Arabic to English Translation*
With the onset of the current olive harvest season, Syrian coalition militias- The Brotherhood aligned with the Turkish occupation—particularly the Islamist faction—have reached new depths of immorality, inhumanity, corruption, theft, and animosity toward the Kurds, the indigenous residents of Afrin and its surrounding areas. Leading this charge is Mohammad al-Jasim/Abu Amsha, commander of the “Sultan Suleiman Shah Brigade,” who, notably, has not denied these accusations. After ten days of asserting control over the village of “Gamrouk” in Mobato/Maabatli following the ousting of the “Northern Hawks Brigade” militias, Abu Amsha”s group has coerced the villagers to collectively pay an imposed levy of $250,000 under the threat of punishment. This amount is extracted by taxing each olive tree at a rate of $2.5, regardless of the tree’s size or productivity. For some families, this share has amounted to $10,000. Villagers have been forced to scrape together whatever funds they have, request help from relatives abroad, or resort to selling women’s gold jewelry, tractors, cars, or even newly pressed olive oil—still held at the mill and sold at below-market prices to a designated trader. Immediate payment is mandatory, and delay beyond the deadline brings severe consequences.
The following are facts about the current situation:
= Civilian Casualties Among Afrin Displaced Persons:
On the evening of Wednesday, October 23, 2024, Turkish occupation forces and their allied Syrian militias launched a series of airstrikes and artillery attacks on areas under the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria. These attacks targeted populated areas, infrastructure, and internal security facilities, including residential neighborhoods in Tel Rifaat in northern Aleppo countryside, densely inhabited by Afrin’s displaced population. The assault caused material damage and resulted in civilian casualties, including fatalities and injuries, among women and children. The martyrs include (Ibrahim Mohammad Goulin Sheikh, /55/ years old, from the village of “Qasim” – Raju, Kurdistan Khalil Waqqas, /33/ years old, from the town of “Kafr Safra” – Jenderes, and her 5-year-old daughter, Malak Shiyar Hambasho, from Mobato/Maabatli, Mohammad Wakfi Mohammad, /47/ years old, from the village of “Chamo” – Sharra/Sharran). Other injured individuals include (Sakina Mohammad Ismail, /52/ years old, wife of martyr Ibrahim Mohammad, in critical condition, Ahmad, /3/ years old, and Ali, /10/ years old, children of Shiyar Hambasho and martyr Kurdistan, Ahmad Rifai Beiram son of Sheik Beiram, /18/ years old, in intensive care, Mohammad Beiram, /25/ years old, and Lava Ibrahim Mohammad Goulin Sheikh, /19/ years old).
On the evening of Thursday, October 24, 2024, the village of Tal Susin and nearby Sardam camp in northern Aleppo countryside were bombarded, injuring “Ahmad Omar Ahmad, /65/ years old,” and causing the death of “Mohammad Abdul Karim Sido, /43/ years old,” a resident of Jenderes, who suffered a fatal heart attack due to fear from the shelling.
The bombardments continue on southwestern Afrin villages and Shahba areas in rural Aleppo, under Syrian army control and densely populated with Afrin’s displaced.
= Olive Season:
– “Abu Amsha” Levies: His militias have been using Google Maps to map villages and towns under their control and require locals to visit their offices before the olive season to register their olive fields, whether owned directly, by proxy, or by inheritance. This process demands proof of ownership and a fee of /100-200/ Turkish lira. For each field, a harvesting permit costs an additional /50/ Turkish lira. Olive pressing is restricted to specific sectors, and transporting or selling oil outside the sector requires prior approval and an additional levy. Sales are limited to designated traders within the sector—who pay tens of thousands of dollars in bribes—at prices below market rate, while empty oil cans are sold at /10/ lira above standard rates.
Furthermore, a 5% cut of the total oil production from approximately /30/ olive presses in the sector is seized by representatives positioned near the presses in villages such as “Kakhreh and Gamrouk,” without covering the cost of the empty cans.
In Sheikh Al-Hadid and some villages in Jenderes, a planned levy of $30 per olive tree in plains and $8 per tree in mountainous fields is imposed, regardless of tree size or productivity, for absent owners (represented by proxies), and $2 per tree for present owners. Currently, the oil is being held in the presses until final decisions on fees are made.
– A resident from the village of “Qazilbasha” in Bulbul, who spoke to us in confidence fearing punishment, shared his disappointment. He had expected a yield of /70/ bags of olives (each weighing around 90 kg) from his two fields, but found that armed individuals had stolen the majority, leaving him with only /12/ bags, on which a 10% levy was still imposed. This village and around /11/ neighboring villages, previously controlled by the “Northern Hawks Brigade,” have since October 17, 2024, been taken over by the “Joint Forces (Amshat, Hamzat),” leading to extensive chaos, looting, and additional levies on the olive harvests in these areas.
– On October 15, 2024, a member of the so-called “Economic Office of Adnan al-Khuwailid/Abu Walid al-Azzi/Sultan Murad Division Militias,” known as Farhan, assaulted “Salan Madawr,” a resident of “Kareh” village in Bulbul, evicting him and his workers from his olive field and confiscating five bags of olives on the pretext that he had begun harvesting before the designated date of October 20, 2024.
– In the Ketekh Plain in Mobato/Maabatli, the “9th Division” and “Ahrar al-Sharqiya” militias are in conflict over olive fields located near the boundaries of their sectors, extorting the owners, with each faction enforcing its own levies without regard for the other’s demands.
– In the Duirumeh Plain in Mobato/Maabatli, which includes olive fields belonging to the residents of “Arabo, Kurko, Dumlia, and Badino” villages, patrols from the “Sultan Muhammad al-Fatih Brigade” roam the fields, assessing each field’s yield and immediately imposing a 10% levy on the harvested olives.
= Arbitrary Arrests:
– Over two months ago, the “Military Police in al-Bab” militia detained 33-year-old “Shiyar Nouri Haftaro” from the village of “Hafteir/Haftaro” in Bulbul, accusing him of connections with the previous autonomous administration. He was taken to a prison in al-Rai and remains in arbitrary detention, detained on his way back to Afrin from Aleppo.
– Three weeks ago, Turkish occupation forces arrested two residents of the village of “Muiskeh” in Jenderes— Hassan Mustafa Sido, /29/ years old, and Orhan Ismail Habash, /29/ years old—without stating any reasons. They are still being held in arbitrary detention.
= Chaos and lawlessness:
– On the evening of Sunday, October 20, 2024, clashes broke out between two armed groups on Villa Street in Afrin, injuring a woman and a young girl.
– On Monday evening, October 21, 2024, armed forces from “Qalamoun in the Damascus countryside” moved toward the town of Bulbul after members of “Adnan al-Khuwailid/Abu Walid al-Azzi/Sultan Murad Brigade” militia assaulted two members of the “Civil Police in Bulbul” militia, who were also from Qalamoun. The incident was sparked when the two officers defended a Qalamoun man who had stolen olives in “Abu Walid al-Azzi” territory and was apprehended by his forces. The situation escalated until a reconciliation was eventually reached between the two parties.
The silence of the Syrian National Coalition—the Islamist Brotherhood—and the Syrian Islamic Council in Istanbul, both of which claim to represent “revolution and religion” under Turkish intelligence protection, toward the looting of Afrin’s olive season by “Mohammad Al-Jassim/Abu Amsha” and other militia leaders of the so-called “Syrian National Army” reflects their true complicity in an openly blatant crime.
26.10.2024
Media Office-Afrin
Kurdish Democratic Unity Party in Syria (Yekiti)
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Images:
– Shelling of the city of Tel Rifaat on the evening of October 23, 2024.
The four martyrs: “Ibrahim Mohammad Goulin Sheikh, Kurdistan Khalil Waqqas, Malak Shiyar Hambasho, and Mohammad Wakfi Mohammad.”
– The late “Mohammad Abdul Karim Sido.”
– Six of the wounded from the Turkish shelling of the city of Tel Rifaat, the village of Tal Susin and Sardam camp in northern Aleppo countryside.
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* Under the supervision of the European Organization of the Kurdish Democratic Unity Party in Syria (Yekîtî).
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