The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

In Afrin, checkpoints inspect the people of the area and building, houses and farms are seized, continued looting, preventing the displaced people from returning and turning entire villages into military positions

A carefully planned resettlement, and dominating military power, on a land whose residents have been displaced, and those who remained did not have mercy due to the security and military consequences, thus, the area turned into just empty houses and the buildings turned from owners’ property, to private property belonging to a fighter or a faction, as if it is a down payment of the absolute loyalty, from a sponsor force, to another one contributed to a major operation whose results were curses to the displaced people, under a tight military and security grip, while near them, a demographic change is being carried out led by military powers that claimed the protection of the Syrians, but that resulted in the displacement of hundreds of thousands of the residents of the area, accompanying those who displaced to them escaping from the shelling of Al-Assad’s regime on their cities, towns and villages, thus, it became the first displacement of the residents of Afrin, and the second displacement, may be the third or fourth one, of the people displaced to it and the residents from other Syrian areas who lived in it, before Operation “Olive Branch”, which turned a land where olives and other trees are planted, into legitimized area, where only a spray can, is enough to turn a building, a farm or even a whole village, into a private property of a military faction.

The activists of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights roamed in the western sector of Afrin countryside, which is located in the north-western sector of Aleppo province, controlled since half of March 2018, by the Turkish forces and the Syrian rebel and Islamic opposition factions operating within Operation “Olive Branch”, and first thing they monitored in their tour was Jendires town most of which was destroyed, where they noticed building were written upon with dyes which declaring that the entire building is the property of Syrian factions operating within Operation “Olive Branch”, which means that these buildings’ owners are forbidden to return to them, these buildings are also forbidden to be used for housing for a faction other than the one that have taken possession of these property, in addition to turning the property of citizens of houses and farms, into military and security headquarters, where the fighters of the factions operating within “Olive Branch”  settled, while Kafr Safra village turned into a closed military area, where the non-military persons are prevented to enter, and where forces loyal to Turkey and headquarter of Turkish forces are located.

At the same time, and in the same tour, the activists of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored tens of vehicles and trucks loaded by things that were thieved and looted by the factions, along the roads and in the villages where they roamed, and loaded with all kinds of property found in the houses including furniture, equipment and supplies, which all looting under the same pretext, which is that the houses are of members of the Kurdish forces or loyalists of the Kurdish forces, while the checkpoints are witnessing accurate checks and inspections, to the Kurdish citizens and the residents of Afrin, which reached that these citizens are insulted, although these check points facilitate the passage of citizens coming from other Syrian areas.

The continuation of these operations and outrages by the forces of the “Olive Branch” Operation, are coincided with the continuation of preventing the citizens of Afrin area from returning to their villages and towns, by the Turkish forces and their allied Syrian factions, where hundreds of families have been still waiting for about 20 days at Kimar checkpoint and the eastern checkpoints of Afrin area, for allowing them pass, amid prevention by Turkey and factions to citizens from returning, without any justification, along with the resettlement of displaced people from the Eastern Ghouta and the Eastern Qalamoun in the area, and the SOHR monitored the suffering of citizens at these checkpoints, of lack of food and medicine and the absence of any place to take a shelter in, while the situations of hundreds of thousands of people displaced from Afrin area in the northern countryside of Aleppo, are still deteriorating day after another, with the lack of services provided for them by the humanitarian and relief organizations, which ignored with the UN and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the calls for help of Afrin people, who are still in the northern sector of Aleppo countryside.

The tragic humanitarian situations of the displaced people in the northern countryside of Aleppo, correspond hard humanitarian situation and daily outrages suffered by the people of Afrin area, who remained in their villages and towns, where these people suffer from raids and arrests under the pretext of belonging to the Kurdish forces and their loyalties, and the young people are taken to the detention centers of the factions and the Turkish forces where they are subjected to torture, beating and insult, and they are released only after paying sums of money which are paid as ransom to get them out of the detention centers where they are imprisoned.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights published about 72 hours ago, that the forces of the “Olive Branch” Operation have expelled a number of families from their houses in Sharra Township, where about 10 families were expelled from the village under the pretext of belonging to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, Democratic Union Party and the Kurdish forces, amid resentment of the remaining locals to these outrages carried out against them by the Turkish forces and the factions, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored that more young men and men in Afrin area were arrested, as well as torturing citizens, directing fabricated charges to them, beating and detaining them, and then they are released for large sums of money, the latest incident  was what local sources confirmed about to the SOHR, that the factions arrested a young man and tortured him, and he was released only after he paid about 700 thousand Syrian Pound, accusing him of belonging to the Kurdish forces and dealing with them, while the SOHR monitored thefts and looting to vehicles, shops and cars by fighters of the factions in Afrin area, amid the continued raids and inspections in Afrin city and its villages, and the continuation of the outrages and arrests by the forces that control the area.

the SOHR also monitored the arrival of 700 families of the people displaced from the controlled areas of Al-Rahman Corps in the Eastern Ghouta, in Afrin area where they have been settled down by the Turkish authorities after an earlier coordination between the both parties, and the people who have been settled in Afrin included the leader of Al-Rahman Corps (Abdul Nasr Shamir), and tens of the commanders and members of Al-Rahman Corps with their families, while hundreds of citizens of Ghouta displaced people, refused to move from Idlib to Afrin explaining that they refuse to settle in houses of residents who were forces to leave their areas and houses, and the transfer of the displaced people and settling them down in Jendires area and other areas in Afrin, is coincided with information about preparations for opening an unofficial border crossing between the Turkish forces’ controlled areas in Afrin, and Iskenderun, after establishing a local committee to control Jendires area, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has monitored since the Turkish forces and the Syrian rebel and Islamic factions operating with them within Operation “Olive Branch” imposed their control over the entire area of Afrin on the 18th of March 2018, arrests against more than 80 persons, including tens whose destiny is still unknown, after they were taken to detention and investigation centers in Afrin area, where sources informed the Syrian Observatory that after looting most of the area of Afrin by the Turkish forces and their allied factions operating within Operation “Olive Branch”, the arrests turned into popular trade by the factions, where arrests are being carried out against citizens who have joined the compulsory military service in the ranks of the Kurdish forces, then they ask for great sums of money reach millions of Syrian pounds to release them, while the sources confirmed that killing was carried out against citizens in Afrin area, last of which was the death of a young man who sources said that he suffered mental disorders, under the pretext of “belonging to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party”

Photos by SOHR monitor Afrin area and Jendires Camp, which was set up for the people displaced from the Eastern Qalamoun in the south-western countryside of Afrin

صور للمرصد السوري لحقوق الإنسان، ترصد منطقة عفرين ومخيم جنديرس، الذي جرى إقامته للمهجرين من القلمون الشرقي في الريف الجنوبي الغربي لعفرين

Posted by ‎المرصد السوري‎ on Wednesday, April 25, 2018