Syrian Observatory offers proofs on Turkish violations in Afrin

QAMISHLO

The International Forum on Ethnic Cleansing and Demographic Change in Afrin began its third day in Amuda district of Qamishlo canton, northern Syria, through the session related to the Juristic Aspect of Ethnic Cleansing and Demographic Change in Afrin. The session is headed by Danial Seoud, the head of the Defense Committees of the Democratic Freedoms and Human Rights in Syria. The lectures are given by Zozan Ibrahim Mohamed, Dr. in civil law, professor in Furat University and a member of the Geneva Appeal Organization, Gerard Chalian, a French strategist and specialist in analyzing the international conflicts and Rami Abdul Rahman, the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Forum continues its activities. In this context, the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Rami Abdul Rahman sent a report to the Forum as the circumstances did not allow him to attend. Through his report, Rami Abdul Rahman made clear that the criminal acts carried out by the Turkish occupation and mercenaries at the legal field.

The statement included,

"Afrin lives on violations and the sounds of weapons, most of the times, its night witnesses only the lights of military machineries and the shouting of the mercenaries fighting on the stolen goods. Every day, the violation increases more and more, especially as the Turkish army and mercenaries' controlling Afrin and the entire area entered the ninth month in a row, since the Turkish forces and the Islamic factions dominated the area on 18 March 2018, after a military operation began under the name of "Olive Branch" on the 20th of January of the same year.

This operation was supported by groups of Turkish Gray Wolfs and Turkish warplanes and helicopters that inflicted destruction to the civilians' possessions and resulted in martyring about 380 civilians, including 55 children and 36 citizens of the Kurdish, Arab and Armenian components. Dozens of them were martyred in the explosion of mines and under torture at the hands of the factions of "Olive Branch" operation, the majority martyred in the Turkish aerial, artillery and missile bombardment, in executions targeted several citizens in Afrin area in addition to killing, torturing and wounding hundreds and displacing hundreds of thousands while the violations and inhuman practices remained the share of the remained residents in Afrin area who refused to go out the area and abandon their homes and farms to the Turkish forces and the factions that had been armed and robbed, stole and seized the properties of the civilians and private and public properties throughout Afrin area.

Things did not stop here, the factions operating in Olive Branch and because of the absence of anything to deter them from practicing the violations against the Kurdish citizens of Afrin area, they found a new method of violation which is the kidnapping of the population under false charges of being affiliated or belonged to Kurdish forces. This has made it easier for these factions to expand their activity, arrest more civilians, and practice killing even without paying attention to any international, regional or local parties. The latest violation was the observations of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights of an Islamic group arrested a man and his daughter from a village in the countryside of Afrin on the charge of belonging to the Kurdish forces, and spoke about the sources of the arresting of the man and his daughter as a result of refusing to comply with the requests of the group which demanded money as tax of "protection of the region." Moreover, a child was martyred by fire shot launched by a fighter in the ranks of an Islamic faction working in Afrin area under the influence of narcotics according to civil sources. While the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights documented that about 2,380 citizens were arrested, among them more than 840 are still in detention, while the rest were released after paying most of the ransom imposed by the elements of the "Olive Branch" sometimes up to more than 10 million Syrian pounds.

The Syrian Observatory monitored the operations of targeting the "Olive Branch" forces which reached about 140 operations since the loss of the Kurdish forces to Afrin at the end of the second third of March of this year 2018, as the number of elements of the Turkish forces and the fighting and Islamic factions rose to 677, including 83 soldiers from the Turkish forces. The Syrian Observatory also documented the elimination of at least 1,582 fighters of the Kurdish Protection Units and Self-Defense Forces since the beginning of operation Olive Branch who were killed in the clashes with the Kurdish forces in the area of Afrin and the areas which were exposed to targeting and assassinations since the Olive Branch began in January 2018. At least 91 elements of the People Regime Forces were killed in the Turkish shelling since they entered the country on 20 February 2018.

The Kurdish forces carried out about 140 assassinating and targeting operations that reached the forces controlling the area of Afrin at the time when sources of YPG command denied that its forces are responsible for many of the assassinating and torturing, some of which had appeared in videos attributed to the Kurdish forces. The sources accused other cells of other parties of carrying out these assassinations and assigning them to the Kurdish forces for their own ends, mainly aimed at escalating their violations against civilians, whose resentment is escalating day by day with unfair and unsatisfactory actions. The Turkish forces leading the Olive Branch operation have been deafening their ears.

Amidst all these figures, the crackdown on the Afrin area, carried out by Olive Branch forces appears to be in line with the desire of the Turkish forces, which are trying to distance themselves from any violation that would raise regional and international public opinion towards it, and in the details obtained by the Syrian Observatory, Failaq al-Sham which is considered close to the Turkish authorities has formed courts to request documents relating to property ownership in the area of Afrin located in the north-western sector of Aleppo. The sources confirmed that the process of requesting the papers is accompanied by information provided by sources about the start of preparations by the Legion Court to return the properties inhabited by fighters to their owners. The sources also confirmed that the houses are being held until the ownership of the house is confirmed by the Aleppo Land Registry proving that the ownership of the house, even if there are accusations of belonging to the Kurdish forces or Kurdish political parties, where the property is being re-owned to its owners, while those who cannot prove it, the process of confiscation the property and sell at auction, and the sale of individual weapons and personal holdings, which caused widespread discontent among the residents of Afrin, who did not allow them to access the city of Aleppo as displaced, amid fears that the inability of many displaced people and even left to prove their ownership, and the parents considered that  as a new chapter in the process of tightening to displace the remaining civilians.

While Liwa al-Sultan Shah who is part of the factions of "Olive Branch" to legitimize his thefts to Afrin people's properties through a series of decisions issued and circulated on the subject of harvesting olive,in Shia district in the countyside of Afrin These decisions stipulate the imposition of royalties at different rates of the olive harvest, where the villagers were forced owners of agricultural land in the area to pay 10% of the production of their crop, but in the absence of owners of agricultural land in the area and on behalf of the agents for them have been identified as larger proportions as follows:

- 15% of the production of the crop is paid if the agents are close to the owners of the land of the first class (father - mother - brother - sister), but if the agents of the people of the district and not on the owners of land owners will be the tax rate 25% of the total crop production, while 35% of the crop is paid if the agents are "supporters " of the Kurdish People's Protection Units, according to al-Sultan Shah faction.

Sources also confirmed to the Syrian Observatory that a military commander in Failaq al-Rahman displaced from East Gouta Damascus he had signed an agreement with the local council in the city of Afrin, based on taking the military commander to an area of mountainous land located between Basota and the city of Afrin. As a "communal land", does not belong to anyone, and 400 m are being granted to the refugees of eastern al-Gouta of Damascus, for a fee of $ 100. The reliable sources confirmed that the agreement was signed between the two sides, while no extradition has yet been carried out for the displaced, in addition to imposing the monies imposed on the civilian and mobile population in the Afrin area on the main and secondary roads, In terms of the payment of varying amounts of money to the checkpoints of the forces of the "Olive Branch", they are confiscated of cars small and large, public and private, and sometimes it is a collection of extra taxes as well as  stealing and looting. Not to mention the control of the factions of Operation "olive branch" arbitrarily in the economic resources in Afrin, and the seizure of the factions of the process "Olive Branch", to the majority of the olive farms in Afrin, and to include them for traders and workers to receive funds in advance as a price for this process of guarantee for the farms seized, which accounted for more than 75% of the area of olive farms are existed in Afrin, after the factions had been sharing to control olive farms.

The Syrian Observatory also monitored the seizure of the city of Afrin completely by the Turkish forces and factions of operation of "Olive Branch", where these factions deliberately divide the areas of control, and write statements on everything being taken in order to prove ownership of them and prevent the rest of the factions from taking over the same property or mechanism, and deliberately burning olive farms and burning property, while violations exceeded the seizure and the division of property to carry out daily raids of homes, Under the pretext of searching for weapons and sleeper cells, and other pretexts, and stealing of property of houses from jewelry, money and electronic devices and even mobile phones and furniture, and the theft from private property to public property, As the groups of factions operating in the area of Afrin to stealing the copper cables carrying the electric current, and stealing of hospitals and service institutions, as these thefts created internal fighting between the factions of the Islamic fighter in the operation, "Olive Branch," dozens of elements have been killed .

Afrin city has still been occupied since 9 months, these months witnessed a major humanitarian tragedy in North Syria, we at the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights call on the international community to work hard and hard for returning Afrin canton 's people to their homeland and ensuring the safety of their lives and not to prejudice them, We also call upon the humanitarian and relief agencies to provide assistance to enable the displaced from Afrin benefiting from it and to provide medical treatment to hundreds of thousands of displaced persons in a narrow geographic area. We also call on the international community to put pressure onTurkey to open the checkpoints to those who wish returning to Afrin and controlling to the factions that spread corruption. Every day, abuses are committed against its inhabitants.

ANHA