التقرير الاسبوعي ـ عفرين تحت الاحتلال ـ 163

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Afrin under occupation (163):

The village of “Za’areh”: Displacement and plundering of property and homes, kidnapping of a woman and arbitrary arrests, testimony about al-Ra’i’s prison, preventing return to “Sheikhurseh” village.

There is media propaganda that accompanies the return of displaced families to their homes in Afrin region, in the context of beautifying and polishing the reality of the occupation, but it avoids talking at least about the hundreds of families in the region that have been prevented from returning to their looted and displaced villages since March 2018, such as the villages of “Darwish and Cheh” – Raju, Shikhurseh-Bulbul, Pavlon and Sinkah-Sharra”, which is part of the facts of the systematic demographic change implemented in the region.

The following are violations and crimes committed:

= Za`areh “Ze´irê” village:

It is located on the southwestern slope of Mount “Girê Mezin”, 2.5 km away from the center of Bulbul district, and it consists of /200/ houses in which there were about /1200/ original Kurdish inhabitants lived, all of them were displaced during the Turkish aggression on Afrin region, and only / 30 families = 180 people / returned to it, and about /170 families = one thousand people / of the recruiters were resettled there most of them are from Ghouta.

The village was bombed by the Turkish army, which led to the almost complete destruction of the house of the citizen “Ahmed Aliko (Abu Maher)” and damage to several other houses; The militia of the “Al-Mu’tasim Division” controls the village and takes the villa of “Mustafa Aliko” as its military headquarters, while the Turkish army takes the villa of “the late Ahmed Miqdad (Abu Ibrahim)” as its military headquarters.

After the displacement of the people and before the returnees arrived, most of the houses were subjected to theft and looting, which affected copper and glass utensils, electrical equipment and the equipment of the photovoltaic power project for lighting the village, consisting of (40/ panels, /4/ inverters and /24/ battery), which was established On April 27, 2017, as a result of collective action, in addition to the theft of cars and agricultural tractors.

Al-Mu’tasim’s militia also seized most of the property of the absentees, and imposed various financial royalties on the previous olive seasons.

On 12/9/2020 AD, it imposed on each Kurdish family remaining in the village a royalty of a thousand dollars, and threatened those who did not pay with expulsion from the village and seizing their home, while the “Ahrar al-Sharqiya” militia seized the villa of “the late Abdul Rahman Rashid (Abu Abdo)” from the people of the village. Za’arih in the village of Kafar Jannah.

The returnees to the village were subjected to various violations, including arrests, insults and provocations, in order to collect money from them and force them to leave the village. Some of the detainees paid a ransom in exchange for their release.

Forest and wild trees, including rare ones, in the mountains surrounding the village, as well as /75/ olive trees belonging to a citizen from the neighboring village of “Sa’aryanli” on the Zaara-Bulbul Road on 28/8/2021 AD, and the forest and perennial trees of the “Sheikh Hamza” shrine were exposed to Over-cutting for logging and coal industry. As well as the shrine and some graves around it to vandalism and exhumation.

On the other hand, at the beginning of 2020, the Turkish government moved the strip and the border wall into Syrian territory at a depth of 300 meters along the foot of the mountain overlooking the village, bypassing the agreed international borders, as it built its separation wall about four years ago on The Syrian side of the area separating the two countries, in order to strengthen the control and consolidation of its army on the plains and villages of the district.

= Kidnapping and arbitrary arrests:

– The fate of the citizen “Khoshnaf Naasan son of Ramzi / 30 years old” from the village of “Hassan” – Raju is still unknown, since he was arrested in late March 2018, shortly after the return of some of the village’s residents during its occupation; It is reported that the occupation authorities arrested 11 citizens, aged between 18-45 years, from the village, in mid-September 2018, and transferred them to the state of Hatay – Turkey, to sentence seven of them to life imprisonment, and four to 12 years imprisonment, on false accusations, extracted under torture, where the Turkish Court of Cassation is currently considering their cases.

– On 12/9/2021 AD, the militias of the “Hamza Division” stationed in the village of “Kimar” – Sherawa and the Canteen of Jabal Al-Ahlam kidnapped the citizen “Arin Muhammad Dali Hassan / 25 years – married for six months and pregnant” from the village” and forcibly disappeared her, and demanded a ransom from her family in exchange for her release, her fate is still unknown. 

It is noteworthy that “Arin” was previously kidnapped by the same militias in February 2020 and forcibly hidden in its headquarters (formerly Asayish building in Horsh al-Mahmoudiya) in the city of Afrin 2020AD, and she was later released from Marateh prison on December 23, 2020.

– On 9/12/2021 AD, the police in Raju district arrested Kamal Jolo, 55 years old, from the village of “Sheikh Muhammad Lee – Kurreh”, and released him after two days of imprisonment and a fine.

– A week ago, the armed checkpoint of the “Sultan Malikshah Division” militias in the village of Chamma – Shara / Sharran arrested the young man “Maher Muhi Al-Din Miqdad / 20 years old” from the village of “Qarah Baba” – Raju district, after returning from Aleppo to the area, with the intention of traveling to Turkey, and asking his relatives for a ransom of / 5,000 / dollars in exchange for his release.

– On 9/14/2021 AD, the police in the Mabata/Maabatli district arrested Sheyar Khalil Abbas from the village of “Brimjeh” and detained him in its center, on charges of having ties with the former Autonomous Administration, to transfer him two days later to a prison in the city of Afrin, she had arrested the citizen “Diliyar Othman” from the same village for two days a month ago; The two had previously been arrested.

= Testimony about the notorious “Al-Rai Prison”:

The Turkish occupation authorities released the largest part of the forcibly disappeared in the prison of the town of Al-Rai – Al-Bab area, which is run by the militia of the “Sultan Murad Division” under the supervision of the Turkish intelligence, after spending 2-3 years in detention and the deterioration of their health conditions as a result of torture and harsh conditions, and with subsequent provisions to implement penalties with financial fines, issued by a mock court in Afrin.

One of the released prisoners (we reserve his name in order to preserve his security situation in Afrin) gave his testimony about the prison and those hidden in it, saying:

– The detainee is made up of several sections in a basement under the building of the central prison in the town of Al-Rai – Al-Bab area.

– Our cell consisted of several rooms, and our number was about a hundred in one place.

– Among the detainees were women and minors.

– The food was very little, of very poor quality, it does not block the eye, and a person could not eat it unless he was forced to.

– Hygiene was so lacking that we stayed without showering and changing clothes from the beginning of the arrest in March 2018 until the end of the same year, until they brought us prisoner uniforms, as our clothes were worn out and some became almost or completely naked, and the sensitive parts of some of us have been revealed, also the stinky smell was emanating from our bodies, and we suffered from many skin diseases (scabies, itching, rashes…etc.).

– Various types of psychological torture that humiliate human dignity (abuse and profanity, sexual harassment of women sometimes…), and all kinds of physical torture, even against minors sometimes or mothers in front of their children at other times; In general, torture against prisoners began after evening prayers in the evening and until dawn in the morning, and the executioners took pleasure whenever they invented a new form of torture and bragged about it, such as beating with hands (slapping and boxing), kicking with the legs on various parts of the body, raising Falaqa on the feet by multi-forms, and hanging From the hands or from the feet, keeping the body dangling and striking it in this position, stinging and burning with cigarette butts or any hot object, to the other types of torture that may come to one’s mind; Sometimes more than one member cooperated in torturing one detainee.

– As a result of severe torture, some had fractures in the hands, legs, head and ribs, and everyone had bruises and cyanosis in different parts of their bodies, and some also suffered from disabilities and chronic diseases.

He said: “What I have mentioned is just the tip of the iceberg, there is a lot more just by mentioning it, a person’s hair may turn gray from his fear, so what do you think about who experienced all of this and experienced it in reality, and also one cannot detail it accurately in a short time, for what happened and is happening in the cells of Al-Ra’i prison requires days and volumes.”

= chaos and disorder:

– On 9/13/2021 AD, the “Civil Defense in Afrin” reported that its teams put out a fire in a forested forest in the village of “Kura / Koran” – Jenderes until dawn the next day, when the fire devoured dozens of trees in large areas.

– On 9/14/2021 AD, the “Civil Defense in Afrin” stated that an explosive device exploded next to a civilian car in the city of Afrin (Al-Ashrafiyah neighborhood), without injuring anyone.

= sporadic violations:

– On 9/11/2021 AD, /35 families/ from the three villages of “Sheikhurseh” (500 houses) – Bulbul district, which had been completely looted and completely displaced since its occupation in March 2018, attempted to return to their homes, where /33/ of them used to live in Neighboring villages and /2/ returned from Aleppo, but the occupation authorities did media pandemonium by bringing the mayors of the villages (Aboudan, Derswan, Marsa) and published some pictures, without allowing the return to the Al-Fawqaniya village that the Turkish army and intelligence take over, and the middle village that the militias and the recruiters take over, only five families were allowed to take possession of their homes in the Tahtani village, on 14/9/2021 AD, it arrested two citizens who were returning with their families from Aleppo, one of them from “Sheikhurseh” and the other from the village of “Aboudan”.

– Within a week, the so-called “Abdo Othman”, the leader of the “Special Forces – Al-Sham Legion” militia in the village of “Burj Abdalo” – Sherawa, imposed and collected financial royalties from the citizens:

Fathi Nabi Eido /5/ thousand dollars, on the pretext of managing the property of his deceased brother Manan.

And “two thousand dollars from Ali Mesto (Abu Shivan), on the pretext of managing the property of his absent brothers.

And “two thousand dollars from Adnan Omar Kilaho, under the pretext of selling him/guaranteeing a pomegranate field for 5/ thousand dollars.

It is reported that “Othman” constantly imposes financial and in-kind royalties on the residents of the village, and he hails from the village of “Kafar Halab” – the western countryside of Aleppo.

There is no alternative to the return of the displaced persons of the Afrin region to their homes, sooner or later, and it is a natural and legitimate right, but it is not imposed on civilians in the absence of a safe environment and measures to protect their lives and provide them with the necessities of life, even relatively, and no one has the right to prevent them.

18/09/2021AD

Media Office – Afrin

The Kurdish Democratic Unity Party in Syria (Yekiti)

Pictures:

– The photovoltaic project to illuminate the village of “Za`areh” – Bulbul before the theft.

– The villa of “the late Ahmed Miqdad” in the village of “Za`areh” – Bulbul, before it was made a military headquarters by the Turkish army.

– A perennial oak tree in the shrine of “Sheikh Hamza” – Bulbul, before and after cutting.

– The citizen forcibly disappeared since March 2018, “Khoshnaf Naasan son of Ramzi, 30 years old”, from the village of “Hassan” – Raju.

– The kidnapped citizen, “Arin Muhammad Dali Hassan, 25 years old”, from the village of “Kimar” – Sherawa.

– Al-Ra’i Central Prison – Al-Bab District.

– A fire in a forest in the vicinity of the village of “Kura / Koran” – Jenderes.

-The so-called “Abdo Othman” is the leader of the “Special Forces – Al-Sham Legion” militia in the village of “Burj Abdalo” – Sherawa.

Translated by Europe’s Organization of Democratic Unity Kurdish Party in Syria (Yekîti)

yekiti