IDLIB, Syria (North Press) – Ahmad Haj Ibrahim, a man in his thirties, still regularly seeks treatment at the hospital of Afrin, northwest Syria, since he was shot on August 7, 2022, while heading to work in the city of Azaz, north of Syria’s Aleppo, controlled by Turkish-backed armed opposition factions, aka Syrian National Army (SNA).
The injury was a key reason for the dramatic shift in his life, especially since it led to the loss of his job, which had provided for his family. “This happened just because I posted on Facebook about the violations of the al-Hamzat faction [Hamza Division], affiliated with the SNA, that robbed people at checkpoints and imposed fees on others,” Haj Ibrahim told North Press.
The IDP, who hails from the countryside of Hama, central west Syria, and lives in Afrin, said, “everyone achieved freedom except the people who demanded it in 2011 and sacrificed thousands of lives to achieve it.”
“Same as the Regime”
“I knew very well that the factions in north Syria do not tolerate those who expose and reveal their violations or even criticize them, regardless of what it is. They are the same as al-Assad’s regime. Even so, my father always taught us not to remain silent in the face of injustice,” he said.
The Hamza Division has imposed royalties on merchants who transported their goods passing through their checkpoints and cut down trees in Afrin forests and transported them to markets to sell them as firewood. “Working as a distributor of food goods to shops, I was able to see dozens of other violations as I roamed between villages,” he added.
Haj Ibrahim could not keep silent anymore and decided, after contemplation, to post about these violations carried out by Hamza Division. “Indeed, I criticized without being offensive, the act of imposing royalties on merchandise-transporting vehicles passing through Hamza Division checkpoints in Afrin and its countryside,” he said.
Immediately, “people started to insult me and swear at me in the comments. One person said, ‘you will regret the day you were born.’ In fact, I wanted to delete the post, but after I saw this comment, I changed my mind and determined to continue what I had started.”
Following dozens of threats, Haj Ibrahim was shot at by three masked individuals driving a 4WD on the road to the town of Rajo, in northwest Afrin. Two bullets hit his waist, and three hit his left leg, which was later amputated.
“The perpetrators did not only shoot me but also wrote to me on WhatsApp after 15 days to gloat and said, ‘This is a small lesson for you to not criticize your masters in the future,'” he added.
Square one
Khaled al-Hussein, 29, a college student living in Idlib Governorate, northwest Syria, told North Press, “after 12 years of revolution, it seems we are still at square one, with only a slight change in the limit and place of freedom.”
“The freedom we got applies to private conversations. The freedom of speech and press are still under censorship, though there has been some improvement in the way censorship officers deal with activists,” he added.
One day, al-Hussein was surprised to receive a message on WhatsApp “asking me to delete a post on Facebook. At first, I did not pay attention, but deleted the post fearing the repercussions.”
The post “did not mention any political or military figure but included a constructive criticism about the reality of markets in Idlib and how the [HTS-linked] Salvation Government dealt through its executive institutes with the irregularities,” al-Hussein noted.
According to al-Hussein, “the freedom for which we demonstrated does not include the freedom to speak freely. There are many red lines which are determined by content surveyors, mostly in media, as they are more influential and have followers and an audience.”
Youssef al-Youssef, 28, a pseudonym for an IDP from the countryside of Homs Governorate, central Syria, living in the countryside of Idlib, told of the intimidation which followed a post he wrote on Facebook.
“One supporter of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS – formerly al-Nusra Front) saw my post on Facebook criticizing the HTS’s civilian wing, the Salvation Government, in Idlib for setting up lights on a road and leaving others without lights, and for establishing beautiful parks and roundabouts without caring for the people in camps or providing assistance instead of those parks that do not relieve them from hunger,” he said.
“[The supporter] started to insult and curse me as if I criticized him personally. He abruptly and disrespectfully told me to ‘delete the post and stop being foolish’,” he added. “I had no choice but to delete the post fearing its repercussions, especially after we heard that many people were arrested for merely criticizing the HTS and other factions in the region.”