SNA factions use quake to expand criminal activity in NW Syria

QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Turkish-backed opposition factions, also known as Syrian National Army (SNA), are using the earthquake in the northern countryside of Syria’s Aleppo to expand their criminal activities there, such as stealing, appropriating property, imposing taxes, racial discrimination, demographic change, and terrorizing civilians.

The factions create new crises for the locals and make it difficult for them to recover psychologically and financially from the earthquake.

The Monitoring and Documentation Department of North Press has compiled this report to showcase issues of humanitarian concern in the northern countryside of Aleppo, recorded, documented, and analyzed based on exclusive sources.

This report sheds light on the suffering of locals and the constant violation of their basic rights by SNA factions since 2018, when they took control of the Afrin region following a Turkish invasion.

Earthquake is a chance for funding

In areas under the control of the SNA in northern Aleppo, people are resentful and compain about not receiving aid or tents to shelter them. Fingers have been pointed at factions and some local councils over the seizure of aid and transporting it to private warehouses. This department has monitored and documented these accusations after interviewing a number of locals and activists in the region.

A source close to the opposition said that the factions keep finding new ways to seize aid sent to affected people in quake-devastated areas. The source said that SNA factions force NGOs operating in the region to reserve more than 100 shares of each type of aid sent to Jindires, in the Afrin region, to be delivered to their militants later.

The Sham Legion, affiliated with the SNA, placed its members stationed in the towns of Darat Izza and Atarib, in the west of Aleppo, under the control of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS, formerly al-Nusra Front), to receive humanitarian aid and food parcels in Jindires, the source added.

Militants of Sultan Suleiman Shah Division (also known as Amshat), affiliated with the SNA, seized humanitarian aid provided by the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) to the town of Jindires and transferred it to warehouses in the village of Kurzaileh, in the Sherawa district of Afrin. The faction did not allow the organizations to distribute the aid and forced them to hand it over to them under the pretext that its militants would handle the distribution process.

The SNA’s Jaysh al-Sharqiyah, the Sham Legion, and Amshat colluded with Jindires’ local council in order to add the names of their gunmen to the lists of earthquake-affected people, making them eligible to receive humanitarian aid and food parcels.

A source from the town of Bulbul, north of Afrin, told North Press that the local council affiliated with Turkey hid tents provided to earthquake-affected people in warehouses instead of distributing them.

People in the council responsible for distributing aid are selling tents and other items, according to a reliable source.

The factions seize the relief aid meant for quake survivors or distribute them to their members to be sold later. Aid is considered an additional income for those factions, along with royalties imposed on civilians and humanitarian organizations entering areas under their control.

According to local sources, the factions impose taxes on aid convoys. The Amshat faction, for example, imposed a $1,000 tax on each truck of the aid convoy sent by the KRI, which consisted of 14 trucks, as well as on each returnee wishing to enter their hometowns.

New demographic change

“We will not get out of our destroyed houses, we will install tents in backyards or at the front doors, but we will not get out from them.” These were the words of residents of the city of Jindires when they were asked to evacuate their damaged houses.

The residents do so fearing that their destroyed houses may be restored by the SNA factions and their families may be settled there in case they left the houses. The residents of the area still remember the scene where they were forcibly displaced, as the SNA factions built settlements on the lands of the civilians and settled other people there.

Turkey has launched three invasion into northern and northeastern Syria. In 2016, it mounted an incursion into Jarablus and al-Bab. Two years later, it occupied the Afrin region. In 2019, the cities of Sere Kaniye and Tel Abyad were invaded. 

Turkey forcibly brought thousands of IDPs form other Syrian regions and settled them in the original population’s houses in Afrin, Sere Kaniye and Tel Abyad.

The SNA factions are implementing a new demographic change plan in those areas, especially the Kurdish-majority ones, which are funded by Turkey and other countries, according to the department.

The factions destroy buildings indiscriminately under the pretext that they are at risk of collapse without consulting specialized people, taking into consideration peacekeeping rules and the safety of civilians and their right to housing, or obtaining the approval of the houses’ owners.

A resident of Jindires told North Press that his house and shop have not been damaged by the quake, but he had to leave them and when he came back, he found that they had been demolished without warning.

The department could document that 13 shops and more than five buildings were destroyed indiscriminately in Afrin and Idlib. Following such incidents, the Qatar Charity announced the start of the first phase of construction on a settlement called ‘al-Karama’ within the framework of reconstructing disaster areas, especially in the Jindires district.

Qatar, Kuwait and Palestine have constructed more than 50 settlements in the northern countryside of Aleppo since 2018 and settled families of the SNA and Syrian refugees who were forcibly deported from Turkey there at the expense of the original residents.

How to describe the SNA’s actions?

All the actions that are committed by the SNA factions against civilians violate their rights and they amount to war crimes.

According to International Humanitarian Law (IHL), objects used in humanitarian relief operations, such as food, medicine, buildings, materials and vehicles are civilian objects and must be respected and protected. It is forbidden to destroy, steal or loot these objects, and it is also forbidden to harass or intimidate workers in the field of humanitarian aid.

According to the right to humanitarian assistance, every person has the right to obtain humanitarian assistance that guarantees them their rights to health and protection from any brutal or humiliating treatment, and other rights necessary to their survival, well-being and protection in urgent cases.

The indiscriminate and unplanned destruction of homes can be considered forced displacement, a violation of the rights of civilians to adequate housing, and a violation according to IHL, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966.

Impunity must end and the perpetrators must be held accountable, based on these laws, and the actions committed by the SNA factions against civilians should be taken into account, and they should be condemned based on the IHL and human rights laws, which insist that every person has the right to a decent life, shelter, food and health care.