About 5 months after controlling it…Afrin witnesses changing in the names of its squares and one of them is named after the Turkish President
Aleppo Province – The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights: the violations are continuing in Afrin area in the north-western sector of Aleppo countryside, from killing and torture to incinerating and seizing property and collecting royalties, and other violations that are being carried out by the factions of the “Olive Branch” Operation, against the residents of Afrin area, who remained in their villages, towns and houses, and have not leave them, where the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored that the factions in Sheikh Hadid Township, have sat fire to the property of citizens, some of whom are of the same family, in addition to the continuation to detain hundreds of citizens in their prisons and detention centers, in order to collect money from their families in return for releasing them, while reliable sources confirmed to the Syrian Observatory that the authorities which are in control of Afrin area, have changed the names of some squares, and deliberately named one of the squares of Afrin city as the “President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Square”.
And the Syrian Observatory published 2 days ago, that Afrin in the northwestern countryside of Aleppo is living between action and reaction, between violation, torture, arrest, royalties collecting, looting, stealing, and targeting, and between all of that the citizen continues to suffer more, at a time hewer the forces that came to Afrin, attacked it, and now controlling it claimed that they came to “liberate” the area, but the liberation was not as expected, where the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored bulldozers of “Olive Branch” operation cutting fruit and old olive trees in Hammam area and other areas in the countryside of Afrin, with the aim of creating space for establishing camps and headquarters by the factions operating in the Turkey-supported “Olive Branch” Operation, coincided with the continued collection of royalties by these factions from the citizens, who pay a royalty after the other, in addition to the arrest which has become a profitable trade, by fabricating charges against citizens to obtain money from them in exchange for their release.
The SOHR also published on the 5th of August 2018, that the checkpoints which were set up by factions operating within the Operation “Olive Branch” led by Turkey, on the road to Azaz and within the side streets in Afrin area, impose sums of money on the citizens as they pass through these roads and checkpoints, where all of those check points force the residents to pay sums of money, in return for allowing the vehicles they ride on to cross, it also go far and reached that some of the checkpoints threatened the citizens by firearm, and they also impose larger royalties on the citizens and merchants who have goods or possessions with them during their travel, and the locals confirmed that factions including Sultan Murad Division, al-Hamzah Division and other factions operating in the area, imposed this kind of royalties, and the Syrian Observatory monitored about 72 hours ago, that a check point of al-Hamzah Division got citizens and citizen women off a mini-bus, abused and swore at them, and drew and directed weapons to them, because the passengers refused to pay a sum of money of 2000 SP (less than 6 Dollars), and these violations are animated on the road between Azaz and Afrin, as a result of the heavy traffic on the road as it is considered a main road for vehicles and buses, while the residents confirmed that the complains they presented to the Turkish forces which are located in Afrin, were ignored and the violations of the factions have not been stopped, and the members who committed violations against the residents, have not been even questioned.