QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – For the past few years, Syrian government security forces have besieged Sheikh Maqsoud and al-Ashrafiyeh, two semi-autonomous Kurdish-majority neighborhoods in Aleppo city. Yet in the past few weeks, the security forces have tightened the noose around the hilltop locality, home to just under 100,000 people, forcing residents to cough up their savings or face arrest. A source from within the state security forces, speaking exclusively to North Press, says the government is desperate for cash.
The source, who wished to remain anonymous, says the State Security forces arrest and fine anyone crossing through checkpoints from Sheikh Maqsoud and al-Ashrafiyeh to government-held Aleppo with more than 150,000 SYP ($16,70). Traders are allowed to carry only one million Syrian pounds ($111).
But anyone found with more than that sum is transferred to the Damascus-based 251 General Intelligence Branch (or al-Khatib branch), a US-sanctioned department. The 251 Branch runs the al-Khatib prison in Damascus, where torture is regularly employed. One former leader, Anwar Raslan, was convicted of crimes against humanity in Germany. According to the source, Branch 251 is under the supervision of Asma al-Assad, the wife of the Syrian president.
Detainees at this branch are pressed to hand over “huge sums,” says the source, “sometimes as much as 75 or 100 million SYP ($8,300-11,100).”
Sheikh Maqsoud and al-Ashrafiyeh are found in the north of Aleppo city. They are separated from government-controlled parts of the city through three main state security checkpoints in the south. The crossings are manned by a number of different government departments, North Press’ source explains, including the State Security Branch, Criminal Security, the Fourth Division, Political Security, Air Intelligence, and Military Intelligence. Since 2013, members of the Fourth Division have encircled the neighborhoods.
According to Afrin Post, a local paper, the government has recently reinforced these positions in order to conduct searches on all inbound cars. Female security officers have also been hired to search women’s possessions.
The government also established additional checkpoints on the road between Sheikh Maqsoud and Shahba, another autonomous region, home to around 65,000 Kurdish IDPs from Afrin (and another 25,000 locals). Those wishing to travel between both regions must hand over up to 10,000 SYP ($1,10) to pass through at least five government checkpoints.
The aim, the government source says, is “to try to transfer all remittances from Sheikh Maqsoud to the Central Bank of Syria in Damascus under the pretext of helping the Syrian economy and to stop the devaluation against the dollar … they want to prevent neighborhoods residents from dealing in non-Syrian currencies by transferring their Syrian pounds to dollars.”
Nevertheless, “several senior officers in the government are doing the same,” the source adds.
Dealing in the US greenback is officially outlawed by the government in Damascus. Yet its use is widespread. Faced with an economy in tatters after over twelve years of war, many families across Syria depend on foreign currency remittances from relatives who escaped abroad. The Syrian pounds, meanwhile, has lost 86% percent of its value in three years.
About more than money
The government looting is about more than the economy, however. In addition to confiscating residents’ currency, state security forces have also imposed a crippling embargo on the neighborhoods. Basic goods, diesel fuel and even relief aid have been prevented from passing government checkpoints. Locals sit largely in the dark, as electricity has been cut to two hours a day and there is nothing to feed generators with. “[The security forces] are tightening the social and economic screws on the neighborhood,” North Press’ contact says.
Amnesty International released a report in January, calling the government’s actions “abhorrent” and “human rights violations.” Less than month later, when two destructive earthquakes rocked the region on February 6, government forces prevented a Kurdish Red Crescent convoy from reaching the affected neighborhoods for over a week. They had demanded half of the aid supplies.
It is a recurring government strategy. “The same policy [of embargo], however, that was used against Afrin is the same one used against Shahba,” says Hevin Reshid, co-chair of the Economic and Agriculture board of Afrin and Shahba Canton in a new Rojva Information Center report on the region. Before the Turkish invasion in 2018, when the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration controlled Afrin, the government had subjected to a similar encirclement. “Of course, they have aims and purposes with this policy … The aim of this is to displace people once again, whether Afrin people or those from Shehba.”
Like in Sheikh Maqsoud and al-Ashrafiyeh, government forces have pressed residents in Shahba. Local officials say state security forces demand half of everything sent to the region, including medical supplies. Prices for even the most basic goods can be 50% higher than in the rest of northeast Syria, which is also administered by the AANES. Fuel shortages are ever-present.
In Sheikh Maqsoud, a resident told Amnesty International that, “smugglers, who are usually government forces at the checkpoints, are charging around 2,400,000 Syrian pounds [around $350] for 220 litres [of fuel] … Before the blockade, we bought that amount for 75,000 Syrian pounds [$110], which was affordable.”
The government does not just want to punish the regions beyond its control, which have become a safe haven for people escaping government violence. Amnesty reports that a blockade in August “coincided with the start of normalization talks between Türkiye [sic] and Syria, both staunch opponents of the AANES rule in north-east Syria.”
High-level bilateral talks have restarted in past months. The defense ministers of Syria, Turkey, Russia and Iran met in Moscow on May 10. “Whenever there are new alliances and agreements between the countries active in the Syrian crisis, we find that the severity of the siege on the besieged areas … increase,” Afrin and Shehba’s deputy co-chair said in a recent interview.