Amid clear turning-a-blind-eye by UN, human rights, and international parties, the demographic change continues by expelling Afrin population through restrictions, seizing, and selling land to displaced people

Aleppo Province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights: the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights received information from several reliable sources about a new approach in the process of demographic change, in front of the sponsors of the agreements and the attention of the international community and the United Nations, which is talking on and on about defending human rights at every place in the world, where intersected sources confirmed to the Syrian Observatory that a military commander in Rahman Corps (who was displaced from eastern Ghouta) had an agreement with the local council in Afrin city, based on taking an area of a mountainous land located in the area between Basutah and Afrin city by the military commander, based on considering it as a “no-man’s-land” and it is not owned by anyone, and then granting 400 meters to the displaced people of the Eastern Ghouta in exchange of $100. Reliable sources confirmed that the agreement had been reached between both parties but no displaced person has been handover anything yet.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights in conjunction with this new demographic change and settlement method for the displaced people in Afrin area; monitored a torture through a video showing the torture of a young man from a village in Afrin area, where unknown gunmen were beating and torturing him. According to local sources: he was abducted by groups belong to “Olive Branch” Operation Force, where the torture comes along with fears for his life as well as the lives of about 800 others, who are still abducted and detained by the factions of the “Olive Branch” Operation, within the process of trafficking in detainees carried out by these factions, where they fabricate charges and arrest citizens of the remaining residents of Afrin, forcing their relatives to pay the ransom, also this process comes in conjunction with burning olive plantations and preventing civilians from picking olives within these plantations, on the pretext that they are for the benefit of the Turkish country and that they used to be owned by the Kurdish Forces, also they are seizing the olives that was picked and chopping olive trees and the rest of the trees, selling them to restaurants and shops, amid fears of expanding the chopping process of which local sources confirmed that it aim at clamping down on the remaining Kurd citizens in Afrin area and residents of the area, in order to push them to leave the area and to displace towards the northeastern countryside of Aleppo or the northern countryside of Aleppo, where these forces are opening the road in front of Afrin residents, and seize their property of houses, farms, and vehicles if any, and if they have not been seized already.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also monitored members of “Olive Branch” Operation Factions, burning olive plantations belong to residents who refused to pay a royalty to the factions they imposed on them, which pushed these factions to set fire to the plantations in order to “punish them and warn other people who may reject of the same fate”, where the “Olive Branch” operation factions arbitrary control the economic resources in Afrin- came against the backdrop of the seizure of most of the olive plantations in Afrin by the factions of operation “Olive branch”, and leasing it dealers and workers to work in them and receive money in advance as a price for the lease of these seized plantations, which are more than 75% of the area of olive farms in Afrin, after the factions shared control of olive farms.

In the same context, intersected local sources confirmed to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that two citizens, one of was an elderly man, died under torture by groups of the “Olive Branch” operation, after they were arrested, beaten, and tortured until they died, which increased the discontent of locals, many of whom pay millions of Syrian pounds as a ransom in exchange of releasing their relatives who have been arrested on various charges, where some of whom have been arrested in order to be trafficked by them, where more than 800 detainees are still held by the factions, while the Syrian Observatory monitored a demonstration of civilians and fighters in Maabatli town in the northwestern countryside of Afrin, where they attacked the local council of the town and beat members of the Council, against accusations by displaced people in the area to the Council of appoint a female teacher who “offended the Quraan and hijab”, amid tension in the area in an attempt by mediators to resolve the issue and reach a conclusion to ease this tension in the area, also intersected sources confirmed to the Syrian Observatory that members of an Islamic division imposed sums of money as royalties for the division, they imposed it over the owners of shops in Afrin city and other areas in its countryside, where the Syrian Observatory published a few days ago that the “Olive Branch” operation has ended its 6th consecutive month of control of Afrin city and its countryside; and the villages and towns within the northwestern countryside of Aleppo Province, this operation which is led by the Turkish Forces and announced on the 20th of January 2018, and achieved its goal at the 18th of March 2018, after an intense series of air and ground strikes by artillery and rocket shells and missiles believed to be ground-to-ground, bombs, and missiles of the warplanes, which turned Afrin -which has remained for years without security events- to a mass of ruin, death, destruction, and murder, in which the killing precede the reassurance, races the alert and stability, and the violation precedes its deterrence.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored the daily humanitarian, military, security, and field events that have been taking place in Afrin area since the Turkish announcement of the operation and their control of Afrin area, until the violations, thefts, abuses and crimes in various forms, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored “Olive Branch” operation which was launched by Turkey to control Afrin area on January 20th, 2018, displacing more than 300000 Kurdish people from Afrin area in its cities, towns, and villages, and caused a major displacement wave towards the northern countryside of Aleppo, after the regime forces prevented civilians from reaching Aleppo city, and about $1000 USD were imposed on the person in order to be smuggled towards Aleppo city, also some of the smugglings were carried out in different ways through regime’s checkpoints to Aleppo city in return for large sums of money, to begin the journey of tragedy for those displaced people, where some of them were able to shelter themselves in houses and the rest were housed in a quickly-built camps, protecting them neither from the winter’s cold nor the summer’s heat, accompanied by turning a blind eye by the international relief and humanitarian organizations towards helping them, where the assistance provided was not as the size of the tragedy and did not provided much help, while tens citizens were injured and killed while they were attempting to reach Aleppo city.