Afrin: Kurdish farmers’ olive crops stolen under official cover

The organization documented, over the past few days, the theft of crops from more than 900 olive trees across various villages and districts of occupied Afrin. 

The thefts were carried out by leaders of mercenary groups affiliated with the Turkish occupation and so-called “economic officials,” who brought in large numbers of settlers — between 100 and 300 people per group — to harvest the stolen olives and share the profits with the armed groups.

In Kurdo village (Bulbul district), a mercenary leader known as Abu al-Ezz from the “Elite Army” stole the harvest from more than 200 olive trees belonging to Kurdish farmer Jamal Rashid Rashkilo.

Eyewitnesses said that when the owner objected, the mercenaries claimed they were “revolutionaries who liberated Syria” and therefore “Kurdish farmers have no right to stop them from harvesting,” a justification widely condemned by locals as immoral and baseless.

In Hafataro village, a leader from the “Northern Hawks Brigade” formed a committee of settlers and harvested olives from more than 300 trees owned by farmer Shiyar Hafataro, while he was occupied in another orchard.

In Naza village (Sharan district), two mercenaries — Hassan Kousa and Abu Awad from the “Elite Army” — stole the harvest of 110 trees belonging to farmer Sabri Bahri Hanan, as well as 300 trees from Hamid Othman in Aqiba/Robariya village near Afrin city center.

The thieves, along with settlers from the Al-Heeb tribe (from rural Hama), completed the operation in two days, using plastic pipes and iron rods that caused serious damage to the trees.

Although the rightful owners had given power of attorney to relatives to manage their lands, the armed groups rejected these legal documents, claiming the harvests were “public property.”

Meanwhile, the so-called Economic Committee in Sharan demanded that landowners submit official ownership papers or risk confiscation of their groves, labeling them as “state property.”

According to the Afrin–Syria Human Rights Organization, the committee had previously accepted witness statements and confirmation by the village head to verify ownership, but it is now requiring documents and threatening full confiscation — a move the organization described as a direct attack on private property protected by international law and religious principles.

The organization concluded that what is happening in Afrin constitutes a systematic looting of local resources under Turkish administrative and economic cover, holding the Turkish occupation fully responsible for these acts, which amount to forced seizure and demographic change.

The report emphasized that these violations against Kurdish farmers are carried out by force of arms and justified through false economic decrees.

a.k

ANHA