Though under occupation Afrin still defiant

A Hamzat mercenary raped a girl, 18, who remained there for five days then she was delivered to her family threating her father if disclose the matter, the father went crazy.  This is one in many cases that are being perpetrated on daily bases by the Turkish Occupation Forces and the affiliated mercenary groups in Afrin Canton that are all being documented by lawyer and jurist Gabriel Mustafa and other IDPs of the canton that is under Turkish occupation since March 18th, 2018.

For the third year in he is in the Shahba Canton uncle Hajji is looking forward to see his field of fruitful trees, at this time of the year the plum harvest begins according to Abu Bakr known as Hajji.

First we heard about the enforced displacement and the demographic change against Palestinians then that was put into operation in Afrin the Kurdish dominated city under Turkish Occupation since 2018.

This study is based on testimonies made by citizens, activists and lawyers and reports filed by international and human rights associations that focus on demographic changes in Afrin.   

The Kurdish dominated city of Afrin lies in the far north western Syria, 3,850 KM2, divided into seven districts with 366 villages attached to, and 523258 populations according to the last census carried out by the Syrian Red Crescent in 2010.

According to the Human Rights Organization –Afrin –Syria, Kurds were making 97 % of the population with Arabs and Turkomen making 3% of the population prior to the Turkish occupation.

But this figures have changed dramatically after the occupation due to settlement by mercenaries and their families that were brought in from other Syrian governorates making 80 % of the population with the Kurds reduced to just 20 %, according to an eyewitness from the canton as these figures are confirmed and documented by activists and lawyers the data that dubbed as the result of the Turkish Occupation Army crimes in Afrin, according to Gabriel Mustafa that told ANHA of these data. 

Mustafa noted that number of those brought in settlers and their families amount to 400, 000 from all Syrian territories.

On the crimes committed under the clock of liberation, Afrinian IDP Hikmat Ali Ereb says that the matter is a genocide against the Kurds.

In this relation the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the SOHR, states in a report released on November 1st, 2020, that Turkey unsparingly works after the Afrin occupation to change the reality on the ground with relation to the ethnic population as it appeases the Turkish aspiration in the region.

Haji Mustafa of the Marwane village in the Jinderese District witnessed enforced displacement and deportation against the Kurdish existence in Afrin, saying: '' the mercenaries alleged that they are against the Syrian Regime, but we were astounded that they were affiliated to the Turkish Occupation Army to put into operation it's politically motivated agendas of the ancient Ottoman colonizers via uprroting us from our lands and obliterating our identity and destroying our culture''.

The Turkish policies spared neither Ghuta, Homs or Deir Ezzor IDPs. On May 17th, 2019, IDPs' bodies that used to confer paper and documents and residence certificates on IDPs were disbanded by Turkey forcing all of these to get ID from the so-called Afrin Civil Council that was seen as a step to be settled permanently in Afrin stripping them of their right to return home in future, according to latest report release by the Violation Documentation Center in North Syria.

From his part, Shiraz Hemo, Co-chair of the Afrin Council told ANHA that '' we spare no efforts for Afrinians to return home, in spite of all hardships that we undergo on daily bases in addition to the repeated Turkish attacks carried out on the region, and the blockade imposed on the region and people but we are still committed to the oath we made in relation to Afrin home return''.

According to the Human Rights Organization- Afrin-Syria the first of its kind of the settlements projects was on November 15th, 2018 under the Shamiye Village in a mountainous area to the west of Mirimin town sponsored by Qatar and Gulf associations. Followed by Afrazah Compound with a space of 1 km2 and a compound close to the Haj Hesene village that includes building 247 units on a space of 40 km2 and the Baflouyn Compound with a space of 1km2.

The Bafloun Compound is built on Mount Bafloun close to the Yazidi village of Bafloun whose whole population is being displaced to house mercenaries in it's 60 houses.

On this Mustafa said that ''Yazidis are being targeted in more than 15 villages in Afrin their numbers dwindled and reduced as the remaining are forced to convert into Islam to whom Islam has no relation''.

Mustafa added that many settlements are being documented in Shiye and Sherawa to settle in newcomers more specifically Turkomen affiliated to the Turkish Intelligence Services.

The White Helmets created a camp in the Ashrefiye Quarter after many real estates were taken possession of in periphery of the Water Tower according to news networks focus on crimes committed by the Turkish Occupation Forces.  These real estates are owned by Nasr and Hanan Nasr, Mahmoud Calash from Qibar village and by citizen Mohamed Ali.  

In addition to these, Kuwait al-Rehman is being built by the Turkish Occupation Forces sponsored by the Sham al-Khaiyer Association (Kuwaiti related to the Muslim Brotherhood) for those families brought into Afrin. The village includes 300 houses, a mosque, a dispensary, a school and a Quranic institute. All these endeavours come in line with the demographic changes taking place.

Most starch bids were that of settling Palestinians in Afrin. Civil Documentation of the Palestinian Refugees in North Eastern Syria stated on February 15th, 2020, that number of Palestinians in North eastern Syria amount to 7500 settlers all brought from camps in Daraa, Homs, Aleppo and Yarmuk.

While Turkomen associations are very active as they are backed by the Turki8sh Occupation Forces in an attempt to make them the leading power in the region as the Syrian Turkomen Council declared that they met on August 23rd, 2018 all Turkomen brought from Hama, Homs, Sham and Golan to Afrin.

In mid-September 2019 a delegation of the so-called Renaissance Syrian Turkomen Party paid a visit to the Sultan Mohamed Fateh faction villages emptied of it's Kurdish people and settled Turkomen instead.  After the Afrin occupation all Turkomen displaced from Lattakia were settled in Kurdish villages set up by Turkey in rural Afrin.  

Since then Turkomen became very active in the region where schools were set up and an office for the Higher Council of Syrian Turkomen in Afrin, in addition to charities that work under relief aids all to encourage Turkomen to settle there.

On March 3rd, 2020, Russian Defence Ministry accused Turkish Occupation authorities of settling Turkomen in areas formerly settled by Kurds who were displaced forcibly that led to a demographic change.  All these projects are sponsored by Qatar via Muslim Brotherhood societies.  

A report released by Open Democracy on July 19th, 2020 described the situation in Afrin'' all what is being taking place against Kurds in both Syria and Iraq by Turkish military actions amount to mass genocide''.

The report noted that all these breaches go in line to exit Kurdish indigenous residents from their ancestral home to perpetuate the occupation in favor of the Muslim Brotherhood project and to give legitimacy to occupation''. 

Hikmat says that their lands belong to their ancestors and their roots are fixed in that land, and he wonders about Turkey's continued approach to targeting the Kurds, citing one of the Turkish President's speeches in which he says that they will pursue Kurdish dreams even if they are in Africa.

'Definition of the demographic change legally'

International law addresses the issue of demographic change under the nomenclature of displacement, eviction or forced transfer and includes it among war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.

Forced displacement is defined by the forced and illegal eviction of a group of individuals and people from the land on which they reside, and a procedure by Governments or fanatical groups vis-à-vis a particular ethnic or religious group aimed at evacuating certain lands to an alternative or other group, which is exactly what happened in the occupied city of Afrin, according to human rights activist Gabriel Mustafa during a meeting with ANHA correspondent.

Gabriel Mustafa, a resident of Al-Shahba canton, who was bitter enough to move away from his land, did not hesitate to legally seek the idea of what might be used to restore the law, recalling articles 6, 7 and 8 of the Rome Statute of 1998, which explicitly define forced displacement as a war crime and which is implemented in all its parts in occupied Afrin.

In this regard, the United Nations Office for Human Rights reported in one of its reports the existence of what it called The "disturbing approach" to the grave violations in Afrin, Ras al-Ain and Tal-Abyed, where an increase in killings, abductions, involuntary movement of people, land and property seizure and forced evictions has been documented, where we note a conformity with article II of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide, adopted in 9-12-1948.

During his statement, Gabriel Mustafa referred to the necessity of applying Article (49) of the four Geneva Agreements of / 12-8-1949 / and the two protocols attached thereto for the year (1977) with regard to war crimes that are defined as those grave violations of the established rules if the matter is related to forced displacement.

He also considered the position of the international community to be politicized because it had not taken serious steps to counter demographic change by denouncing either through reports or data without taking real action on the ground.

In his speech, Gabriel asserts that demographic change involving all aspects of life and posing a serious threat to the future of the region until monuments from hills and sites have been affected and stolen is another form of demographic change because it completely erodes the history and falsification of the region, such as those of the Prophet Horie and Mar Maroon.
'Worst torturers...Supported by Turkey '
In the report of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Syria contained in the paragraph Also in Afrin, in December, a prominent member of the National Army brigades went through a large apartment building, door by door, requested title documents from the Kurd population only, and a resident, unable to show the bond, was forced to come to the brigade's security office, where he was verbally abused and told: "If it were up to me, I'd kill every Kurdish aged one to 80." He was threatened with detention. Fearing for the safety of his family, the man fled soon after, and one of the women went to Turkish officials in Sheikh Hadid district and complained to them about taking over her house, telling her that she had to speak to Suleiman Shah's brigade, whom Turkey appeared to have delegated the authority to deal with such cases. "

The report issued by the United Nations described two mercenary groups supported by the Turkish Occupation Army, the Sultan Murad Brigade, which had in its body the mercenary faction authorized by Turkey to transport property, the Suleiman Shah Brigade (Al-Amshat) and the Hamza Brigade, with the worst torturers in Afrin.
In this regard, jurist Gabriel Mustafa points out that the presence of Nasr Hariri in Afrin and his visit to the head of the mercenaries of the Suleiman Shah Brigade, Mohammad Jassim, who is involved in committing war crimes against Syrians "therefore the Turkish coalition and Government are responsible for these crimes."

According to the Amnesty International report, "armed groups operating with the support of Turkey are committing a wide spectrum of violations against civilians in Afrin, such as the confiscation and looting of property and arbitrary detention.
These groups and Turkey are likely to be responsible for indiscriminate attacks during hostilities in northeastern Syria, and in the region itself

As for the robberies in the occupied province, ANHA's agency met with Hikmat Ali Arab from Shia district, which is controlled by the mercenaries of the Suleiman Shah Brigade. Who said that the Turkish Occupation State attacked and targeted them directly in Afrin, as he says that the looting and stealing they were subjected to is indescribable.

This was confirmed by photos and videos taken by the FP reporter during the occupation of Afrin on March 18th, 2018 by the Turkish Occupation Army and its mercenaries.
Hikmat says that their lands belong to their ancestors and their roots are fixed in that land, and he wonders about Turkey's continued approach to targeting the Kurds, citing one of the Turkish President's speeches in which he says that they will pursue Kurdish dreams even if they are in Africa.
To their sadness, Hikmat says that they were unable to keep the promise of serving the olive tree from now to the dead, and he says that his only demand is to return to Afrin.
To their sadness, Hikmat says that they were unable to keep the promise of serving the olive tree from now to the dead, and he says that his only demand is to return to Afrin.

On the most brutal crime, jurist Gabriel Mustafa says, "We have documented a lot of cases as legal activists involved, but the most serious case I have in mind is when mercenary Mohamed Al Jassim, accompanied by his agents, forcibly brings a girl from a village belonging to Janders district to rape her, in one of the faction's headquarters, to be released after stripping her of all her clothes."

While stressing that the Turkish State has throughout its history exploited broken laws in international law, "There are provisions criminalizing such practices, Turkey, despite hundreds of international reports documenting crimes against war crimes, genocide and humanity, exploits political interests that are immoral."

'Turkey's intelligence and immoral role in Afrin '
With regard to the opening of religious centers, Gabriel states that they have counted as legal activists the opening of more than 20 religious centers for the dissemination of religious extremism, which encourages discrimination and non-acceptance of others. Planting this in the children's mind is based on forcing their parents to send their children and imposing the hijab on minors.
ANHA's correspondent contacted a number of Afrin residents residing in the canton who were afraid to give their names for fear of facing kidnapping or murder at the hands of mercenary factions, among them is the citizen (H,A), who said that the focus of indoctrinated prayer speeches to children revolves around jihad and building an Ottoman Islamic caliphate in the future.

Afrin is being destroyed…. Afrin is being slaughtered
Gabriel recalled one of the cruelest stories they had documented, and confirmed that one of Al-Hamzat mercenaries raped young woman, aged 18-year-old who lost her virginity, left them with more than five days, then handed over to her parents and threatened her father under arms to keep the secret. Gabriel notes that the father is now insane and completely lost consciousness, and continues his speech by saying, "In Afrin, all crimes are committed ... Afrin is destroyed ... Afrin is slaughtered."

The co-chair of Afrin canton Shiraz Hamo concluded by stressing that they were trying to defame, to the extent possible, the policies of the Turkish State under the leadership of Erdogan. In addition, we are trying to highlight the crimes committed against the people of Afrin by documenting and disseminating them.

The dream of returning remains one of the more than 350,000 refugees from Afrin who move between the camps of displacement in the district of Shahba, where the displaced suffer all the difficulties and have eyes on the occupied homes adjacent to them.

L.A-/ T/S

ANHA

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