AFRIN, Syria (North Press) – Syria’s northern city of Afrin is considered another source of funding for Turkish-backed armed opposition groups who dominate city’s properties and shops.
Since Turkey and Turkish-backed groups launched their theOperation Olive Branch on January 21, 2018, resulting in their control of the Kurdish-majority region, there have been widespread accusations of war crimes, including intentional ethnic cleansing.
After Turkey occupied Afrin, it settled thousands of Syrian Arabs there who been displaced from other areas in the country during offensives conducted by the Syrian government.
As thousands of Kurds from the city remain displaced from their homes, the demography of Afrin was substantially altered by Turkey and its affiliated armed groups.
In a recent Pentagon Inspector General (IG) report covering the first quarter of 2020, the US Department of State said it is concerned about reports that Turkish-backed groups “may have engaged in violations of the law of armed conflict in northeast Syria.”
A new monthly report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) for June detailed large-scale rights abuses in areas under Turkish control, such as Afrin.
Turkish-backed forces and the Turkish military took vast amounts of territory in northern Syria during Operation Euphrates Shield (August 2016 – March 2017) and Operation Olive Branch (January – March 2018) to attempt to prevent Syrian Kurds from creating an autonomous region.
As a result of these operations and agreements with Russia and Syria, Turkey now controls a large contiguous area from Jarabulus to Idlib.
According to the report, a substantial amount of looted property is believed to have been sold in marketplaces in Azaz.
Many civilians seeking to return to their homes have found them occupied by these fighters and their families, who have refused to vacate them and return them to their rightful owners.
This prompted the residents of the area to leave, fearing the increase in the ambitions of these factions, so that they would not have to pay royalties for staying in their homes.
Tawfiq Dilo, displaced from Afrin, said that the Eastern Army (Jaysh al-Sharqiya) had taken over his shops, and he was threatened by force to hand over the keys of the three shops to the military commander of Eastern Army called Abu Khawla under threat of death.
He told North Press that this was why he fled from the region with his wife and daughter to northeastern Syria, escaping from chaotic security conditions, a general absence of the rule of law, and repeated cases of kidnappings, abductions, torture, extortion, and assassinations.
Most of the residents of Afrin were subjected to displacement during the invasion of Afrin by the Turkish army and the armed factions affiliated with it in March 2018.
Most fled towards the northern countryside of Aleppo or the Autonomous Administration areas in North and East Syria (AANES) to escape the violations of the multiple factions against them.
Yasser al-Omar (pseudonym), from Afrin, said that most of the seized shops belonged to Afrin’s original residents who were forcibly displaced from their homes.
He added, “The factions sold some of their shops at prices ranging from one thousand to two thousand US dollars, depending on the area and location of the shop.”
“Some of them were content to rent them to Ghouta settlers at prices varying between 50-150 USD per month.”
A member of the Eastern Army who refused to be named told North Press that all the shops and homes of those who participated in the fighting against Turkish-backed opposition groups in 2018 were a trophy that they had the right to dispose of as they like.
“But the greed of the army commanders prevented most of the members from benefiting from the returns of these shops, under the pretext of supporting the faction or strengthening it, which most of the members are certain is a pure lie,” he concluded.