress. It is vital that the experience of the Kurds of north and east Syria and the crimes against them are properly acknowledged, that those responsible are brought to justice, that DAANES is internationally recognised as an authentically representative and democratic self-governing administration, and that the international community immediately ensures the cessation of the attacks by Turkey, direct and indirect, on the Kurdish people of Rojava, in order to avert a fully-fledged genocide.”

The judges’ full statement can be read and seen here. Read more on the Peoples’ Tribunal evidence of Turkey’s war crimes in Afrin, Syria here. Read the Tribunal’s evidence on femicide here.

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rojava_cities.png Rojava cities. Author: WikiEditor2004, licensed under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.