A Syrian man detained for five years by members of the PKK terrorist group’s Syrian wing YPG for refusing to cooperate and allegedly communicating with Syrian opposition forces is haunted by what he called “endless and limitless torture.”
Uways Bathavi of Tal Abyad, a northern Syrian town liberated from PKK/YPG terrorists with a Turkish operation in October 2019, was first offered a car, a gun and money to cooperate with the terrorist group.
When Bathavi rejected it, the PKK/YPG terrorists detained him in September 2019, just six months after he got married.
Accusing him of importing intelligence to Türkiye, the PKK/YPG subjected him to intense torture for three days before taking him away from Tal Abyad to the Ain Isa region.
After Türkiye launched Operation Peace Spring against PKK/YPG terrorists a month later, the group hurriedly transferred him, along with other detainees, to the central prison complex in Raqqa.
“The treatment we received in prison worsened when the terrorist group lost Tal Abyad,” Bathavi told Anadolu Agency (AA), citing “racist and hateful” abuse.
The PKK/YPG leveled him with charges on 14 accounts, including detonating bombs in Tal Abyad, attacking a checkpoint and hanging flags of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), a cornerstone of Syria’s moderate opposition.
“Their torture methods were limitless,” Bathavi said. “We were beaten for no reason and we spoke, the torture was doubled.”
According to Bathavi, PKK/YPG terrorists trialed new torture methods on the prisoners.
“They wore us down with various methods like keeping us awake at night, hurting or burning the sensitive parts of our bodies,” Bathavi said, even recalling a 60-year-old detainee who was dragged on the floor and bashed in the head by the terrorists.
Bathavi spent 10 holidays away from his family for the five years he was detained.
“I had been married for only six months when they took me. It was extremely painful to think about my family every holiday,” he said. “It was a tough time and we were all constantly worried about our families.”
Bathavi pointed out how many people believe the PKK/YPG to be “democratic and libertarian” and said: “But this is far from reality. Racism and dictatorship rule in an environment absent of international supervision.”
Calling out to international organizations for the detainees in PKK/YPG prisons, Bathavi said: “I don’t believe anyone has suffered what we have, not even in Bashar Assad regime’s prisons because the racism and hate against us Arabs and the torture we received was indescribable.”
The PKK, a terrorist group blacklisted in Türkiye, the U.S., and the EU, is responsible for over 40,000 deaths in Türkiye since 1984.
Turkish operations have banished it from northern Syrian regions, but the group, with assistance from the U.S., continues to occupy oil-rich areas in Syria.