Afrinpost – Special
Militants of the Islamic militias affiliated with the Turkish occupation and organized by the Muslim Brotherhood who are affiliated with the (Syrian National Army / Free Army) continue to cut trees from forests and fields throughout the occupied Kurdish Afrin region, and trade in logs, in light of the increasing demand for them in areas under the Turkish occupation in Northwestern Syria.
In this context, a reporter for the “Afrinpost” in the Territory Center stated that Islamic militants have cut down 120 olive trees completely, in a field belonging to “Mustafa Rashid”, from the village of “Trinda / Al-Zarifa”, indicating that the field is located near the water channel passing near the Ashrafieh neighborhood.
This comes, after the reporter said yesterday, Tuesday / February 18th, that the militia of the “Al-Shamiya Front” militia had completely cut down 100 olive trees in the village of “Trinda / Al-Zarifa”, affiliated to the Afrin Center, owned by the Kurdish citizen, Haider Sheikh Hasan , and despite what the formal occupation councils claim, which he established to justify the violations, claim that they have issued decisions to prevent logging in Afrin, the militants and their settlers’ families continue these logging operations without accountability or supervision.
Activists on social media circulated on November 6, 2019, a video recording of two armed men from the “Al-Sharqia Army” militia affiliated with the Turkish occupation and the Muslim Brotherhood, who were proud to go to the forests of Jenderes district in the occupied Kurdish region of Afrin to cut down trees.
Activists said that the gunmen from the group called “Abu Hamza Khasham” within the militia of “Al-Sharqia Army” which is stationed in Jenderes district, where the scenes show the gunmen singing and the features of joy appear to them by cutting the trees of Afrin, as it has become a source of income for the militants, at the time it is imposed Occupation councils on the Kurdish indigenous people, on condition that they obtain approvals before pruning their olive trees, in order to secure the firewood for themselves.
The occupied Kurdish region witnesses the daily logging of forests and olive trees by the Islamic militia and their settlers, and the Afrinpost correspondents have indicated in previous times, that the occupation militias cut down the forest trees, as well as the olive trees belonging to the Afrin Diaspora, and collect firewood in centers on the outskirts of villages, with the aim of selling and exporting the rest to Turkey.
