The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

Arbitrary arrests | Turkish intelligence arrests two young men in Afrin city in northern Aleppo countryside

Aleppo province: During the past few days, Turkish intelligence patrol personnel arrested two young men from Jendires district in Afrin countryside, north-west of Aleppo, for “performing compulsory service, during the control of Afrin by the former Autonomous administration,” in order to collect a ransom.

On January 19, Turkish intelligence and civil police patrols raided dozens of houses in the villages of Kafr Zeit and Paflor of Jendires district in Afrin countryside, north-west of Aleppo, arresting six young men. Five civilians were arrested in Kafr Zeit village, and the other in Baflor village, on various charges including “dealing with the former “Autonomous Administration,” and others were accused of “communicating with their relatives in areas controlled by Kurdish and regime forces, in the northern countryside of Aleppo.”

This came as a part of the ongoing clamping down policy adopted and pursued by Turkish forces and their proxy factions to extort the people in order to force them to emigrate and leave their properties, with a view to implementing Turkey’s policy of changing the demographics of Afrin.