The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

The Turkistan Islamic Party…the details of settlement, seizing, isolation, dependency and the attempts of merging

With a great military forces and the protection of military parties…the Turkistan from fighting on the fronts to the settlement, seizing and theft

Like others of the foreign fighters, who entered the Syrian territory, through neighboring countries, the Turkistan who involved in the fighting in Syria, hurried to join the fighting fronts, thus, their number has been increasing day after day, and exceeded hundreds of them, then they started to impose their presence in several fronts on the contact lines with the regime forces, where they headed to fronts distributed mainly in the west and the middle of Syria.

 

The Turkistan- a hard military arm that is used in retreating and repelling

The Turkistan fighters who organized themselves later, and established “the Turkistan Islamic Party for liberating the people of the Levant”, gathered within a single gathering, that passed on two main pillars; they are the race and the language, thus, all of them are of the Uyghur Muslims exist in the eastern Turkistan, and the Turkistan received high training that was confirmed by the sources of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, that the Turkistan fighters are marked by the ability of stability and to attack in high combat experience, which was imposed by the tough training that the fighters of the Turkistan party had received, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored during the past years, the advancement of the Turkistan party in the clashes they engaged against the regime forces and armed militiamen loyal to them of Syrian, Arab and Asian nationalities, in which the Turkistan had the greatest share shells, missiles and raids which hit their areas of presence, as a result of leading the attacks within the ranks of the intruders, which resulted in the fall of a great number of casualties within the ranks of the of the Turkistan Islamic Party, that appeared clearly in the operations of taking the control of Jisr Al-Shughur and its countryside, and Abu Al-Duhur Military Airbase, and the clashes Sahl Al-Ghab, and the Turkistan are concentrated in Kabbanah area and the north-eastern mountains of Latakia, in which the later front, has witnessed tens of attempts by the regime forces to penetrate but they all failed due to two reasons; the first is the rough relief in the area, in addition that the Turkistan as will as the factions exist in the area are fighting desperately to prevent the regime forces to achieve advancement in the area, in which the Turkistan take part in as fighters of the factions of Jund al-Aqsa organization, the movement of Ahrar Al-Sham, and Jabhat al-Nusra (Al Qaeda in the Levant).

 

The Turkistan party leaves the fighting and enters as a mediator to resolve factional conflicts

Several sources confirm to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights what they say about the Turkistan, accusing them of the internal similarity with Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham, despite the different apparent characteristics and forms between the both factions, some of them talks about the participation of the Turkistan Party with Tahrir al-Sham “security and legitimacy” institutions, for example Jisr Al-Shughur Court, and the sources confirmed that the Turkistan Islamic Party mediates in the factional conflicts, to protect Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham, or it sometimes enters as a mediator, in which the Turkistan mediated recently in the fighting within Idlib province, which finished with controlling Tahrir al-Sham over large parties of Idlib province, as well as mediating in resolving the conflict on the border in Kherbet Eljoz in Idlib countryside, between the previous parties, by deploying blocks and fighters by the Turkistan Islamic Party that prevented anybody to approach the area.

 

And most of the Turkistan who came to Syria, appeared as fighters of the Turkistan Islamic Party, and numbers of them headed to join the “Islamic State” organization or Jund al-Aqsa organization, and the Turkistan also marked not to be appear on media, in which they oppose reaching cameras to places where they exist or to their positions, they also oppose to be filmed, and in many occasions, Turkistan fighters arrested activists in the area, and they also detained other citizens, while the Turkestan fighters have fears of the assassination that may be carried out against them by drone planes, planting explosive devices, shooting them, or kidnapping and killing them.

 

The Turkistan privacy isolated them in the terms of the settlement and led their attempt of merging to be failed

Hundreds of the Turkistan fighters came with their families and settled mainly in the western countryside of Idlib and Latakia countryside, and the Turkistan inhabit in the western countryside of Jisr Al-Shughur and Latakia countryside, within the areas which link the Syrian North with the Syrian Coast, as well as the presence of the Turkistan in Ariha area and other villages in Idlib countryside, in which the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored that the Turkistan isolated greatly from the Syrian society in terms of the area of ​​residence or in terms the daily affairs, as the Turkistan live with their children and families, as being away from the citizens’ affairs and imposing laws on them, created a state of satisfaction and goodwill between the people of the area and the Turkestan fighters.

 

The factions and after they took the control of western countryside of Idlib, and Jisr Al-Shughur area, distributed the properties of the citizens who displaced from their villages, or escaped with the withdrawal of the regime forces from the area, and these properties were distributed of the fighters of each faction, these distributed properties included shops, houses and agricultural lands, it was not based on obvious reasons, but the charge of the owners of the properties was that they are of gunmen loyal to the regime or of the dealers with the regime forces, but the Turkistan had the biggest share, in which they inhabited villages where their inhabitants displaced, including Eshtabraq village where their inhabitants left and escaped during the attack of the Turkistan and the factions on it, and they concentrated on other villages monitored by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, most of them were of the villages which were inhabited by citizens of Alawite community, the Turkistan also settled in villages inhabited by Christian citizens as the villages of Al-Qaniyah, Yakubiyah and Al-Ghassaniyah and other villages, where they their people left years ago and headed to the other Syrian cities and the provinces’ centers, thus, only elderly people and few inhabitants of Christian clerics, where the Turkistan shared residence in the village with those who remained, and these villages became as areas for receiving the displaced people from Idlib and Latakia countryside.

 

Also some villages became completely for the Turkistan of the Turkistan Islamic Party, while Turkistan fighters and their families share other villages with their inhabitants, and depend on themselves in the terms of trading, because they do not trust those surrounding them, thus, they opened a shop of foodstuffs as well as a petrol station, and the Turkistan have persons with high degrees like engineers, doctors, teachers and Sharia men, and some of them work in hospitals in Idlib countryside, while others work in relief brigades or within Medical cadres specialized in transporting the wounded and treating the injuries of the clashes, and some of the Turkistan married to Syrian citizen women, in order to emerge the Syrian society, but most of these relations ended in separation and failure, due to the great difference in language, customs and traditions, and the Turkistan worked also on constructing a cemetery for their casualties near Kasriyya village in the western countryside of Jisr Al-Shughur city.

 

Seizing the livelihood of citizens, the theft of public facilities, the dismantling of railways and subordination despite the great force

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored in Jisr Al-Shughur city and its villages, scattered phrases written on the walls of public and private property, shops and houses, said “related to the Turkistan” or “related to Nusra Front” referring that these property are related to these two faction, and nobody has the right to dispose of them, and the Turkistan Islamic Party seized farms and deposited them with farmers, by guarantee through auctions for a full season, in exchange for an agreed sum, in which these farms include olive and citrus trees, in addition that the Turkistan seized shops and tens of houses that secure high income for them, while the resentment of the Turkistan citizens escalated, as a result of what the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored and documented about that they seized tens of houses from citizens on fabricated charges, based on personal hostility and conflicts between citizens and Syrian members, as well as non-Syrian members helps the Syrian members in seizing the properties of the citizens, and perhaps the most important part of the series of the Turkistan Islamic Party, was dismantling in – an organized way – the entire railway of the timber, rail bases and iron, and selling them as recycling materials, and one of the stations in the area which was seized by the fighter, is working as a place for cutting these metal, where Syrian workers are employed in these works, and auctions are held to sell these materials to traders, the matter that increased the resentment of the citizens, in addition that the Turkistan seized the livelihood of citizens of Jisr Al-Shughur city and the countryside of Idlib, in which groups of the Turkistan steal the olive crops after they have been harvested, and monopolizing the chopping of firewood from the forests, and citizens and other reliable sources confirmed that all of these practices are carried out with the approval of the Turkistan Islamic Party and Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham as well as factions operating in the area, in which the Turkistan share these practices with other factions in the area.

 

The members of “the Turkistan Islamic Party for Supporting of the Levant People”, which is composed of members of the Uyghur Muslims, who came during the past 5 years to Syria, and as a result of the lack of knowledge of the land, turned into tools used by other factions and one of these factions is Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham, and despite the great force that appeared clearly in the middle of July 2017, through conducting a column of tens of vehicles and hundreds of members, started from Jisr Al-Shughur city to areas in the western countryside of Idlib, and the Turkistan failed to merge with the Syrian society, and the were content with limited association, while their future has not been clear yet, despite all of the preparations that they carried out for themselves to stay in the are.