In the Olive Season…the factions of “Olive Branch” continue to thieve the crops and impose royalties over Afrin’s farmers
Aleppo Province – The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights: the factions of Operation “Olive Branch” are continuing their breaches against the remaining residents of Afrin city, domineer their living, and thieve their livelihood, especially the thieving of olive whose season started in the recent days, the Syrian Observatory continues to monitor these violations, where the Syrian Observatory learned that the factions of al-Sultan prevented the residents of Ba’rafa village in Sharran Township in Afrin countryside from entering their fields to harvest the olive, and informed them that they are not allowed to harvest the olive unless it -the faction- gets a 30% of the harvest, which ignited the locals’ resentment, and in the same context, members of al-Hamzah Division faction has thieved several olive fields owned by Kurdish citizens who have been displaced from their villages, in Qarzihal village in Afrin countryside where members of the factions harvested the olive and sold it, and in Alakah village of Sharran Township, one of the factions of “Olive Branch” has seized more than 7 bags of olive from one of the Kurdish citizens while he was returning after harvesting olive from his land, and away of the season of olive and thieving it by the factions operating in Afrin and its countryside, the Syrian Observatory monitored that a Kurdish citizen has been kidnapped by the faction of Sultan Suleiman Shah in Kakhira village in Afrin countryside, where the faction asked for a ransom in return for releasing him.
The Syrian Observatory published on the 14th of October 2018, that the violation of the Turkish Forces and “Olive Branch” Operation forces who take order from them continue, this is the daily situation of Afrin area’s inhabitants of the citizens who remained and refused to be displaced from their homes towards the unknown, towards the tragic conditions that devours lives of hundreds of thousands of displaced people and their bodies, which have been worn out as months of the displacement pass, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored raids carried out by “Olive Branch” Operation Forces in neighborhoods of Afrin city, searching for new victims to arrest them and traffic by them, which provoked discontent of the people and raised it, because of the violations against victims of the kidnapping, beatings, torture, and demand ransom to be released, to the extent of killing if families of the detained people did not pay, also the Syrian Observatory monitored the arrests of citizens in villages in the countryside of Afrin and they were taken to an unknown destination, where they were imprisoned in prisons that is houses of residents of Afrin who have been displaced from their areas by the military operation carried out by the Turkish Force and the Syrian opposition rebel and Islamic factions, and with these arrest, abduction, trafficking in detainees, and imposing royalties, and the Syrian Observatory received a copy of a circular stamped by the local council in Afrin, which stated:
“In order to preserve the property of citizens, we call all our citizens brothers in Afrin city (only the city without the countryside) to check with the local council –property and documentation office with all the official papers of their property, in order to certify them officially, and for those who lost their papers for some reason, they will be granted the right of temporary ownership via real estate identification and approval and with very precise procedures, to avoid any problem relating to the property of citizens, and the local council does not count any new sale and count it as void completely that does not entail any subsequent legal action, and therefore only the ownership approval and confirmation will be for the previous owners”.
This decision comes after repeated clashes between factions of “Olive Branch” Operation, after disagreements over the seizure of houses or buildings in Afrin city and its countryside, where these clashes left casualties and injuries in the ranks of both parties, where the Syrian Observatory previously received a copy of a video shows fighters descended from Deir Ezzor province, of the factions of the Operation “Olive Branch”, saying “this is the land of our ancestors and they lost their way as a result of a sand storm so that they went to Deir Ezzor, and this land is ours, and it is the land of al-Bakkara Clan, we will get it back, and we raised our flags, and even the grass in Afrin is more yellow than the color of the flag the sons of adulterers -the Kurdish Units, Allah protects the president Erdogan, as he brought us here, after it was difficult for us to defeat them -the Kurdish forces”, while the Syrian Observatory published on the 8th of this month that the Turkish authorities and the local councils in Afrin countryside, are cutting off olive trees and opening the road between Afrin area and Iskenderun, in order to start running the trucks for trading and transporting the olive and other material from Syria, through an active trading process, and the reliable sources confirmed to the Syrian Observatory in the past 24 hours, that the Turkish authorities have constructed a land crossing linking between Afrin area and Iskenderun, through Hamam area, in order to be used for the trade of olive and transport it into the Turkish interior, where it is expected that the incoming days will witness a formal announcement about opening the crossing, and the sources suggested that it will be an alternative one for the crossing points of Bab Al-Hawa and Atma, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also monitored cutting of hundreds of olive trees by the parties that are in charge of constructing the road of local councils and Turkish authorities, in order to complete constructing this road, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored yesterday, that the forces of the “Olive Branch” Operation, local councils and Turkish authorities, are continuing the seizure of citizens’ crops and the olive farms is continuing by the local councils in the area, and by the Turkish forces, where reliable sources confirmed that Jandairis Local Council issued a circular calling on the olive mills’ owners to transfer 10% of the outcome of the olive production to the council, and 5% to the mill, and this circular stressed on that the harvesting and pressing olive is prevented unless they have a letter certified by the Local Council in Jandairis, like in previous decisions related to the prohibition of harvesting olives or pressing it without official permission.