Afrinpost – Special
The grape leaf season is one of the important sources of income that generates large financial revenues for the region’s farmers, especially in the two areas of Bulbul and Raju, where the vineyards are abundant, but the current season is weak due to several factors, including the transformation of agricultural land into barren land due to the absence of the original owners who were forcibly displaced from it.
In addition to the high costs of taking care of them from plowing, pruning and fertilizing, as well as permitting the vast majority of vineyards to settler herders who tend their flocks among the grapevines without supervision or accountability, in addition to the organized thefts that affect the healthy grapevines by the gunmen and their settlers.
In the village of “Dikeh”, which belongs to the district of “Bulbula” / Bulbul, the “Failaq Al-Sham” militia imposes a royalty of 50% of the vineyards belonging to the displaced, from sales, while those in the village, the militia forces them to pay a royalty of 20% of the sales after showing the bills issued by Al-Hal Market, Afrin.
In “Kokane” village of the “Mobata / Ma’batli” district, the “Al Hamza Squad” militia forces farmers to sell their grape leaf products to a settler merchant from Jabal al-Hus, at 600 Syrian pounds / one kilo, knowing that he sells one kilo at 1700 Syrian pounds in the Al-Hal market in Afrin, and whoever refrains from selling it, the militia punishes him by spreading flocks of sheep to graze in his field.
In the village of Qibare / Qibar, affiliated to the Afrin center, the militia “Al-Mu’tasem Brigade” seized the season of the grape leaf of the Kurdish citizen, “Hannan Aref,” located near the village junction, and harvested it all to sell them in Al-Ashrafieh.
In the village of Khilalka, which affiliated to the “Balbala / Balbul” district, the “Failaq Al- Sham” militia steals grape leaves at night, and the settlers and the armed men tend their flocks during the day, in front of the Kurdish vineyards owners eyes without having any ability to hold the perpetrators accountable, and the same is true for the villages of “ Maydana ”
In the villages of Qurne and Baliya, which are also affiliated with Bulbula, the so-called “Abu Nejervan”, a Turkmen from the village of Yazbagh, monopolizes the trade of grape leaves, and buys from farmers per kilo for only “600” Syrian pounds, without allowing them to sell them themselves in the markets of Afrin.
In the Ashrafieh neighborhood of the Afrin center, a settler from Eastern Ghouta has a contract with gunmen from the militia of “Sultan Murad”, and he has a grocery shop on Al-Sarfis Street, and he buys one kilo of farmers for 500 SP, and sells it for 1500 SP. s.
In the village of Ashuna in the district of Balbula, the so-called “Abu Kassem”, who is from Al-Hujaira village, who is a gunman of the “Failaq Al-Sham” militia, imposes 5,000 Syrian pounds on each car loaded with grape leaves.
In the village of Ma’amla / Ma’aml Ushaghi in Raju district, the Sultan Muhammed Al-Fateh militia controls the entire season in the fields belonging to the displaced people of the village.
The western checkpoint of the city of Jenderes imposes an amount of one thousand Syrian pounds on cars loaded with grape leaves .
In the villages of Khalilaka and Qaragul, which is affiliated with Balbula district, the armed men and their settler families carry out a large-scale theft on all the vineyards belonging to the residents of the two villages, and it is sold to a settler dealer from Rastan and settles in the town of Midanki in Sharan district, while in the village of Bebaka, the entire season is stolen, to the point that the residents there could not supply their needs of grape leaves.
The militia of the “Soqour Al-Shamal” militia imposes a royalty of 100 SP for each shrub on the owners of vineyards in the villages under its control.
In the town of Ba’adina, which belongs to the Raju district, vineyards with the grape leaves belonging to the citizens (Muhammad Ahmad Ibish, Hussein Khalil Abdo and Hussein Muhammad Muhammad) were stolen, according to a report issued by the media office of the Kurdish Democratic Unity Party.
In the area of Shieh / Sheikh Al-Hadid, the militia of “Sultan Suleiman Shah” imposes the royalty of 15% on grape leaves, beside the ones on cars transferring them to Afrin. The militia also appointed a merchant accountable to it, forcing farmers to sell their product from grape leaves for 400 Syrian pounds, to be collected in the house occupied by the settler, “the father of Muhammad al-Jasem” located near Al-Qaws entrance of Afrin.
