Afrin under occupation (149)

التقرير الاسبوعي ـ عفرين تحت الاحتلال ـ 149

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Afrin under occupation (149):

The violated village of “Marateh”, vandalism and theft of the monuments of Saint Maron and Cyrus, kidnappings, arrests, assaults on the elderly, chaos and violations

A released detainee told us that the Turkish occupation authorities took a captive Kurdish young man to the terrifying Al-Rai prison in April 2018, he was wounded in the foot and without treatment, as his wound became infected and worms began to appear in it, the young man was forced to collect his urine in a vial and pour it on the wound to combat it; This is one of the tragic images of the Afrin disaster; Here is what we documented of violations and crimes:

= Marateh village:

It is 5 km away from the city center of Afrin, and it consists of about 500 houses, in which were about two thousand original Kurdish residents.

After the occupation, about 1,100 people remained, and about 750 people were resettled there.

During the war, two houses belonging to the citizens, “Ibrahim Ahmed Seydou and Ahmed Jarnaz”, were destroyed, and during the control of the “Al-Hamzat Division” militias on the village they seized /150/ houses and stole all their contents, and took the houses of “Muhammad Nour Abdullah, Salah Othman” as military headquarters. in addition, all cables, equipment and poles of the electricity and public landline networks, agricultural machinery and two tractors belonging to “Hussein Kilij and Ibrahim Murad Sido” and a microbus for “Mohammed Ali Haido”, and /4/ motorcycles belonging to “Mohammed Ibrahim, Saeed Sheikh Rashid, Sherif Jamil, Bassam Hassan”, were also stolen.

The residents of the village were subjected to various types of violations, including arbitrary arrests of dozens of its residents during three years, accompanied by insults, torture, and the imposition of ransoms or financial fines, where the fate of these detainees, “Abdo Hanan Omar / 45 / years old, Khoshnaf Qilij Omar / 30 / years old”, Adnan Jenji bin Adnan / 20 / years old” who were forcibly disappeared is still unknown, and the young citizen “Joan Muhammad Jaqali / 35 / years” has been missing for more than more than Three years.

Among the villagers, the citizen “Muhammad Hussein Alo / 65 / years old” was martyred on 12/3/2018 AD in his field near the irrigation canal, and “Ahmed Sheikh Deh Do son of Jamal / 35 years old”, on Tuesday afternoon, April 28, 2020, as a result of a large explosion in front of the popular market in Rajo Street in Afrin, and “Issa Hussein / 17 / years old” on 24/6/2020 AD, as a result of detonating an explosive device in a garbage container in the Mahmoudiyah neighborhood – Afrin.

In addition to seizing about / 7/ thousand olive trees belonging to “Fawzi Bakr, Muhammad Hussein, Bakr Sidou, Anwar Othman.”

The total royalties imposed by the militias on olive seasons amount to 50% of the production, as well as /50/ Dollar as a tax for drilling any artesian well, and / 5 / thousand SP per month for each agricultural tractor, and / 12 / thousand SP per month for Every shop/shop.

The militias cut down 15 olive trees for “Mustafa Omo” from the trunk, and three perennial oak trees that served as blessed shrines, and set fire to thousands of forest trees in the vicinity of the village, in addition to the overgrazing of sheep flocks between fields and agricultural lands, and it also dug the Marateh hill with heavy machinery and stole valuable antiquities from it, and destroyed some of the graves of the village.

= Monuments of Saint Maron and Cyrus:

– A local source confirmed that the castle of “Kaloti” – Shirawa was bombed and the rest of its walls were damaged during the Turkish army’s targeting of the village on the night of 5/6/2021 AD, which also resulted in the death of a girl and the wounding of others, as well as the destruction of houses located 300 meters away to the west of the village, which was built in the first century AD and was a church during the reign of Saint Maron, and which is registered in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Since the beginning of June, the “Elite Army” militia and its leader, “Brigadier Moataz Raslan”, returned to excavate and raze the site of “Nabi Hori Siros” and its surroundings, and the militias of the “Sultan Murad Division” and its leader “Fahim Issa” re-dug the Derswan hill located two kilometers west of the village in broad daylight, using heavy machinery and behind earthen berms to excavate antiquities, and stole them under the supervision of Turkish intelligence where the Turkish army has a base near the site of Syros.

It is noteworthy that we wrote in several reports about the violations that affected the site, and that the Idlib Antiquities Center / the opposition, after an inspection tour of a specialized team from it, published on July 13, 2018 a report on damage to the site in detail and with pictures; the so called “Muhammad As’ad Alloush – antiquities dealer” from Idlib published in mid-November 2019 on his Facebook page pictures of mosaic panels exposed and removed from the dirt while they are on the ground, and he says in one of his responses to the comments (Afrin by Nabi Hori), but this publication was deleted after causing a media uproar about it, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had previously published a video clip showing the dredging and excavation operations affecting the site; Moreover, the Turkish authorities restored a mosque and a Roman pyramidal burial shrine/tomb at the site, to show it as an Ottoman monument and landmark, after (tampering with the shrine, vandalizing its mausoleum, excavating its floor and replacing it with modern tiles, replacing the old mausoleum with a modern one, as well as vandalizing the Roman house that was uncovered, restored and rebuilt by The Syrian-Lebanese mission in the period between 2006-2011, according to the report of the Idlib Antiquities Center / the opposition published on July 13, 2018 AD), the theft of its contents, excavation of its yard and uprooting of trees by militias during the invasion of the area in March 2018 AD; The site of Syros is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The encroachments that have occurred and are still taking place on all archaeological sites and hills in Afrin region, in a widespread and systematic manner during more than three years, are a grave violation of the Hague Conventions 1907 and 1954, and Protocols I and II 1977 AD additional to the four Geneva Conventions, and bear its responsibility in the first place, Turkey, as it occupied the region with its army and imposed its effective control over it.

= Kidnapping and arbitrary arrests:

– On May 27, 2021 AD, the “Military Police” checkpoint at the Clock Tower in Azaz city arrested the two brothers “Ali / 30 / years old and Rashid / 27 / the tow son of Mustafa Rasho”, from the people of the village of “Derswan” – Shara / Sharran, and then released them after a week of severe torture and a fine of 1,000 Turkish liras was imposed on each one, and their families showed the two decisions to release them to Afrin Court in a previous arrest operation.

– On 1/6/2021 AD, Turkish intelligence arrested the young man, Dersim Hamo son of Muhammad Ali, from the village of “Chieh / Al-Jabaliya” – Rajo and residing in the village of “Afraz” – Mabata, on charges of having relations with the former Autonomous Administration, and took him to the “Police” station Rajo,” to be subjected to interrogation under torture for more than a week, then was transferred to “Marateh” prison in Afrin, knowing that he was previously arrested in April 2018.

– On 2/6/2021 AD, the young man, “Mohammed Khalil Ibish” from the village of “Iska”-Shirawa, was arrested by the “Turendeh village” military checkpoint at the southern entrance to Afrin, and he was arrested on a previous time by the militias of “Faylaq al-Sham”.

– On 6/6/2021 AD, the “Ahrar al-Sharqiya” militia kidnapped the citizens “Muhammad Ahmed Brim, Bahri Khalil Brim, Abdo Faeq, Sheikh Hassan Dinek” from the people of the village of Miske Fawqani, although the latter two returned from Turkey to the village and they were not there during the Autonomous Administration She took them to her prison in the village of “Aghjaleh”, where she released three of them after two days, and the young man “Muhammad Ahmed Prem” on Friday 11/6/2021 AD, after chapters of torture and the imposition of a ransom on them.

– The occupation authorities in the city of Afrin arrested Abdo Jamil Qurta, 30, from the village of Shiltaateh – Shara/Sharran, for a month, and released him at the beginning of this June.

– At seven in the morning of 6/6/2021 AD, an armed group intercepted the road of the citizen “Ahmed Rashid Daoud / 52 / years old” from the village of “Afraz” – Mabata / Maabatli, near the junction of the village of “Joqeh” – Rajo Road, while he was going by motorcycle from Afrin to the village with the intention of working between his olive fields, and forced him to return to Afrin, claiming that he was wanted by the “military police”, and because they was not able to take him to the olive fields or to a secondary road in order to eliminate him or kidnap him, they forced him to stand and shot him in the leg and hit his head with magazine and rifle heels, and they fled despite the crowded road with pedestrians and cars, as no one dared to deter the attackers or arrest them, the victim was taken to the “military” hospital and then to Bab al-Hawa Hospital for surgery and treatment.

The occupation authorities also released:

– On 7/6/2021, the citizen “Hanan Ali Arfu” from the village of “Qibareh” – Afrin, after three years and three months of detention and enforced disappearance.

– On 3/6/2021 AD, the citizen “Abidin Ali Hamo / 30 / years old” from the village of “Shiltaateh” – Shara / Sharran after the arrest of three and a quarter year; On June 4, 2021 AD, the citizen “Horik Rashid Selo / 30 years old” from the same village, after being arrested for three years and a month and a half, spent most of the two periods of their detention forcibly hidden in Al-Ra’i prison – Al-Bab area.

= chaos and disorder:

– A local source confirmed that /9/ members of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (Jabhat al-Nusra), on 2/6/2021 AD, were wandering in the market of the town of Rajo, then they went to the headquarters of the “Local Council” loyal to Turkey to issue them identification cards such as those imposed on the residents of the area and those brought to it.

– On 7/6/2021 AD, a video was published showing a gunman assaulting a “pharmacist” and threatening him with weapons, this happened inside the “Al-Hakim” pharmacy in the city of Afrin, according to several local media sources, followed by the publication of another video clip on making an investigation by the “military police” arresting the aggressor and interrogating him in a scandalous play, we mention that there are many similar daily cases that occur with the Kurds in the city and its villages, and with the owners of shops, groceries, pharmacies and others, whether they are insults, or imposing royalties, or stealing goods, or buying with debt without being payed, or doing works without being payed, the “aggressed” Kurds do not dare to file complaints or publish videos of the incident, and if they do, the occupation authorities do not hold the aggressors to account, and at best they reconcile at the expense of the abused.

It is reported that there is a wide demand by the militants to buy “Sudafed, tramadol, a-bioglobin” and other “high” drugs from pharmacies, which often get into trouble with those who want them because these pills are usually sold only with a prescription.

– On 7/6/2021 AD, one of the shells fired by the Turkish army from its position near the town of “Jalameh” towards Mount Lilon fell on a tent west of the village of “Iska” – Sherawa, inhabited by immigrants from the town of Ainjara – the western countryside of Aleppo, which led to the killing of the daughter of “Rajab Juma’a”, and material damages.

– On Tuesday morning, June 8, 2021 AD, a taxi was detonated with an explosive device on Al-Jami Street in the Mahmoudiyah neighborhood – Afrin, causing material damage but no injuries, as local media sources confirmed that, the car belongs to the leader of the “Ahrar al-Sharqiya” militia in the neighborhood called “Abu Omar Sharqiya”, and such operations are repeated there.

= Other violations:

– Last week, the militia of the “Samarkand Brigade”, which controls the town of “Kafar Safra”, assaulted and severely beat Najib Esso, 50, and threw his body in the yard of his house because of his refusal to hand over a basement belonging to him which he uses as a warehouse for his home and livestock supplies to them.

– At four o’clock in the morning of Monday, June 7, 2021 AD, masked gunmen stormed the house of the elderly Kurdish “Ahmed Hamo son of Hassan / 77 years old” in the city of Jenderes from the village of “Arandeh”-Sheikh Al-Hadid, and they tied his wife “Fahima/75/years” and gagged her while she was performing ablution, and they severely beat the husband after he was tied up and gagged as well, and stole from the house gold jewelry, the wife’s earrings, her wristwatch, sums of money and olive oil, in a video posted on social media, “Hamo” stated that he had to give them the keys to the doors of his house because of torture, and that after five days he still suffers from bruises and pain, and that the thieves stole everything that was valuable from the house, noting that the militias’ presence is heavy in the vicinity of his house.

– Since the militias of the “North Brigade” fabricated the accusation of assaulting the women of the settlers against the citizen “Khaled Naasan” in the village of “Afraz” – Mabata / Mabatli, they raided his house on the night of 5/5/2021 AD, arrested and beat a number of village men, and expelled the family of Khaled and his “ill brother with his elder father” and “Younis Ahmed’s family residing in his sister’s house”, and housing three settlers families in their three houses, without returning them to their owners so far despite repeated promises, as well as the house of “Shaaban Naasan” brother of Khaled, who was previously captured.

– A local source confirmed that the “Al-Sham Legion” militia had stolen all the machinery and equipment of an olive press in the village of “Duraquliah-Sharra/Sharran” belonging to the citizen “Salah al-Din Sidoarsh” from the people of the village of “Aboudan” since spring of 2018, and after “Sido” recently learned that his equipment is located in another place in the district and is being operated by the leaders of these militias, he tries to file complaints with the occupation authorities in order to retrieve it, but he is afraid of being attacked because of that.

= In the context of efforts to encourage new recruits to own property and consolidate settlement, traders from the town of Ainjara – western Aleppo countryside purchased an olive field (450 trees) belonging to the citizen “Khalil Muhammad Haj Abdo” from the town of “Kafar Safra, located next to the village of “Yalanquz and Kafar Safra” – Jenderes, at a price of $450 per tree, and they announced that it would be divided into real estate designated for construction and sold it at a price of $8 per square meter.

This is the “safe zone “! which Erdogan, his party, his followers from the Syrian-Brotherhood coalition, mercenary militias, sheikhs and prosecutors of the revolution talked about, on the eve of their invasion of Afrin region, and still there is no security or stability, generalized corruption, demographic change, war crimes and other crimes against humanity, which are systematic. and extensive.

12/06/2021AD

Media Office – Afrin

The Kurdish Democratic Unity Party in Syria (Yekiti)

Pictures:

– Marateh village – Afrin.

– Kaluta Castle, bombarded by the Turkish army on 5/6/2021 AD.

– Excavations of the “Nabi Hori” site.

– Archaeological hill “Dirsawan” – Shara, before excavation and bulldozing.

– The Roman shrine at the site of “Nabi Hori” before and after the occupation.

– Moataz Raslan, leader of the Elite Army, and Fahim Issa, leader of the Sultan Murad Division.

– The elderly Kurdish man, Ahmed Hamo son of Hassan, a photo from a video clip filmed at his home in Jenderes.

– Exploding a taxi in the Mahmoudiyah neighborhood, 6/8/2021 AD.