After preventing them from stealing olive crop | Tension and clashes erupt between members of “al-Hamza Division” and locals in village in rural Afrin
Aleppo Province – The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights:
SOHR sources say that members of the Turkish-backed al-Hamza Division tried to steal an olive crop after being harvested by female workers in the village of Al-Farrera near the city of Afrin. The female workers prevented the members from stealing the crop, then the members opened fire in the air to intimidate them, while men from the village came and clashed with the members and expelled them.
In this context, the Syrian Observatory has monitored tension between the locals and members of al-Hamza Division. Meanwhile, al-Hamza Division members opened fire indiscriminately on the camps and olive tree lands, reacting to the people’s attack on them, while Turkish-backed factions and the elders of the region intervened to resolve the problem, which led to the extradition of the abusers from al-Hamza Division to the military police in order to get punished.
On November 24, reliable sources told SOHR that gunmen of the Turkish-backed “Al-Jabha Al-Shamiyyah” have imposed new levies on residents in Hasiyyah village (Merkan) of Ma’batli district in rural Afrin in the north-western countryside of Aleppo, as olive harvest starts.
According to SOHR sources, the Turkish-backed faction has imposed a levy of an estimated 300 USD on everyone has a farm with olive trees planted in, in return for allowing them to harvest their olive and the olive of their relatives living outside Afrin. This development comes as a part of the ongoing violations by Turkish-backed factions against the people of Afrin in the north-western countryside of Aleppo.
On November 20, SOHR sources said that Turkish-backed factions’ violations continued against the remaining residents in Afrin in the north-west of Aleppo, as members of “Suqur Al-Shamal” and “Al-Muntaser Bellah” felled hundreds of olive trees and stole others belonging to civilians in Bolbol and Ma’batli countryside.