Translation: Geostrategic Studies Team
The village of “Za’ariah”: Displacement and plundering of property and homes, kidnapping of a woman and arbitrary arrests, testimony about al-Ra’i’s prison, preventing return to “Sheikhurs”
There is media propaganda that accompanies the return of displaced families to their homes in the Afrin region, in the context of beautifying and polishing the reality of the occupation, but it avoids talking at least about preventing hundreds of families in the area, but they are prohibited from returning to their looted and displaced villages since March 2018, such as the villages of “Darwish and Bayh” - Raju, Shikhors-Bulbul, Pavlon and Seneca-Sharra”, which is part of the facts of the systematic demographic change implemented in the region.
The following are violations and crimes committed:
= Ze´irê village:
It is located on the southwestern foot of the mountain (Girê Mezin) and is 2.5 km away from the center of Bulbul district. It consisted of 200 houses, and it contained about 1200 original Kurdish residents, all of whom were displaced during the Turkish aggression on the Afrin region. Only / 30 families = 180 people / returned to it, and about 170 families = one thousand people / of those recruited there, most of them from Ghouta, were settled.
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 "Al-Mu'tasim Division" militia is controlling the village and makes the villa of "Mustafa Aliko" as its military headquarters, while the Turkish army makes the villa of "the late Ahmed Miqdad (Abu Ibrahim)" as its military headquarters.
After the displacement of the people and before the arrival of the returnees, most of the houses were subjected to theft and looting, as they 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 collective action, in addition to the theft of cars and agricultural tractors.
Al-Mu'tasim militia also seized most of the property of the absentees and imposed various financial royalties on the previous olive seasons. On 9/12/2020 AD, it imposed on each Kurdish family remaining in the village a thousand dollars in royalties, and threatened those who did not pay with expulsion from the village and seizing his house, while the militia seized " Ahrar al-Sharqiya” on the villa of the late “Abdul Rahman Rashid (Abu Abdo)” from the people of “Za’ari” in the village of “Kafr 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.
Also, rare forest and wild trees, including in the mountains surrounding the village, and /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 "Sheikh Hamza" shrine were cut down. The unjust, for the purpose of logging and the 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 border strip and wall into Syrian territory at a depth of 300 meters along the foot of the mountain overlooking the village, bypassing the agreed international borders, whose separation wall was built about four years ago on the side. From 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 bin Ramzi / 30 years old" from the village of "Hassan" - Rajo 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 charges of Gazaf, extracted under torture, is currently being considered by the Turkish Court of Cassation.
- On 9/12/2021 AD, the militias of the "Hamza Division" stationed in the village of "Kimar" - Sherwa and the canteen of Jabal Al-Ahlam kidnapped the citizen "Arin Muhammad Deli Hassan / 25 years - married for six months and pregnant" from the village and forcibly disappeared her, and demanded a ransom from her relatives. money in exchange for her release, and her fate is still unknown; It is noteworthy that "Arin" was previously kidnapped by the same militias in February 2020 and forcibly disappeared in its headquarters (formerly Asayish building in Horsh al-Mahmoudiya) in the city of Afrin. 2020AD, and she was later released from Maratha prison on December 23, 2020.
- On 9/12/2021 AD, the police in Rajo district arrested Kamal Jolo, 55 years old, from the village of "Sheikh Muhammad Lee - Kariah", 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 ma - Shara / Sharran arrested the young man "Maher Muhi Al-Din Miqdad / 20 years old" from the village of "Qarah Baba" - Rajo district, after returning from Aleppo to the area , with the intention of traveling to Turkey, and demanded a ransom of 5 thousand dollars from his family in exchange for his release.
- On 9/14/2021 AD, the police in the Mabta/Maabatli district arrested Sheyar Khalil Abbas from the village of “Breimjeh” 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. The citizen "Diliyar Othman" from the same village was arrested for two days a month ago; The two had previously been arrested.
= Testimony of the notorious prison shepherd:
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 bad types, and did not fill the mouth, so a person could not eat it unless he was forced to.
- Hygiene was so lacking that we remained 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 naked or completely naked. Foul odors from our bodies, and skin diseases (scabies, itching, rashes...etc) appeared on it.
- 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 the evening prayer 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 (the use of palms and boxers), kicking with legs on various parts of the body, raising multi-form flocks on the feet, and hanging From the hands or from the feet and keeping the body hanging down and hitting 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.
- Detainees who were martyred under torture, were transferred and buried in secret places without informing their families of their deaths, and some of them lost their lives from the consequences and effects of torture.
- As a result of women being subjected to various types of physical and psychological torture and humiliating harassment, some of them attempted suicide by setting their bodies on fire.
The witness ended his speech with a sigh, saying: “What I mentioned is a tip of the iceberg, there are many, as soon as it is mentioned, one’s hair turns gray, so what about what he lived and lived with, and also one cannot detail it accurately in a short time, what happened and happens 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" - Jindires 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 “Sheikhors” (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 carried out a media clowning 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 recruits take over, Only five families were allowed to take possession of their homes in the Tahtani village. On 14/9/2021 CE, it arrested two citizens who were returning with their families from Aleppo, one of them from "Sheikhurs" 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 Abdo" - Sherwa, imposed and collected financial royalties from citizens "5/ thousand dollars - Fathi Nabi Eido, under the pretext of his management of his brother Manan's property. The deceased” and “Two thousand dollars - Ali Misto (Abu Shafan), under the pretext of managing the properties of his absent brothers” and “Two thousand dollars - Adnan Omar Kilaho, under the pretext of selling/guaranteeing a pomegranate field for him 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 "Kfar Halab" - the western countryside of Aleppo.
There is no alternative to the return of the displaced and displaced from Afrin 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.
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Pictures:
- The photovoltaic project to light the village of "Zareya" - Bulbul before the theft.
- The villa of "the late Ahmed Miqdad" in the village of "Zareya" - 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 bin Ramzi, 30 years old", from the village of "Hassan" - Rajo.
- The kidnapped citizen, "Arin Muhammad Dali Hassan, 25 years old", from the village of "Kemar" - Sherwa.
- Al-Ra'i Central Prison - Al-Bab District.
- A fire in a forested forest in the vicinity of the village of "Kura / Koran" - Jindires.
The so-called "Abdo Othman" is the leader of the "Special Forces - Al-Sham Legion" militia in the village of "Burj Abdo" - Sherwa.
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Report of the Kurdish Democratic Unity Party in Syria / Afrin under Occupation (163)
