Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

SYRIA

Denmark summons Turkish ambassador over Syria offensive

Minister of Foreign Affairs Jeppe Kofod on Thursday summoned the Turkish ambassador to Denmark to formally voice his concern over the military offensive in Syria.

Published: 10 October 2019 17:43 CEST

Denmark summons Turkish ambassador over Syria offensive

A woman walks past smoke following Turkish bombardment of Syria's northeastern town of Ras al-Ain.Photo: Delil Souleiman/AFP/Ritzau Scanpix

Turkey began military operations in Syria’s northeastern regions on Thursday.

Denmark’s foreign ministry confirmed in a press statement that Turkish ambassador Uğur Kenan İpek had met with the ministry’s acting foreign policy director.

“We don’t summon ambassadors every day, but this situation is deeply concerning,” Kofod said in the press statement.

“We have made it clear to Turkey today that we condemn the military offensive, which is damaging civilians and the battle against Isis [Islamic State, ed.], and undermining the political process in Syria,” he said.

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen also commented on the situation on Thursday.

“This is an incredibly serious situation and there is reason to be concerned about civilians, and also because it weakens our ability to continue the effort against Isis. So I believe there is good reason to distance ourselves from the Turkish aggression,” Frederiksen said.

“We are already doing this via the EU. I think that is positive, and the foreign minister has today summoned the Turkish ambassador to a meeting at which we made our position clear,” she added.

Turkish forces are reported to have attacked 181 military targets since beginning an offensive in northeastern Syria on Wednesday, according to information released by Turkey’s defence ministry.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday that 101 “terrorists” had been killed, ostensibly in reference to Kurdish fighters.

The military operation came shortly after President Donald Trump’s decision to pull US troops from the area, which has been under the control of the Kurdish YPG militia, an erstwhile close ally of the US and rest of the West in the fight against the Isis terror group.

Turkey views the YPG as a hostile force allied with the PKK, a Turkey-based Kurdish left-wing militant and political organization.

READ ALSO: Denmark to deport four for attack on Turkish embassy

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.

Become a Member to leave a comment.

Syrian refugee Bilal Alkale and his daughter Rawan at their home in Lundby, Denmark on November 17th 2021.

Syrian refugee Bilal Alkale and his daughter Rawan at their home in Lundby, Denmark on November 17th 2021. Photo: Thibault Savary / AFP

Alkale, who until recently ran his own small transportation company in Denmark, found out in March he wasn’t allowed to stay in the Scandinavian country where he has lived as a refugee since 2014, as Copenhagen now considers it safe for Syrians to return to Damascus.

His wife and three of his four children were also affected by the decision taken by Danish authorities.

Once the ruling was confirmed on appeal in late September — like 40 percent of some 200 other cases examined so far — Alkale and his family were ordered to leave.

READ ALSO: Danish refugee board overturns decisions to send home Syrians

They were told that if they didn’t go voluntarily, they would be placed in a detention centre.

The family has refused to leave.

Normally they would have been deported by now, but since Copenhagen has no diplomatic relations with Damascus, they can’t be. And so they wait.

Days and weeks go by without any news from the authorities.

In the meantime, the family has been stripped of their rights in Denmark.

Alkale can’t sleep, his eyes riveted on his phone as he keeps checking his messages.

“What will become of me now?” the 51-year-old asks.

“Everything is off. The kids aren’t going to school, and I don’t have work,” he says, the despair visible on his weary face as he sits in the living room of the home he refurbished himself in the small village of Lundby, an hour-and-a-half’s drive south of Copenhagen.

“All this so people will get annoyed enough to leave Denmark.”

For him, returning to Syria means certain death.

“I can’t go back, I’m wanted,” he tells AFP.

And yet, he has no way to earn a living here.

“As a foreigner staying illegally in Denmark, your rights are very limited,” notes his lawyer Niels-Erik Hansen, who has applied for new residency permits for the family.

In mid-2020, Denmark became the first European Union country to re-examine the cases of about 500 Syrians from Damascus, which is under the control of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, saying “the current situation in Damascus is no longer such as to justify a residence permit or the extension of a residence permit”.

The decision was later widened to include the neighbouring region of Rif Dimashq.

Despite a wave of Danish and international criticism, the Social Democratic government — which has pursued one of Europe’s toughest immigration policies — has refused to budge.

READ ALSO:

The Alkale family is considering leaving for another European country, even though they risk being sent back to Denmark.

Alkale’s oldest child was already over the age of 18 when they arrived in Denmark and therefore has her own residency permit, currently under review.

Of the three other children, only the youngest, 10-year-old Rawan, still has the carefree ways of a child.

Majed, 14, says he’s “bummed”, while Said, 17, who was studying to prepare for professional chef school, says he now has no idea what his future holds.

Only a handful of Syrians have so far been placed in detention centres, regularly criticised for poor sanitary conditions.

Asmaa al-Natour and her husband Omar are among the few.

They live in the Sjælsmark camp, a former army barracks surrounded by barbed wire and run by the prisons system since late October.

“This centre should disappear, it’s not good for humans, or even for animals. There are even rats,” says al-Natour.

READ ALSO:

The couple, who have two sons aged 21 and 25, arrived in Denmark in 2014.

“My husband and I opened a shop selling Arabic products, it was going well. Then I decided to resume my studies, but now everything has just stopped,” says al-Natour, who “just wants to get (her) life back.”

“Going back to Syria means going to prison, or even death, since we’re opposed to Bashar al-Assad. He’s a criminal.”

Niels-Erik Hansen, who also represents this couple, says his clients are being “held hostage by the Danish authorities.”

The government is trying “to spread the message that ‘in Denmark, we almost deport to Syria’,” he says.

Amnesty International recently criticised Syrian security forces’ use of violence against dozens of refugees who returned home.

Danish authorities meanwhile insist it’s safe for Syrians to go back.

“If you aren’t personally persecuted … there haven’t been acts of war in Damascus for several years now. And that is why it is possible for some to go back,” the government’s spokesman for migration, Rasmus Stoklund, tells AFP.

Some 35,500 Syrians currently live in Denmark, more than half of whom arrived in 2015, according to official statistics.

Url copied to clipboard!