2020 ever deadliest in occupied Afrin

The year 2020 has passed over the occupied Afrin canton as an unbearable nightmare, as this year has witnessed more crimes of the Turkish occupation state, including killing, kidnapping, trafficking in human organs, sabotage of archaeological sites, smuggling them, cutting trees, and continuous demographic change processes.

NEWS

28 December, 2020 22:53

AL-SHAHAB-JAFAR JAFO- FERAS IBRAHIM

Afrin canton has been occupied since March 18, by Turkish occupation and its gangs, and the horrible crimes are increasing day by day in the canton, where the canton enjoyed with democracy, religious and national diversity, and it was home for tens of thousands of displaced from various Syrian regions, before occupying it.

However, the Turkish occupation began from the first days of the attack, with systematic targeting of civilians, archaeological sites, places of worship, medical facilities and schools, to draw the features of what would be the occupied canton under the control of the Turkish occupation army and its mercenaries.

As in 2018 and 2019, the year 2020 has passed over the occupied Afrin canton and its indigenous inhabitants, full with Turkish crimes of kidnapping, killing, displacement, looting, plundering and sabotage of archaeological sites, smuggling of antiquities and cutting and uprooting of olive and forest trees by tens of thousands.

Ibrahim Sheikho, the official spokesman for the Human Rights Organization in Afrin-Syria, considered 2020 "the bloodiest year in the past, after the Turkish occupation of Afrin on March 18, 2018."

Sheikho said, "Not a day has passed without the Turkish state, with the participation of its mercenaries and intelligence services (MIT), committing crimes against the indigenous people in occupied Afrin, with aiming to besiege them and displacing those who still remained in Afrin."

'805 citizens kidnapped during 2020 in Afrin, including 74 women'

Sheikho mentioned the toll of the documented murders and kidnappings in Afrin, "The Turkish occupation army and its mercenaries have kidnapped 805 citizens in occupied Afrin, including 74 women."

The fate of the vast majority of those kidnapped remains unknown.

'54 citizens were killed in Afrin in 2020'

Sheikho added, "The Turkish state deliberately killed 54 citizens, including women, in the occupied city of Afrin, inside prisons, under torture."

'Tens of thousands of trees uprooted in occupied Afrin'

Sheikho pointed out that "the mercenaries of the Turkish occupation army have seized the olive seasons for this year, and forcing the population to sell their season for small sums under pressure and duress."

According to the Human Rights Organization in Afrin, the number of trees that were cut down by the mercenaries of the Turkish occupation army reached 60 thousand.

Sheikho explained that the mercenaries seized about 15 percent of the annual olive season.

Sheikho pointed out that "the Turkish state, and through a network of merchants, through the so-called Chamber of Commerce called (Olive Branch) and Turkish associations, have stolen oil from farmers and peasants," adding, "It is sold in European markets for 110 euros."

"A group of merchants went to America to make a deal of olive oil with an amount of more than 90 thousand tons of looted Afrin olive oil," Sheikho added.

'Demographic change and destruction of monuments'

Regarding demographic change processes, Sheikho stressed that "the Turkish state intensified, during this year, the processes of demographic change, digging and removing archaeological sites and stealing artifacts through a network of its mercenaries."

The number of sites destroyed reached 42 archaeological sites, according to the Human Rights Organization in Afrin - Syria.

Sheikho confirmed that the Turkish intelligence had stolen mosaic panels from the archaeological site of Nabi Huri in Shara district of Afrin, as part to obliterate of the region's culture and history.

Sheikho pointed out that all these stolen items are transferred to Turkey through border crossings that were opened after the occupation of the area to connect Afrin with Hatay state and the theft of the property of that region.

Sheikho pointed out that the Turkish state forcibly displaced more than 300 thousand citizens from their homes, and proceeded to re-settle thousands of mercenary families from various regions of Syria, and according to the Human Rights Organization, the percentage of settlers in Afrin reached 80 percent.

Sheikho added that the Turkish intelligence has intended to settle Turkmen families on the border strip between Syria and Turkey in Afrin, including in the villages of Shara, Bulbula and Rajo, in addition to Shia district as well.

Sheikho indicated that the Turkish state destroyed and transformed nearly 54 schools into headquarters of the Turkish intelligence and detention facilities to torture civilians, including about 20 schools that were completely destroyed during the Turkish attack on the region.

Afrin Azhar, Faisal Qaddour School, the Viyan Amara Institute, and the preparatory school in Bulbula district have been converted into a Turkish intelligence headquarters, and the former trade secondary school has also been transformed into a headquarters and detention center for military police mercenaries.

The Turkish state imposes the Turkish language on schools as a basic curriculum in schools, in addition to prohibiting learning in the Kurdish mother tongue.

And the occupiers changed the Syrian identity cards to Turkish and imposed dealing in the Turkish currency.

It also changed the names of the villages, including the village of Kotana in the district of Bulbula to (Seljuk Obasi) and the village of Qastal Miqdad became (Zafer Obasi), the village of Qurzela, which became (Jaafar Obasi) in the district of Bulbula.

In addition to changing the names of the squares, including Azadi squares, “Tayyip Erdogan Square” has become the Kawa roundabout, the Olive Branch, and Newroz Roundabout, “Salah al-Din”.

'Human trafficking'

The official spokesperson for the Human Rights Organization stated that the Turkish state ", with the participation of medical teams, after the outbreak of coronavirus, to steal civilians' organs after killing them with toxic injections, and claiming that they lost their lives due to infection with coronavirus."

Sheikho added that the border guards (gendarmes) killed citizens on the Syrian and Turkish borders and stole organs from their bodies.

At the end of his speech, Sheikho appealed to human rights and international organizations and the fact-finding committee to enter Afrin to uncover and monitor crimes and violations against civilians, and the demographic change processes that the region is exposed to by the Turkish occupation army and its mercenaries.

The spokesperson for the Human Rights Organization pointed out that the documented crimes represent little of what is being committed on the ground, and said that they "represent only about 30 percent of the crimes committed against Afrin's indigenous residents."

T/S

ANHA