By Hani Salem
IDLIB, Syria (North Press) – After the Turkish authorities forcibly deported him from Turkey to Syria, Walid Hebo, from Raqqa Governorate in northern Syria, was blackmailed by the Turkish-backed armed opposition factions, known as the Syrian National Army (SNA).
Since the beginning of July, Turkey has launched a deportation campaign against the Syrian refugees residing in its territory, especially in Istanbul.
“After the Turkish police detained me for two weeks in Tuzla center near the Syrian-Turkish border then transferred me to Urfa city in southern Turkey to force me sign the voluntary return papers, and then deported me to Tel Abyad, I hoped that the suffering would come to an end, but the big suffering was inside the shelter center of the SNA,” Hebo told North Press.
Hebo spent seven days under investigation by the Military Police, a faction of the SNA, as he was transferred to a shelter center with 25 people in the SNA-held city of Tel Abyiad in the north of Raqqa, northern Syria. “They sold us water, food, and even accommodation at US dollar.”
After a month in the shelter center, Hebo said Abu Muhammad al-Akeidi, leader of Levant Front (al-Jabha al-Shamiya) faction that I should call my relatives to pay $5,000 as a ransom due to charges on espionage for the Syrian Democratic Forced (SDF).
I told the leader that I do not have that big sum of money, as I was just a worker in Turkey. “My words irradiated him and he sent me with other seven arrestees to the Anti-Terrorism center where we were forced to confess that we have links with the SDF under torture, and they uploaded photos of SDF personnel in our phones.”
“After that, four arrestees who were with me were released after paying $3,500 for everyone. Thereafter, they released me after I reached out with my wife and my cousin in Urfa city as well as my other relatives to sum up $3,000 in ransom.”
Hebo is now working at a Car Wash in the city of Tel Abyad and still waiting for the results of the security investigation, while his family is still in Istanbul without hope in sight.
The Turkish authorities have been forcing the Syrians to sign the documents of what they call the “voluntary return” under the pretext of acquiring no legal documents, but the majority of the Syrians confirmed the opposite thing as all of them have the Kimlik.
Alaa Medawer, 28, from the town of Bulbul of Afrin region, northwest Syria, was deported to the city of Azaz on April 5, through Bab al-Salama border crossing after 20-day detention in Turkey’s southern city of Kilis. He noted that “the deporting processes are by force. I was arrested while returning home and transferred to Tuzla center knowing that I acquire all my legal documents. After that, they sent me to Kilis to deport me to Syria with dozens of young men through Bab al-Salama border crossing.”
”As soon as we arrived Syria, we were transferred to the Military Police faction in the village of Sejo in the city of Azaz to be investigated. Head of the faction, Abu Ali Sejo, took my phone and took a picture of me and sent it to my father and wife in addition to an audio that shows me accused of espionage for the US-led Coalition if my family do not pay a $4,000 ransom, just because I am Kurdish and has no backing or mediators working with the SNA,” he told North Press.
“We were 30 young men in the cell. I was tortured and blackmailed for more than a month. After 36 days of detention, I was released to be informed later that my wife and dad paid $3,000 to free me up.”
Exclusive sources reported to North Press that blackmailing and intimidation against deportees are mainly thriving in Tel Abyad and Sere Kanyia (Ras al-Ain) in northeast Syria, and in Azaz in the northwest, since most of the deportees are the original people of the areas held by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES). Further, the mentioned areas are directly controlled by the Military Police faction, the thing which facilitates torturing, and blackmailing by the Turkish authorities, the sources added.
The funds of blackmailing are shared between the participated factions in addition to the Turkish official who provides legality for the process in case of the conduct of any investigations by the Turkish authorities, according to the sources.