Kurdish-Turkish ties stronger than ever - Kurdish Globe

The Kurdish GlobeNo. 349, Monday, April 23, 2012 15Defectors offerinsider’s view of Syrian ArmyBy Kelly MceversPRESS PHOTOand do this to their brotheuers.Outside the hall, speakingin private, one man sayshe was working a checkpupoint when security forcesstopped a car and pulled aman out to be interrogated.He says men from the secururity forces then got into thecar and harassed the man'swife and daughter."We heard shouting andcrying from the car, especucially the little one, the sistuter," he says.The next day, the officerswho had entered the carbragged that they had rapedthe women.Officials from the UnitedNations say these atrocitiescould amount to war crimes.Right now, though, theyaren't pushing for a referralto the International Criminunal Court. Instead, theyhope they can convince theSyrian regime to abide by acease-fire that is supposedto start this week.Escaping The ArmyA Syrian soldier who defected and joined the Free Syrian Army sits at an outpost near the village of Janudieh. Some defectors say the military is committing atrocities, butthat the rebels are fighting back with their own brutality.Since the uprising began inSyria last year, there havebeen a lot of stories aboutsoldiers who have defectedfrom the army to join therebels. This rebel group isloosely known as the FreeSyrian Army, and it's startiuing to look more and morelike an insurgency.Not all soldiers who leavethe army, however, decideto join these rebels. Thosewho simply escape thearmy altogether offer a rareglimpse into a military theysay is committing unspeakauable atrocities and a rebelforce that's fighting backwith its own brutality.Once a man turns 18 inSyria, he's required to servein the military. A Kurdiuish man who calls himselfMaxim started his serviceabout a year ago, rightabout the same time theSyrian uprising began.In those early days of theuprising last spring, whenthousands of Syrians beganprotesting in the streets,Maxim's commanders toldhim the protests were actuaually a conspiracy by a Saudiprince to turn Syria into anIslamic state.For a while, the soldiersbelieved it. Maxim says hewas part of a special forcesunit known as the "shockteam.""We [would] usually breakinto the area at 4 a.m., whenthe people are asleep," hesays. "We would search thearea, house by house, storeby store, and we had a listof the wanted people withus."Those lists came from thedreaded security forces,which are not part of thearmy but rather belong toone of more than a dozen ofSyria's intelligence agencucies. Maxim and his comrurades turned the suspectsover to security forces. Hesays many were torturedand some were killed.That's when Maxim sayshe and his comrades starteued to doubt the regime'sstory. They found it hardto believe that all thesepeople — including oldmen, women and children— were actually armedmilitants trying to establishan Islamic state. Instead, hesays, when the people didstart fighting back, it was toprotect themselves.One day, one of Maxim'sfriends, a fellow soldier,was shot by one of theserebels in the Syrian town ofRastan. His colonel orderedMaxim and his comrades tosearch a house where foursuspects lived. They founda sniper rifle and two Kalulashnikovs, but the coloneldidn't stop there."He forced us to walk onthe street and wherever wewent we arrested more peopuple," he says. He says theyarrested names on the listuntil they had 30 men.Maxim says all of thearrested men were linedup and blindfolded. Theirhands were bound behuhind their backs, and theywere told to kneel. Thenthe colonel and two of hisbodyguards shot them all— dead.To the nearly 100 soldierswho watched, the colonelsaid they had to "take revuvenge for our comrades,"and that all of the killedmen were bad people.When the commandinggeneral of the unit heardabout the killings, Maximsays, he ordered the men tojust leave the bodies.Some of Maxim's comrurades decided to get back atthe general. They told someresidents in Rastan to blockthe general's car with a largetruck and cut off the road atthe end of the bridge. Threesoldiers climbed on top ofthe truck, fired at the geneueral and killed him.Residents verified boththe killing of the 30 menand the killing of the commumanding general.The CampWhen soldiers like Maxiuim decide to leave thearmy, they pay money to anetwork of smugglers whobasically get them out ofSyria. They cross riversin the middle of the night,they climb over hills, andthey eventually end up ina valley in Iraqi Kurdistanthat has become a kind ofrefugee camp.On a recent day, aboutthree-dozen young andmiddle-aged men played arowdy game of volleyball.Just beyond them weretwo unfinished cinderblockbuildings where soldierssleep.The buildings have nowindows, only tarps. Themen inside sleep side byside on mattresses on thefloor. If you were in thearmy or about to be inthe army, you were eitherforced to kill or to be killed,so this is a better alternativethan the situation they werein back in Syria.In another huge, unfiniuished hall, about a hundredyoung men sit around smokiuing, lying on their mattresseues, crowding around heateuers and drinking tea. It'sstaggering to see so manypeople, so many faces all inone place.When asked about whythey left the army, the mensay they were forced todetain people and to shootpeople. These were theirbrothers, they say; theycouldn't stay in this armyWhen Maxim finally decucided to leave the Syrianarmy, he and 10 other soldudiers faked a firefight withrebels to make their escape.They fired their own gunsin the air, and Maxim's officucer radioed to see what washappening."I told him, 'We are facingresistance here,' " Maximsays. "And he asked us,'Where are you?' I cut offthe call. So they think weare kidnapped."Maxim says he isn't sureabout the rebels, which iswhy he didn't join themonce he escaped. At firstthey were just defendingthemselves, he says, butnow it seems like the regugime's myth is coming true.He says the rebels are startiuing to be more violent andmore Islamic."I don't trust them," hesays.Still, Maxim says the regugime is worse than the rebeuels. When asked if the killiuing of 30 men in retaliationfor the killing of one soldudier is an apt ratio — i.e.,30 times worse than thecrimes of the rebels — hesays no."They are a hundred timesworse."