“Olive Branch” areas in September | Nearly 55 kidnappings and arbitrary arrests…seven explosions and rivalries…ongoing Russian escalation
Since Turkish forces and their proxy factions captured several areas in Aleppo after a military operation known as “Olive Branch”, humanitarian crises have been emerging and worsening gradually, with violations, attacks and explosions occur almost daily. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) has monitored and tracked September’s prominent developments in these areas, which could be summarised in the following main points:
Human casualties
In September 2021, SOHR activists have documented the death of 16 civilians, they were distributed as follows:
- 11 militiamen of al-Hamzah Division were killed in Russian airstrikes on the Turkish-backed faction’s headquarters and camp in Barrad village in the area of Jabal al-Ahlam in Afrin countryside.
- A man was killed in an IED explosion in a car in al-Ashrafiyyah neighbourhood in Afrin city.
- A military commander of al-Hamzah Division and two of his escorts were killed in an IED explosion in their car in Raju district.
- A member of the military police died of wounds he sustained in clashes between the military police and Sultan Murad Division in Bulbul district in Afrin countryside on August 29.
Explosions and rivalries
“Olive Branch” areas experienced four explosion in September 2021, and they were as follows:
- September 5: an IED exploded in a car, “Santa Fe” make, in front of a fuel store on the road to Trendah in al-Ashrafiyah neighbourhood in Afrin city. The explosion left a man dead and four others injured.
- September 13: an IED exploded in the car of a commander of al-Hamzah Division and two of his escorts in Raju district, killing them immediately.
- September 14: an IED exploded in al-Ashrafiyah neighbourhood in Afrin city, which caused material damage.
- September 23: an IED also exploded in al-Ashrafiyah neighbourhood in Afrin city, which caused material damage.
“Olive Branch” areas also experienced three fights among Turkish-backed factions in September 2021, which could be summarised as follows:
September 1: violent clashes broke out between Suqur al-Ghab led by “Mu’taz Abdullah” and al-Hamza Division in Ma’ratah, Faqeeran and Julaqan villages in Afrin countryside, in an attempt by “Mu’taz Abdullah” to regain all headquarters he lost a month earlier. Al-Hamza Division brought in military reinforcement to Ma’ratah, Faqeeran and Julaqan villages with the aim to regain control of these villages once again, after losing them in the evening of that day. Meanwhile, al-Amshat faction and Nour al-Dein Zinky sent military reinforcement to the area to support al-Hamza Division against Mu’taz Abdullah’s group.
September 2: Violent clashes renewed between Suqur al-Ghab led by “Mu’taz Abdullah” and al-Hamza Division in Ma’ratah village in Afrin countryside and extended to the road between Afrin and Jendires, before other military factions interfered and broke up the clashes between the two sides.
September 22: violent clashes erupted between “Jaish al-Nukhba” and “Suqur al-Shamal” in Abudan village in Bulbul district in Afrin countryside in the north-west of Aleppo, after “Suqur al-Shamal” refused to stop at a checkpoint of “Jaish al-Nukhba”. The violent clashes extended to Sheikhurza village neighbouring Abudan village, where both sides used heavy and medium machineguns. The clashes left four members of “Suqur al-Shamal” and others of “Jaish al-Nukhba” injured, along with bringing in large military reinforcement by both sides to Bulbul district.
As repression is escalating in Afrin canton, Turkish-backed factions have stepped up their daily violations against the region’s people who refused to flee their areas and people displaced to the canton. In September, SOHR documented the arrest and kidnapping of over 57 civilians, including seven women, in Afrin city and surrounding districts of Bulbul, Raju, Sheikh Hadid, Ma’batli, Sharran and Jendires. It is worth noting that some of these people have been released after paying ransoms, while the others are still in the factions’ custody.
Turkish-backed factions’ violations
In early September, Jaysh al-Nukhbah controlling the villages of Sharran district stole steel pipes from six artesian wells in Omar Sammu village, which provided nearly 16 villages in Sharran district with water. Moreover, the members of the Turkish-backed faction stole underground water pipes delivering water to these villages after digging operations using heavy diggers and earth-moving machineries. It is worth noting that these pipes are collected and stored in the headquarters of Jaysh al-Nukhbah in Omar Sammu village with the aim to transport them later to Turkey. Over five trucks have transported a large number of these pipes to turkey so far, while other equipments also stolen from these wells have been taken to Azaz city where they are sold as scrap.
On September 8, the members of the Turkish-backed brigade of “Samarqand” stormed a house in Jendires district and arrested a Kurdish young man from Kafr Safrah village in Jendires, after he had returned from Aleppo city to Afrin. The young man was taken to the Turkish-backed faction’s headquarters where he was beaten and tortured brutally over his demands to regain his house and settle his security situation. It is worth noting that members of “Samarqand Brigade” had seized the young man’s house and refused to evacuate it. The young man was released a few hours after he was arrested and after paying a ransom of 10,000 USD. However, the victim has been still bedridden due to the brutal torture he was subjected to.
While, on mid-September, militiamen of Sultan Murad faction seized the house of a civilian who was displaced from Kafr Jenna in Sharran district to Aleppo city during “Olive Branch operation. The seized house was located next to “al-Shaikh Shawakh” mosque in Old Afrin neighborhood in Afrin city which is under the control of Turkish forces and factions of the “National Army”. According to SOHR activists, the brother of owner of the house seized by Sultan Murad faction was the one responsible for it, as he had rented it. However, Sultan Murad militiamen broke the doors of the house, a few days ago, took over it by force and turned it into a military headquarters, after the lessee left it.
Also, on September 13, al-Sham Corps which is close to the Turkish Intelligence issued a new decision preventing the residents of Barrad village in Shirawa district from going to their farms or harvesting their agriculture crops under penalty of detention and fine. According to the new decree, the residents had to get a security approval by the faction which controls the village, after paying a levy, so that they could go to their farms and start harvesting. It is worth noting that al-Sham Corps aimed to clamp down on the indigenous inhabitants even more through issuance of unachievable decisions to force the residents to leave the region, so that the faction could seize the civilians’ properties under the pretext of “protecting public and private properties”.
On September 29, SOHR sources reported that a leader in al-Jabaha al-Shamiya faction known as Alaa Hasan Saqr arrested a civilian from Mamly village of Jendires district in Afrin countryside a few days earlier, where the Turkish-backed leader and militiamen under his command beat the civilian severely over a complaint filed by the civilian against the leader. It is worth noting that the civilian had filed complaints at the “Rights Restitution Committee” and the Turkey-formed courts against Saqr for seizing his villa at Kafr Jannah road. That complaints enraged the leader and spurred him to arrest the civilian, took him to the prison of al-Jabaha al-Shamiyah in the village of KafrJannah in Sharran district and beat him severely, which caused cuts and bruises all over his body. The Turkish-backed leader also threatened the civilian to kidnap and murder his family in the case that he resumed filing complaints against him.
Demographic change
The Local Council in Afrin city opened a new village dubbed “Kuwait al-Rahma”, on August 30, with the aim for inhabiting displaced people from various areas across Syria.
This development came as a part of the Turkish government’s efforts to accomplish the demographic change in Afrin canton through allowing and supporting civil organizations and bodies to structure residential units in the towns and villages whose indigenous residents were displaced, after their houses had been destroyed due to the “Olive Branch” Operation in the villages and towns of Afrin.
The recently-established village, “Kuwait al-Rahma”, is located between Qibar and al-Khalidiyyah villages in Shirawa district in Afrin countryside, while the land where the residential units were established belonged to Yazidi civilians. The village, which was established by a Kuwaiti-Palestinian association known as “Sham al-Khair” with the participation of some Turkish organizations operating in north Syria region, also accommodated nearly 380 residential units, a mosque, a school, a dispensary, a Koranic institute and a shopping mall.
It is worth noting that al-Khalidiyah village, which the recent residential units has been established in, is one of the villages of Shirawa district, and it is located on the top of Lelon mountain. The village is surrounded by several villages, including Maryamin to the east and Qibar to the west.
The village had been destroyed completely by Turkish fighter jets in January 2018, while its inhabitants whose number approximated 100 people who lived in nearly 20 houses were displaced at that time during the “Olive Branch” Operation. The village’s inhabitants had relied on agriculture and animal husbandry before their village was turned into ruins.
In early September, Turkish-backed military commanders purchased real estates from the displaced people of Afrin at low prices, as they communicated with the owners of houses, shops and farmlands who had been displaced from Afrin due to the “Olive Branch” operation. The commanders could buy some of the displaced people’s properties at lower prices than their real value, after mediations by brokers in real estate offices, relatives of the properties’ owners or individuals in Afrin authorized to manage these properties.
The National Army’s commanders exploited the dire living conditions pf Afrin displaced people and threatened them to seize their properties soon for free, as the region had become already under the control of Turkish forces and the factions, as the commanders described. The displaced people of Afrin therefore found themselves forced to sell their properties at very low prices, fearing of losing them for nothing.
On September 20, SOHR activists obtained a list of 65 civilians from Bulbul district, whose houses were seized by Sultan Murad Division by force, after the division’s militiamen looted the furniture and prevented civilians from returning to their houses. Sultan Murad Division seized these houses with the aim to settle families of the Turkish-backed militiamen in them, which forced the owners of these houses to rent other houses in Afrin for huge sums of money, stay as guests at their relatives’ houses or even displace to neighbouring villages. The residents filed several complaints to the “Rights Restitution Committee” against the Turkish-backed faction, but to no avail.
On September 21, SOHR activists reported that a member of “al-Jabha al-Shamiyyah” sold a displaced Kurdish man’s house for 1,400 USD in al-Ashrafiyah neighborhood. Moreover, another member of al-Hamza Division took over a house of a civilian by force, despite filing official complaints by the house’s owner to the “Rights Restitution Committee”.
Russian military escalation on “Olive Branch” areas
Russian forces escalated their operations in areas under the control of Turkish forces and the “Olive Branch” operations room in September, as Russian fighter jets executed two rounds of airstrikes on “Olive Branch” areas occasions on September 25. The first round of the Russian airstrikes targeted the frontlines of Basufan and Barrad villages, while the second round targeted posts of the Turkish-backed “al-Jabha al-Shamiyyah” in Basufan and Basalihiyah areas in Shirawa district, west of Afrin.
While on September 26, 11 militiamen of al-Hamaza Division were killed and nearly 13 others were injured in Russian airstrikes on their headquarters and military camp in a school in Barrad village in Jabal al-Ahlam area in Afrin countryside, north-west of Aleppo. According to SOHR sources, most of the fatalities were from eastern Ghouta and other areas in Rif Dimashq.
It seems that the series of violations in “Olive Branch” areas will be unstoppable as long as Turkish forces and their proxies keep breaching all international laws and charters, and with no body being able to put an end to these “grave” violations, despite SOHR repeated warnings about the dreadful humanitarian situation in the region.