ANTIOCH, Alexandretta (MECN) - Hundreds of Syrian women who sought refuge in Turkish controlled territories across northern Syria have since reported being raped and forced into prostitution – sex slavery – by their local Turkish hosts. The victims include at least 400 women and girls, and at least 250 of them have tested positively in pregnancy tests, which helped to confirm their plight. The owner of the land on which the Boynuyogun refugee camp is located, Abdo Aslaner, with the complicity of the Turkish security personnel and camp officials, is responsible for removing the females from the camp and forcing them into prostitution, according to a local report.
The scandal was reported by Aydinlik, a Turkish publication reputed for its impartiality covering the ongoing uprisings in Syria, different than the Islamist and Nationalist biases of other major Turkish publications. Subsequently, the authorities raided the offices of the publication and arrested the wife and son of Dogu Perincek, the leader of the Turkish Workers’ Party which owns the publication and who has been detained by the Turkish authorities. The newspaper has stated that the reason behind the detentions is the paper’s coverage of the current events in Syria. The Party is also now being investigated by the Turkish authorities. In 2005, Dogu Perincek was charged for the third time by Swiss authorities under their racial discrimination laws for his denial of the genocide committed by Ottoman forces against Armenian civilians during the period of World War I.
The paper was first to report the scandal taking place in the Boynuyogun refugee camp, where some 400 Syrian women were forced to work as sex slaves. The newspaper also reported that many of the Syrian refugees had been promised financial support. However, they found no trace of the financial support they had been promised once they arrived. The false promises of economic opportunity are reminiscent of the modus operandi of most sex trafficing crimes around the world. After the false promises of financial support never materialized, many of the refugees returned to their homes across northern Syria.
The story broke despite the fact that the Turkish authorities have prevented journalists from entering the refugee camps to interview those who fled the violence in their towns across northern Syria. Turkey is often touted as a model for democracy in a highly undemocratic region. However, this perception could not be further from the truth as this case exemplifies. For example, “insulting Turkishness” is a crime in Turkey, and the law is broadly interpreted to mean anything from talking about the genocide committed by Ottoman Turkish forces against the native Christian peoples of what is today called Turkey to other forms of truth telling that offends the Turkish government. If freedom of speech, the most basic of freedoms, is not permitted in Turkey, then no proper definition of democracy can include the Turkish Republic. Indeed, calling allies democracies while villifying enemies is a common political tactic used by major powers to advance their own agendas and interests.
It is heart wrenching to think that these Syrian refugees, women and young females, who were used as slex slaves and raped under the false pretext that they would be given refuge and even financial support by the Turkish authorities, are in fact evidence that the reality and truth hidden behind the headlines in Syria and the wider Middle East tell an entirely different story far from the politically motivated propaganda that is using human suffering to advance an agenda. Imagine also that these same victims, despite the international attention provided by high profile visitors like world famous actress Angelina Jolie, were victimized repeatedly at the hands of those who were promising to help them. Their plight serves as a tragic metaphor for foreign intervention in the Middle East.
Fonte: http://www.mecn.org
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento