“Olive Branch” areas in October | Nearly 80 kidnappings and arbitrary arrests…over 55 violations…ongoing efforts to force remaining residents out

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 October’s prominent developments in these areas, which could be summarised in the following main points:

 

 

Human casualties

 

In October 2021, SOHR activists have documented the death of 17 people, they were distributed as follows:

 

• Nine people, five civilians, including a woman, and four Turkish-backed militias, were killed car-bomb explosion in Afrin city.

 

• A pregnant woman died under torture in headquarters of the military police and Turkish Intelligence in Afrin city.

 

• A child was killed in the explosion of an unexploded cluster bomb near al-Ziyyarah village in Shirawa district in Afrin countryside.

 

• A thief affiliated with Sultan Murad Division was killed in exchange of fire with guards in Qurnah village of Bolbol district.

 

• A displaced young man from eastern Ghouta was killed by two members of “al-Jabha al-Shamiyyah” in Afrin city.

 

• A member of Sultan Murad Division was shot dead by another member of the faction in Bolbol district.

 

• A child was tortured to death by his step-father.

 

• A young man shot himself in Bolbol district after daily harassment and threats by a member of “al-Jabha al-Shamiyyah” known as “Abu Jaafar”.

 

• A member of al-Sham Corps died of the wounds he sustained in a fight with bladed weapons against a group of people in Jendires district.

 

 

Explosions and rivalries

 

“Olive Branch” areas experienced one explosion in October 2021, as a car-bomb exploded in Afrin city on October 11, killing nine people, five civilians, including a woman, and four Turkish-backed militias. Over ten other people sustained various injuries due to the explosion.

 

“Olive Branch” areas also experienced three fights among Turkish-backed factions in October 2021, which could be summarised as follows:

 

• October 7: A fight with bladed weapons erupted between members of al-Sham Corps and others of Jaysh al-Sharqiyah in Jendires district, which left a member of the Turkish-backed al-Sham Crops dead and two others injured.

 

• October 16: An armed fight erupted between Sultan Murad and Malak Shah factions in Sharran district in Afrin countryside in the north-western countryside of Aleppo. According to SOHR sources, heavy machineguns were used during the clashes which followed disagreements between the two Turkish-backed factions over revenue-sharing of looted olive. Meanwhile, the indiscriminate gunshots caused damage to civilians’ houses.

 

• On the same day, October 16: Family fight erupted in the evening between “al-Hassan” family and “Hamoud” family in Anab village in Afrin countryside in northern Aleppo. However, no casualties were reported.

 

 

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 October, SOHR documented the arrest and kidnapping of over 79 civilians, including 19 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 October 2021, SOHR activists documented 24 incidents of looting and harvesting olive belonging to civilians by Turkish-backed factions, as the number of looted trees approximated 29,400. Furthermore, SOHR documented four other incidents of cutting down of trees with the aim to use logs for heating and to search for artifacts and antiquities.

 

The Syrian Observatory also documented 16 incidents of selling houses in Afrin belonging to displaced people by force and for low sums of money, as well as 13 other incidents of seizure of displaced people’s properties by the factions.

 

Those violations could be summarised as follows:

 

On October 3, Soqour al-Shamal faction looted the harvest of 17,000 trees in villages of Abedwan, Qarnah and Shikourzah and they squeezed it in an olive presser in Qarnah village.

 

On October 4, members of Liwaa al-Samarqand forced a displaced family of eight people, including orphan children, out of the house they were living in Kafr Safrah village in Jendires district in Afrin countryside. The Turkish-backed faction’s militiamen threw the house’s furniture in farmlands under the pretext of “turning the house into a military headquarters.

 

On October 9, Suleiman Shah factions, aka “al-Amsaht”, which controls Sheikh Hadeed district in Afrin countryside imposed large levies on the district’s farmers as the season of harvesting olive approaches. According to SOHR sources, every farmer are required to give the Turkish-backed faction 25 percent of his olive oil, while the faction has appointed agents to collect the levies from the farmers directly.

 

On October 10, checkpoints of Sultan Suleiman Shah Division “al-Amshat” prevented civilians from going to their farmlands, after imposing a curfew in Arnada village in al-Sheikh Hadid district in Afrin countryside under pretext of “preventing the spread of COVID-19”. According to SOHR sources, a resident from Aranada village attempted to reach his olive orchard near al-Sheikh Hadid district to harvest olive from hundreds of trees he owned. However, militiamen of al-Amshat stationed at a checkpoint in the region prevented the resident from passing under pretext that “the area was under lockdown and curfew due to “the outbreak of COVID-19”. Meanwhile, local sources have reported that al-Amshat Division’s members prevented the olive tree’s owners from reaching their farms, because the Turkish-backed faction’s members were stealing the olive harvest to sell it. On the other hand, Abu Amsha faction entrusted the mayors of villages under its control in order to collect levies up to 25 percent of the olive harvest of this season from each farmer. Moreover, the faction imposed huge levies on land “Wakils” (individuals authorized by the real owners to dispose of their properties, and they are usually very close relatives to the owners) according to the size of the farmlands and the amount of olive harvest, as some of these levies have reached 1,000 USD for each authorization.

 

On October 12, a girl was shot in her leg when she tried to prevent her attempted kidnap by a leader of al-Jabaha al-Shamiyah whose name is “Y.B” yesterday in Afrin. The girl was later transferred to Afrin Military Hospital, but reasons behind the accident remained unknown.

 

In late October, al-Hamzah Division that controls al-Bastoutah village in Shiro neighborhood has pressed the people in Afrin via imposing new levies on the population and on the cars passing the village. Al-Hamzah Division monthly levies are valued at 100 USD that was known as protection tax. The faction also imposed levies on the farmers by forcing them to pay 2 dollars on every olive tree annually and imposed levies on the passing cars via al-Bastoutah village. Each driver who would like to cross al-Hamzah Division checkpoint shall pay 50 to 100 Turkish lira to allow them passing through the village. It is worth noting that al-Basoutah village is the vital artillery where hundreds of cars cross daily from and to Euphrates Shield and Olive Branch areas towards the HTS-held areas. In Bulbul neighborhood al-Majad Crops has imposed levies that valued with 300 oil tanks on the population of the Kila village population in Bulbul neighborhood under pretext of boosting the Syrian Revolution where the economic official of al-Majd Crops has asked on last Thursday the people to pay the levies, 300 oil tanks, to the economic bureau, based on the income of each farmer.

 

As “al-Sham Corps” continued exploiting Afrin civilians by seizing their properties by force and destroying ancient hills in areas under its control in Rajo district of Afrin countryside, the corps, on October 18, took over an agricultural land in Kazia village in Rajo district and cultivated it despite the presence of its owner in the village. Moreover, on October 18, the faction harvested and stole the olive of a female civilian of Medan Akbos village in Rajo district, and although she appealed a complaint to the “Military Police” against them, she had to withdrew it over death threats from the leader known initially as “S.A.” Value of the harvest was nearly 70 olives bags.

 

The faction violations coincided with the ongoing excavations and diggings of the ancient “Naser Hill” in Adama village of Rajo district for 12 consecutive days, in search for antiques and ancient artifacts by heavy diggers, earth-moving machineries and bulldozers by leaders “Salil al-Khalidy” and “Hesham”, the latter was the head of the sector of Medan Akbos village, where the excavations completely destroyed the hill and uprooted the fruit and non-fruit bearing trees that are owned by two civilians known initially as “M.A.” and “N.N.”.

 

 

Demographic change

 

Turkish government continued its efforts to change the demography of Afrin canton in north-western Aleppo, under the umbrella of “humanitarian assistance”, through establishing houses and villages with the aim to replace indigenous inhabitants who have been forced to displace during “Olive Branch” operation with displaced people from other provinces.

 

In this context, the “White Hands Charity”, with the co-operation of the Palestinian organization “Live with Dignity”, opened “Basma” village near Dayrah village in Shirawa district in Afrin countryside. The new village has been funded by several associations and charities, including the Kuwaiti Sheikh Abdullah Al Nouri Charity Society, the Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs of Kuwait, the International Islamic Charity Organization, the Qatari charity society of “Rohamaa Baynahom”, the Kuwaiti Zakat House, the World Assembly of Muslim Youth, the Charity Committee of al-Eslah Society, the Kuwaiti al-Najat Charity and the Kuwaiti Campaign for Sham Victory and Support. The new village includes eight residential blocks with 96 45-square-meter apartments, and other services and facilities, including a mosque, a school, a medical centre and headquarters of the village’s administration.

 

 

Dramatic incidents

 

“Olive Branch” areas experienced two horrific crimes and a suicide in October 2021, as a Kurdish young man from Bulbul district in Afrin countryside, who worked in a Shawarma restaurant on the road to Raju, shot himself in Afrin city centre on October 5.

 

According to SOHR activists, the young man committed suicide over harassment and daily threats by a militiaman of “al-Jabha al-Shamiyyah” known as “Abu Ja’far” from Mayer village in northern Aleppo. The militiaman had frequently blackmailed the Kurdish young man and took levies from him in return for turning a blind-eye to the young man’s brother who served previously in the ranks of the “Self-Defence Forces” during the control of the Autonomous Administration of Afrin. The Turkish-backed militiaman also threatened to arrest the Kurdish young man and his brother, if he did not pay the levies. The young man therefore chose to kill himself to escape from the great psychological pressure he suffered from in the recent time.

 

While on October 20, a six-month pregnant woman from Hamshlak village in Rajo district died, after exposed above six hours of severe torture inside a Turkish intelligence headquarters in Afrin city north west Aleppo. According to SOHR sources, the female victim was arrested by the Turkish intelligence and Military Police on October 11, with her husband and two other persons from Azadi square in Afrin city, after accusing them of involving in the explosion that took place on October 11, which left nine people dead, including four members of Turkish-backed factions. The detainees were taken to “Amir al-Ghobary” school which the Turkish intelligence uses as its headquarters in Afrin. The detainees were subject to brutal torture and severe beating by members of the Turkish intelligence and Military Police, which caused severe injury of the female detainee and bruises throughout her body and she was transported to a hospital in Afrin for recovery, however, she died affected by the wounds she sustained. Turkish intelligence released her husband and the two other persons since it wasn’t proven that they were involved in the explosion, and the family of the victim received kidnap threats by the Turkish intelligence and Military Police if the family exposes the victim’s details of death to the media, and demanded the family to claim that she died due to health problem regarding the pregnancy.

 

Also, on October 30, a 13 years old child was killed under severe torture by his stepfather, Before his death, the child was subject to different types of torture including ironing with fire and tied with iron chains, causing his death in a hospital in Afrin affected by wounds he sustained of such torture. SOHR obtained a video tape showing the brutality of the torture facing the boy. SOHR activists reported that the killer is a member of the National Army-backed al-Amshat faction, and he is a drug addict with a bad reputation in the area. On the other hand, the Military Police and groups of Turkish-backed factions cordoned the criminal’s house with other members, amid reports of his arrest.

 

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.