“Peace Spring” area in February 2024 | Blatant violations by Turkish-backed factions against civilians and ongoing demographic change by Turkish forces

Human rights violations have been escalating in areas under the control of Turkish forces and their proxy factions in Al-Hasakah and Al-Raqqah, known as “Peace Spring” areas, since they were captured in October 2019. These forces’ aim is to accomplish specific economic and political objectives through exploiting the region’s wealth, resources and people.

 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) has monitored and tracked all developments and violations committed in “Peace Spring” areas in February 2024.

 

In February, SOHR documented four fatalities in “Peace Spring” area; they are distributed as follows:

 

• A civilian was killed by factions.

 

• Three militiamen of the “National Army” were killed by “Tel Tamr Military Council Forces.”

 

 

Ongoing violations by Turkish backed factions

 

In the past month, SOHR documented scores of violations committed by Turkish-backed factions which can be summarised as follows:

 

Members of the pro-Turkey military police and “Al-Sultan Murad” faction of the “National Army” seized the flour allocations of the public automated bread bakery in Ras Al-Ain city within “Peace Spring” area and sold them on the black market. The factions also reduced the working hours of the public bakery to allow a private bakery belonging to a commander of “Al-Sultan Murad” faction to work for extra hours and sell bread for 10,000 Syrian pounds a pack of eight loaves, at a time when bread is sold at stalls belonging to members of “Al-Sultan Murad” faction at high prices reaching 21,000 Syrian pounds during peak time.

 

On the other hand, members of “Shuhadaa Badr” faction, which operate under the banner of the “National Army,” expelled the inhabitants of a house, on February 20, after having beaten and verbally abused them, in Al-Aziziyah village in western Ras Al-Ain city in north-western Al-Hasakah. The faction’s members took over the house and used it as a rest for people they smuggle to Turkey.

 

In the late two weeks of February, militiamen of “Al-Rahman Corps” confiscated 120 houses in Ras Al-Ain city and countryside with the aim of resettling 50 families of the faction’s members, who had recently been brought from Afrin canton to Ras Al-Ain in north-western Al-Hasakah. Moreover, the faction seized farmlands of a total area of 50 acres in Al-Rawiyah village.

 

Similarly, members of pro-Turkey factions, especially “Ahrar Al-Sharqiyah” and “Al-Hamzah,” are forcing residents of the border villages to cooperate with them to allow people who want to cross Syria-Turkey border to stay in their homes for two or three days until facilitating their way to sneak into Turkey. The factions’ members have threatened to arrest the homeowners who refuse to cooperate with them, seize their homes and impose levies ranging from 3,000 to 6,000 USD every person.

 

Meanwhile, members of “Al-Sultan Murad” faction, led by “Tabbu Ouday”, seized a solar power device in a civilian’s farm in Al-Asal village, after he had refused to host smugglers and people on his farm until finding way to smuggle the people to Turkey.

 

Furthermore, the disagreements among commanders and militiamen of the factions over routes used for smuggling and smuggling operations are still ongoing, where these disagreements evolved to launch arrest campaigns against militiamen and commanders among factions, in order to abdicate the smuggling routes or people who want to get into Turkey, if no agreement is reached to move passengers from area controlled by anther faction.

 

Moreover, a commander in “Ahrar Al-Sham” forced a mechanic to repair his private vehicle without payment, where the mechanic could not file a complaint because he had received a death threat if he filed a complaint against the commander.

 

Besides, many residents of Ras Al-Ain ask their relatives in areas controlled by the Autonomous Administration to transfer money to them to pay bribes to the court and commanders to expedite the trial of their sons or release them from faction prisons, where the fate of detainees whose families do not pay the requested ransoms remains unknown. One example, among many, is the case of an old man in his seventieth known by his initials as A. M. who does not have money to pay it for the commanders to release his detained son. It is worth noting that the man’s son was arrested for “communicating and spying for the Autonomous Administration.”

 

In the meantime, the military police continue to conceal information about a nurse who was arrested two months ago at the national hospital on charges of “filming the injured members of factions and sending the pictures and videos to SDF.”

 

On February 25, members of a patrol of “Jaysh Al-Aislam,” which operate under the banner of the “National Army,” arrested a young man, who is the son of a dignitary from Um Ishbah village in Ras Al-Ain countryside in northern Al-Hasakah, for “sending pictures and coordinates of positions of the factions to SDF.” According to SOHR sources, the faction’s members refused to release the young man and insisted in taking a large ransom in return for his release.

 

On the other hand, Ankara continued its efforts to change the demography of the region, where Turkish intelligence, in coordination with the Turkish-backed “Malek Shah” faction and “Al-Rahman Corps,” moved 50 families from Afrin to “Peace Spring” area on February 19. Those families, who had been displaced from Ghouta in Rif Dimashq, were resettled in houses belonging to indigenous families, which had been seized by force by Turkish-backed factions.

 

Besides, Ankara-backed factions, especially “Al-Hamzat”, “Al-Sultan Murad” and “Malek Shah”, supervise the process of distributing aid in the region, who in turn distribute it to their families, relatives and gunmen, and exclude needy families from aid. The aid includes foodstuffs, blankets, stationery and other aid that did not reach the majority of families living in the area in light of the widespread corruption and tyranny of the Turkish-backed factions without any deterrent preventing them from committing further humanitarian crimes against Syrian civilians in the “Peace Spring” areas.

 

In light of the escalating security chaos, the house of a commander of Al-Hamza Division was subjected to an attack with a rocket fired by two unidentified gunmen on a motorbike near Huwarna neighbourhood in Ras Al-Ain city northern of Al-Hasakah, before the gunmen escaped.

 

 

Overall, this bleak picture remains in place, with the widespread corruption and tyranny of the Turkish-backed factions without any deterrent preventing them from committing further humanitarian crimes against Syrian civilians in the “Peace Spring” areas.

 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, therefore, renews its appeal to the international community not to abandon its responsibility and obligations and find a lasting solution to the tragedy of the region’s civilians that are plagued with systematic abuse and violations committed by lawless factions, including thefts, murders, looting, arrests and kidnappings.