"There should be no weapons for those who abduct Christians or attack peaceful Kurdish villages and refugees!"

On Monday, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) in Göttingen sent a warning against arms deliveries for the Syrian Islamist opposition. "The western countries should not deliver any weapons or other military equipment to those who abduct Christians and attack peaceful Kurdish villages where thousands of refugees have sought protection," stated the human rights organization on occasion of the meeting of the EU's foreign ministers in Brussels to discuss support for the insurgents.

Two Christian dignitaries have now been in the hands of an Islamist opposition group in the north of Syria for more than a month. Ibrahim Hanna, Bishop of the Syrian Orthodox Church of Aleppo, and Bishop Boulos Yazigi of the Greek Orthodox Church had been kidnapped near Aleppo on May 22, 2013. It is not sure if they are still alive. Their driver had been shot dead by the kidnappers.

According to the STP, armed Islamist brigades – who received weapons and money from Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar – have been trying to capture peaceful Kurdish villages in the district of Afrin near Aleppo in the north-west of the country. The refugees who had sought shelter in villages of Aqibe, Basile, Dermischmise and Soghaneke along the road to Afrin are now forced to escape again. At least half a million refugees were taken up in the area around Afrin. Apparently the extremists are trying to stop the predominately Kurdish inhabited areas from establishing a Kurdish administration.

"After a short battle against the troops of Bashar al-Assad, the Kurdish militias – who are trying to protect the civilian population by force of arms – are now also forced to fight against the extremist opposition," reported the STP. After the Syrian authorities left the Kurdish regions because the regime's military forces are obviously needed to fight the Sunni Arab opposition elsewhere, the Kurds set up their own administration. Hence, many of the arabization-measures in the area of Afrin have been canceled. Kurdish village-names are being used again instead of the Arab names imposed by the regime – and 320 schools in the region are now offering education in Kurdish for the first time.

The access roads to the area are often being blocked by both Assad's troops as well as parts of the Syrian opposition. There is neither enough food nor medicine – and there are shortages of clean drinking water, electricity and gas.