Turkish backed Syrian militias seizing civilian property in Afrin to implement “demographic change” with Qatari funding

The Commander Muhammad al Jasim, known as Abu Amsha, commander of the Suleiman Shah faction, one of the pro-Turkish Syrian National Army militia, forced seven civilians from the town of Sheikh Lahidid (Shih) in Afrin, to give up 40 dunums of land, to build housing and settle displaced families from Syrian areas With Qatari funding.

The human rights organization in Afrin, working to document violations in the area, said that “the leader of the Suleiman Shah faction forced seven civilians on April 11th to give up their properties under threat of force of arms, and to sign a ceding contract in favor of the municipality”.

The land covers an area of ​​about 40 dunums near the town’s health clinic, located on the road to Qarmatlak, and that it will be allocated for the construction of about 200 houses, each of which is 70 square meters”.

The project will be implemented under the supervision of the Turkish AFAD organization, with Qatari funding, aiming of resettling the displaced who were brought in from different regions of Syria through regional and international agreements”.

The organization documented the names of the seven civilians who were forced to give up their lands, among them Jamil Khalil Sheikho, Jamil Muhammad Haj Ibrahim Sheikho, and Muhammad Ali, who gave up (9, 6 and 6) thousand square meters, respectively.

The report stated that both Sheikh Hussein, nicknamed Khoja, and Ahmed Mustafa, nicknamed Ayhoi Misteh, gave up 7,000 square meters each, while Rashid Suleiman, nicknamed Rushkorieh, and Yusef Hanan Maamou gave up 2,000 square meters.

The organization said that the squad leader forced two of the owners’ sons and a grandson of one of them, to sign the assignment on behalf of their families, noting that the seizure of these properties comes “within the framework of a scheme to effect demographic change”.

Syrian and international human rights organizations accuse the Suleiman Shah faction leader, Abu Amsha and his faction of committing widespread violations against civilians in the Afrin region since the Turkish forces and the National Army took control of it in March 2018.

Earlier, the Violations Documentation Center in Syria said that Turkey had overseen the opening of 220 schools. In the areas they controlled in northern Syria, with the support of Qatari, Kuwaiti and Pakistani organizations, which support the Turkish project in the Syrian regions.

After controlling the cities of Ras al Ain and Tal Abyad, Turkey had previously announced its intention to establish a safe zone 32 kilometers deep along the Syrian-Turkish border, to resettle two million Syrian refugees in cities and villages that Ankara aspires to obtain international funding for its construction.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also presented his plan to establish a safe zone, to resettle the Syrian refugees there, during the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly, in September of last year.

Two days ago, Amnesty International stated, in its report on the human rights situation in Syria, that “the Syrian National Army has committed a wide range of human rights violations against civilians in Afrin and Ras al Ain, including robbery, looting, confiscation of property, arbitrary detention, kidnapping, torture and other forms of misconducts”.

Amnesty International added that “the looting and confiscation of property particularly affected the Syrian Kurds who left the region during the hostilities that erupted in 2018 and 2019, and in some incidents, the fighters confiscated the homes of the remaining civilians after they practiced extortion, harassment, kidnapping and torture against them, to force them to leave”.