Extortion of Turkish-backed faction pushed civilian to commit suicide in Syria’s Afrin
ALEPPO COUNTRYSIDE, Syria (North Press) – On Tuesday afternoon, a young man in the Turkish-controlled city of Afrin, northwest Syria, committed a suicide as a result of being exposed to continuous money extortion by Turkish-backed Syrian armed factions.
The young man, Rashid Bilal, who worked in the Chicken Naghait Restaurant in the city of Afrin, shot himself to death.
Bilal committed the suicide after he obtained a weapon from a person, who works in a place near his workplace, and he died immediately, according to an eyewitness.
One of Bilal’s relatives said in a phone call with North Press that before committing the suicide, Bilal mentioned a name of a person called Abu Ja’far Mayer.
This person, and another one called Hassan Shobak, who are affiliated with Turkish-backed al-Jabha al-Shamiya (Levant Front) faction, have been recently threatening him with arrest, he added.
They threaten and extort Bilal under the pretext that a brother of him had previously worked with the Autonomous Administration in Afrin.
The same source said that the blackmailer constantly visited the restaurant where Bilal worked, “and he used to demand money and take meals with high bills without paying.”
It is worth mentioning that Bilal’s brother has been previously arrested five times by the same militants before the family pay a ransom in turn for releasing him and smuggling him outside Afrin, according to the source.
Since the takeover of the Turkish forces and their affiliated armed opposition factions on March 18, 2018, the Afrin region has witnessed the phenomenon of cutting trees which increases with the advent of winter.