"Mayors Intelligence" is revived by Turkish occupation in Afrin

AFRIN

Since the Turkish occupation and its mercenaries' occupying to Afrin on March 18, 2018, several policies have been adopted with the aim of demographic change and ethnic cleansing; kidnapping, torturing, murdering, looting stealing and other violations that aim at striking the economic and social structure in Afrin and displacing its indigenous inhabitants.

Now the Turkish occupation is working to follow the policy of "divide and conquer" to spread the distinction among the people through the application of the Mayors system.

According to what a source from Afrin city told ANHA, the so-called system of al-Mukhtar implemented by the Turkish occupation in Afrin is supervised by the Turkish Intelligence, where they appoint a person from each village who is a client and collaborator with the occupation at a significant position and called him "al-Mukhtar" and form al-Mukhtar Committee with three members associated with the Turkish Intelligence's elements. The goal of the Committee is to monitor the movements of the people of the village or neighborhood and even al-Mukhtar himself in case he does not apply what is required from him by the Turkish occupation, and to provide information to the Intelligence periodically.

In this way, that will create a rift in the structure of society and its fragmentation through planting of informants from the villagers and the people of the neighborhood itself which will undermine the trust and cohesion among the people to serve the Turkish occupation.

The source said that the Turkish occupation began to apply this system in several villages, including the village of Bablete belonging to  the center of the city of Afrin and one of the informants whose name is (A,A) was appointed as al-Mukhtar (mayor). Al-Mukhtar Committee is known in the area for their bad reputation and looting and stealing of property in cooperation with Turkey's mercenaries in addition to the incitement of the occupation army and mercenaries against all those who stand against them, rejecting their violations.

While another source confirmed that Turkish occupation's mercenaries circularized through mosques' minarets in the villages of Anqla and Sennara belonging to Shia district, calling for the people who are planting their lands to take the approval from the mercenaries and pay a fine estimated by 250 SY for each tree planted in the land to be tilled. While the people have been prevented from taking the firewood after trimming the tree as they are seized by the mercenaries to be sold to the people.

It is noteworthy that the post of al-Mukhtar in Turkey is historical. The Ottoman state based on it to run the affairs of the villages and it established it to be one of the State Intelligence's agencies and to put pressure on the people to create the distinction among them. The Turkish President Erdogan assigned new tasks to these directly to be added to those provided by the law and assigned an intelligence duty which is to monitor the people and inform the authorities of all movements of citizens in their daily lives.

Today, the number of al-Mukhtar offices reached about 53 thousand, and the Turkish President Erdogan intends to meet them all at his presidential palace in Ankara, where they are enjoying his hospitality and his private welcome for them. This has caused many to wonder about the great interest of the President in the mayors and what makes him to meet them directly to inform them his recommendations.

Since 2004, al-Mukhtars have been among Erdogan's most prominent guests. To this date, his meetings with them have been still continuing in groups between 300 and 400 Mukhtars. At each meeting, they are receiving an encouraging and motivating word from Erdogan to perform their duties optimally and to inform the local authorities and the Ministry of the Interior everything they observe and monitor in their neighborhoods through a computerized and private information system, where their reports are sent in the first stage to the General Directorate of the Local Administrations of the Interior Ministry, and from there, they are transferred to the government agencies.

It is noteworthy that in the context of the violations of the Turkish occupation and its mercenaries in Afrin, the first International Forum on Ethnic Cleansing and Demographic Change in Afrin held on December 2 and it was organized by Rojava Center for Strategic Studies in Amuda city in al-Jazeera region to show the fact of what the occupation and its mercenaries have done and are still doing; violations in Afrin to show them to the public opinion.

(T/S)

ANHA