ALEPPO, Syria (North Press) – By paying royalties to armed groups’ leaders while they were in the northern countryside of Aleppo between 2012 and 2020, Ghassan Sharbati, a resident of Kafr Hamrah north of Aleppo and owner of a textile factory in the area, managed to maintain his facility.
He preferred paying large sums to the group leaders over the theft and dismantling of factories near his facility.
The entry of Syrian government forces and controlling the area about a year and a half ago caused great chaos and insecurity, according to Sharbati.
“The moment they entered, some government military agencies carried out random looting and dismantling, which caused the theft of machines from my lab and the destruction of other machines,” he said.
There are also facilities held by military groups affiliated with the government whose owners are charged with monthly taxes.
“We called on the government, security and administrative agencies to preserve all factories, laboratories and workshops because of their importance in supporting Aleppo’s industry and improving the economy, in addition to providing job opportunities for thousands,” he added.
“But unfortunately, these agencies did not fulfill their duty to maintain security and protect facilities that are no less important than the city of Sheikh Najjar,” he said.
There are more than 150 facilities and factories in Kafr Hamrah, all of which are close to the Highway road linking Syria with Turkey, according to Sharbati.
Looted factories
Since the outbreak of the crisis in the northern countryside of Aleppo and the control of the armed groups over most of the areas there, factories and industrial facilities have been subjected to looting and dismantling of equipment and their transfer to the Turkish interior by armed groups.
The number of looted factories peaked in 2013, reaching about 1,000, according to the Federation of Syrian Chambers of Industry.
At that time, Damascus sent two letters to the Security Council and the United Nations, and considered Turkey’s behavior as acts of piracy and cross-border crimes that required an international response.
Damascus demanded that Turkey be obliged to return the factories to their owners and to pay compensation for the damages they sustained.
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg accepted a complaint filed against the Turkish Prime Minister on April 22, 2014, on charges including involvement in facilitating the theft of Aleppo’s factories and involvement in the destruction of the infrastructure of the Syrian economy.
According to the memorandum of the Syrian Ministry of Industry, at the time, the number of facilities affected by theft cases reached 720, and the total amount lost was estimated at 196 billion Syrian pounds.
Out of 150 factories and facilities located along the road between Aleppo and its northern countryside, only 30 facilities were spared from destruction and looting.
Protection money
In 2013, the factory of Nour el-Din Attar (pseudonym), owner of a thread-dying plant near the town of Hayyan in the northern countryside of Aleppo, was robbed by an armed group called Shuhada’ Badr (Badr Martyrs).
To retrieve some of the machines, Attar had to pay 70 million SYP, a large sum in those days.
“The machines remained somewhat preserved for years, but in return for a monthly payment I pay to the gunmen of the same group, they used my factory as their headquarters,” Attar said.
With the entry of Syrian government forces into the town of Hayyan last year, the owner of the factory was forced to agree with pro-government armed men from the same town to pay a sum of one million pounds per month to protect the factory and a smaller facility adjacent to it.
“I somewhat preserved my factory from the destruction and theft that affected the rest of the factories,” he said.
“In the current situation, it is not possible to restart the factory in light of the deteriorating security and economic conditions, especially in my factory area,” he said.
Government security services are absent from the area, in addition to the lack of any services. The area belongs to militias loyal to the government or what is known as the auxiliary forces.
Industry migration
Abdulghafour al-Sabouni, owner of a plastic manufacturing plant in the northern countryside of Aleppo near the town of Bayanoun, said, “Many of the factory owners, including me, have suffered severe losses and are still experiencing them.”
“The government has not taken any action to stop the looting of the rest of the factories, nor has it prepared industrial infrastructure and helped the industrialists, at least in terms of service and security, to activate their facilities,” he added.