Istanbul – North-Press Agency
On Sunday, social media in Turkey was filled with the case of a Syrian businessman who had millions of Turkish Liras (TL) and dollars, in addition to gold alloys, stolen from him in the Turkish city of Istanbul. It was later clarified that the businessman is related to the Syrian opposition, and was accused by activists of collecting money at the expense of the Syrian people.
A few days ago, the CNN Turk network said that “Turkish security forces arrested a gang that stole five million TL in cash and 11 kg of gold alloy, in addition to sums of money in foreign currency (dollars), from the house of a Syrian businessman,” without elaborating further details about the identity of the businessman.
After the incident, Syrian activists and journalists started leaking information stating that “This person is not a businessman as CNN Turk said, but he is a former member of the Deir ez-Zor Revolutionary Council, which was chaired by the current Syrian National Coalition member Riyad al-Hassan, who is also the Council employee as director of al-Jisr TV channel, called Majed al-Kazem, and known as Abu al-Bara’a. He was managing the operations of receiving financial support for the Deir ez-Zor Governorate as well,” adding that, “Those who stole the money are his cousins and their wives.”
Not only did it stop here, but it extended to activists inside and outside Syria to start asking about the so-called “Abu al-Bara’a” and about those funds – where did they come from, and what is their source? What is the relationship of the Syrian opposition figures with this person?
Commenting on this, Sa’ad Nahhas, member of the Syrian Engineers Association in Turkey, said on his Facebook account on Sunday: “What if a law of procurement was applied on those whose conditions were changed, from heads of organizations, groups’ leaders and opposition masters? Thanks to the thieves, who unintentionally, have revealed a thief, and thanks to the police for having arrested them, and I hope to open an investigation into the source of these funds.”
An opposition Syrian journalist, who preferred not to be named, told North-Press: “This person is not a businessman and is not a member of the opposition Syrian National Coalition. Rather, he is a relative to the member of the Coalition, Riyad al-Hassan, who introduced him to the Revolutionary Council of Deir ez-Zor.”
He added that “his main profession is an anesthesia technician nurse, who worked in Saudi Arabia with a monthly salary of 3,000 Saudi Arabia Riyal (SAR) before moving to Istanbul and becoming director of the opposition TV channel al-Jisr, which was closed in 2019, on the pretext that there is no longer support.”
The source mentioned deeper details about Abu al-Bara’a, Riyadh al-Hassan and Deir ez-Zor Revolutionary Council, saying: “Riyadh al-Hassan was the head of the Deir ez-Zor Council, but Abu al-Bara’a, who was moving between Saudi Arabia and Turkey, was in charge of collecting money and support for the Council.”
The same source added that “the people of Deir ez-Zor and the youth of the revolution suffered under the so-called Abu al-Bara’a and the Deir ez-Zor Revolutionary Council in the past, in terms of stealing support money and getting rid of the activists, with the aim of controlling the decisions and expelling all who violated the Islamic Salafi line of Riyad al-Hassan.”
The journalist accused the Deir ez-Zor Revolutionary Council and its affiliated military battalions (Jund al-Aziz and al-Ansar) of contributing significantly to “handing over the city of Deir ez-Zor to the Islamic State group (ISIS) in 2014.”
Also, the source said: “Abu al-Bara’a was from a family of weak financial capabilities, and he originates from al-Joura neighborhood in Deir ez-Zor, but his entry to the Revolutionary Council of Deir ez-Zor through his relative Riyad al-Hassan made his affairs turn upside down. His presence in Saudi Arabia alongside his relative Riyad al-Hassan helped him raise funds on the pretext of supporting the Council, but their goal was to strengthen their brigades at the expense of other opposition military brigades, and to control all of Deir ez-Zor's resources such as antiquities and oil.”
After that, “Abu al-Bara’a left Saudi Arabia and headed toTurkey to open a dairy and cheese factory. After that, he became director of al-Jisr TV channel and settled in Istanbul until the closure of the channel on the pretext of lack of support, but the reality is that the Qataris stopped providing them with money, and Abu al-Bara’a and his group did not want to spend their own money on the channel, so they closed it.”
Voices start to rise, calling for holding Abu al-Bara’a and his supporters accountable, and holding each thief who have risen and become owners of capital at the expense of the revolution and the Syrians accountable, indicating that this incident may reveal many of the thieves of the revolution.
In this regard, the Syrian Kurdish journalist Sardar Darwish told North-Press that, “This news is painful, and if it is true, it hides the extent of corruption inside the Syrian opposition without supervision over it in conjunction with the monopoly of the revolution.”
“Turkey has become a safe haven for money stolen in the name of the Syrian revolution by these people. It is not enough that they used media institutions for their interests and distorted the values of the media, civil society and politics. Rather, money is also collected and wealth is formed at the expense of the Syrians, where we saw hundreds of them before the cold Turkish-Greek border looking for warmth and support, while the likes of these people are blessed in dwellings that indicate wealth,” Darwish said.
Darwish questioned who will hold individuals like these accountable, saying: “The problem is, who will hold Abu al-Bara’a accountable? There is no revolution that can hold him accountable because he is one of its monopolists. When this man was appointed as director of a channel while he was a militarist, he was dealing with the media institution as if it were a military institution. This is what he used to recite, apart from theft and the amount of false news and incitement, so the Syrians must start accounting, because the likes of these people are many.”
According to activists, Abu al-Bara’a remains a model for many of the Syrian opposition figures who raised money at the expense of the Syrians, and found a thousand methods and ways laundering the funds inside Turkish territory, while the Syrian refugees in Turkey and under the current conditions and the crisis of coronavirus are looking for relief associations or opposition organizations to give them a hand to mitigate the adverse economic and living impacts that have begun to cast a shadow over hundreds of thousands of Syrians.