During the five years and three months of occupation, we could document dozens of premeditated murders that took place in the region against the civilians of Afrin, including elderly men and women. Some of the crimes which are racially motivated, have been registered against unknown persons without conducting transparent and impartial investigations or fair trials by the Turkish occupation authorities. Most of the criminals have escaped accountability and punishment, in the context of systematic hostile policies and practices against the Kurds and their region.
Hereunder are facts about the prevailing conditions:
= A woman Murder:
A month after committing the premeditated crime that took place on 12.06.2023 against the citizen, “Ofa Sheikh Ahmed daughter of Zaim, aged 37 years, from Sheikh village- Rajo, by burning her house, stealing her gold and jewelry as well as her money, in the city of Afrin, the ” judicial security” apparatus of the occupation authorities in Afrin released the only suspect named “Abu Samer” from Ghouta – Damascus Countryside. In an attempt to divert the course of investigation and exert pressure on the relatives of the murdered to give up their case and accept reconciliation with the perpetrators, the occupation authorities arrested both Masoud, the victim’s brother, and her husband Hanif Hanan Khalil, from the village of Qibar – Afrin on 11.07.2023. The victim’s mother, “Zaynat Sheikh Ahmed” and one of her uncles, “Amin Sheikh Ahmed” confirmed in two recently released video clips that “Masoud” was working in his olive field while “Hanif” was in shop located in the Industrial Zone when the crime was committed. It is good to know that the suspect “Abu Samer” lives with his family in a flat that has been confiscated in the building of the victim’s, and that he had previously threatened the victim and her husband.
Furthermore, the criminal who killed the citizens “Abdul Rahman Sheikh Ahmed son of Bilal, 36 years old, and Hanan Hanan son of Hussein, 34 years old, on June 8, 2019, near Maabatli intersection is a settler from Deirezzor countryside and a member of Ahrar Asharqiya, is still in prison without passing judgement on him.
“The martyrs “Ofa Sheikh Ahmed d/o Zaim, Abd al-Rahman Sheikh Ahmed s/o Bilal, Hanan Hanan s/o Hussein” from the village of “Sheikh” – Rajo.”
= Midanki Dam (April 17 Dam):
The “Local Council of Afrin” announced that a delegation of specialized experts from the Foundation for Development and Cooperation in the Swiss government and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), accompanied by officials of the “Syrian Interim Government”, inspected Maidanki Dam on 12-13.07.2023. Having examined the dam, they confirmed the safety of the dam’s body. The visit came after reports that the surface of the dam’s body has been cracked as a result of February 6’s earthquake.
“Cracks in the surface of the Midanki Dam body, and a visit of a delegation of specialized experts from the Foundation for Development and Cooperation in the Swiss government and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs of the United Nations OCHA (OCHA), accompanied by officials of the “Syrian Interim Government” to the Midanki-Afrin Dam on 02.07.2023.”
The dam, 60 km north of Aleppo and 20 km northeast of Afrin, is a vital and strategic project that was inaugurated in 2004. It had been feeding the cities of Afrin and Azaz with drinking water, and irrigated about 30 thousand hectares of fields and agricultural lands before the occupation of the region in March 2018.
However, our report No. (11) issued on 08.12.2018, documented with photos that “Sham Legion” militia:
“targeted the premises of the dam and some of its facilities were hit by artillery and warplane bombardment about five times, where severe damage was inflicted on the halls designated for repairing the dam’s engines and machinery, the fuel station, spare parts depots, and the windows of the tower. After Turkish army and its pro-militias controlled the region, the dam and its facilities, including irrigation canals and thereof stations, were sabotaged and stolen. In a nutshell, this is what happened to the water resources facilities.
– In Afrin City Center:
1- Stealing all contents of the administration building, such as furniture, doors, windows, computers, a well submersible pump, an electrical generating set, and workshop generators, and tampering with and burning files and documents.
2- Stealing the contents of the central warehouse, including electrical and mechanical spare parts, various pipes, valves, hydrants, connections, accessories, devices, tools, furniture, and computers.
3- Stealing of fuel and water tanks and a lathe machine.
– From the dam itself:
1- Bombing and destroying the reverse generating set, its fuel tanks and the electrical supply board, in addition to the fuel station building with its contents, as well as stealing of the electrical transformer.
2- stealing of electrical panels as well as all main and secondary electrical cables within the dam’s facilities.
3- Bombing and destroying the main warehouses and stealing the rest of them.
4- Vandalizing the main control room and stealing measuring devices and monitoring cables.
5- sabotaging administrative buildings and stealing thereof contents, including furniture, tools, materials and spare parts, and tampering with and burning files.
6- Stealing drainage pumps, reverse submersibles and electrical cables inside the injection and inspection tunnel.
7- Disabling the automatic opening and closing system, due to the breaking down of some of its devices.
– Stealing about /8/ cars and vehicles belonging to the Water Resources Company.
– Stealing all the contents of stations (Kamruk, Burj Abdalo, Tal Taweel/Aster, Jumkeh, Bablit), such as control panels, electric cables, generators, and the like.
“The vandalism and thefts that affected the control and monitoring rooms of Midanki Dam by the “Sham Legion” militia, spring-summer 2018.”
As a result, Midanki Dam has become without electrical control and automatic and programmatic measurement monitoring. Stations and some agricultural irrigation canal networks have become out of service since May 2018. consequently, the plains of Zarafak Kamruk, the villages of Astir, Jumkeh and Kfarum, and along the Afrin River in the south to the villages of Jalameh and Diwa”, as well as “the plains of the villages of Marateh and Bablit to the plains of Jenderes district”, have been deprived from abundant and low-cost irrigation, and consequently deterioration of many crops and agricultural seasons. The fifth project, in particular, (from the village of Shadirah to Derbalot on the Turkish border) has almost completely stopped, while most of it was operational before the occupation.
The stations of (Kamruk, Tal Tawil/Aster, Jumkeh, Bablit) are left but empty buildings and out of service, while “Burj Abdalo” station is being rehabilitated and operated at the expense of its residents of and thereof environs. At the same time, occupation authorities refrain from taking the initiative to re-build those damaged infrastructures and missing parts of the dam and irrigation facilities.
A local source confirmed that the dam’s water level of is right now approximately 12 meters lower than the maximum level of 335 m. Nevertheless, sufficient quantity is not emptied into the canals and the river to cover the irrigation of all lands covered by the service. The fields of the border villages “Deir Balut, Diwa, Mulla Khalila, Nasriyeh…” southwest of Afrin suffer from the almost complete drought of the Afrin River.
It is noteworthy that there is the “Turkish coordinator” who directly supervises the operations of unloading water emptied large quantities of the dam’s water during the last two winters, especially the winter of 2021-2022, – in order to complete the filling of Reyhanli Dam in Turkey, officially opened in October 2020.
= Arbitrary Arrests:
– On 10.07.2023, the militias of the “Civil Police in Rajo” arrested the citizens “Jamil Sabri Abdo, 55years old, and Bahri Rashid Bilal, 75 years, from the village of “Dumalia”, on charges of participating in the night watch during the former Self-Administration, and released them the next day, after imposing a fine of $ 200 on each one of them.
– Despite suffering from a chronic neurological disease in the head, the citizen, Radwan Haji son of Mustafa, 55 years, from the town of Baadina, was arrested on the same date on a fabricated charge. The detainee had no relationship whatsoever with the former Self- Administration, and he is still under arbitrary detention.
= Forest fires:
On 13.07.2023, the “Civil Defense of Afrin” confirmed that its teams put out with great difficulties a fire that had been set in a forest in the vicinity of the villages of “Alatanya / Al-Haydariya and Mamala / Mamli” – Rajo.
“Fire in a forest in the vicinity of the villages of “Al-Haydariya and Mamli”- Rajo, 13/07/2023.”
= Chaos and Lawlessness:
For more than three days, starting from 09.07.2023, a joint force of the militias of the “Military Police in Rajo”, “Brigade 112”, “Brigade of the North” and “Brigade of Suqour al-Shamal” surrounded the villages of West and East Mamala / Mamli – Rajo, in order to arrest more than 20 members of the militia of the “Ninth Division” on charges of drug trafficking, cutting trees, stealing homes and agricultural crops, and overgrazing. They arrested the so-called “Ibrahim” and his brother “Talal”, while the others managed to escape through the mountain.
= Other violations:
– On 08.07.2023, men and women from al-Zubaidi family – from the village of “Maarat al-Harmah”/Idlib severely beat the two brothers, “Mustafa, 35 years old and Shiyar, 31 years old, sons of Mustafa Qadir” from the village of “Muskah” – Rajo. The two brothers were bruised, wounded and suffered from fractures. As a result, Mustafa was taken to a hospital in Rajo for treatment. The fight took place when Shiyar took the sheep out of his orchard and prevented them from grazing in it. The aggressors, who are relatives of the so-called “Yazid Bishkawi,” one of the leaders of the “Hamzat Division” militia that controls the village, claimed that they had taken the right of grazing their sheep inside the village and in the surrounding fields from the ” Economy Squad”
–The militia of the “Sultan Suleiman Shah Division – Al-Amshat” has recently imposed a royalty of $40,000 on about 70 families from the town of Kakhera-Mapta/Maabatli through one of its leaders called “Abu Hussein Al-Asharneh”, under the pretext that they had harvested the sumac without getting permission.
The purpose of practicing and applying this huge number of violations and crimes is to scatter the Kurds and displace them, to sabotage, distort and destroy their region, waste their energies, paralyze their powers, steal their wealth and obliterate their cultural and human heritage.
15.07.2023
Media office – Afrin
Kurdish Democratic Unity Party in Syria (Yekiti)
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Attachments:
– The martyrs “Ofa Sheikh Ahmed d/o Zaim, Abd al-Rahman Sheikh Ahmed s/o Bilal, Hanan Hanan s/o Hussein” from the village of “Sheikh” – Rajo.
– Cracks in the surface of the Midanki Dam body, and a visit of a delegation of specialized experts from the Foundation for Development and Cooperation in the Swiss government and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs of the United Nations OCHA (OCHA), accompanied by officials of the “Syrian Interim Government” to the Midanki-Afrin Dam on 02.07.2023.
– The vandalism and thefts that affected the control and monitoring rooms of Midanki Dam by the “Sham Legion” militia, spring-summer 2018.
– Fire in a forest in the vicinity of the villages of “Al-Haydariya and Mamli”- Rajo, 13/07/2023.
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* Translated from Arabic by Europe’s Organization of the Kurdish Democratic Unity Party in Syria (Yekiti)
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