Turkey’s SNA faction cuts, burns olive trees in Syria’s Afrin

AFRIN, Syria (North Press) – Hamaz Division, an armed faction within the Turkish-backed opposition also known the Syrian National Army (SNA), cut down 170 olive trees in Afrin region in northwestern Syria, a local source said on Thursday.

The source added that Abu Malek al-Deiri and Abu Shihab Zaiter, two leaders within the Hamza Division, supervised cutting down the 170 olive trees in the village of Qatmah in the northeast of the city of Afrin.

The two SNA leaders have built a depot to log trees in the village of Maryamin, east of Afrin city, and then sell them as firewood, the source added.

Since the occupation of the Kurdish-majority city of Afrin and its 366 surrounding towns and villages by the Turkish forces and the SNA factions in “Olive Branch Operation” in 2018, they have been logging trees, and clearing vast lands, turning green spaces into barren lands. 

Last week, the Sham Legion (Faylaq al-Sham), an SNA faction, deliberately set fire to forests in the town of Rajo in the north of Afrin to collect the remnants and sell as charcoal, locals said. 

On March 21, 2023, a report by PAX, a Dutch peace initiative, said that forest cover in parts of the Turkish-occupied region of Afrin may have decreased by about 57 percent since 2018. 

The report highlighted deforestation across Syria’s western regions may have decreased by 20-30 percent since 2011.

By Siwar Hamo