Afrinpost – Special
Through a series of reports, Afrinpost continues to monitor the current reality of villages, towns and farms in the occupied Afrin region in northern Syria, in terms of demography, violations and changes brought about by the Turkish occupation and its militias.
History
The village of “Fafertin” is one of the villages that is located within the bloc of Forgotten Cities whose construction dates back to the first and seventh centuries AD. The village contains the oldest church in “Syria” of the basilica type, and Fafratin, a Syriac word meaning “the village of fig fruit”. It has about 200 caves, and the entrances to the caves have symbols.
“Fafertin” was a small ancient village located on both sides of the old road that connected “Samaan” citadel to the city of Aleppo. Most of its ruins have been destroyed. Today it is located 23 km south of “Afrin” and about 7 km east of “Samaan Al Amoudi” castle.
The people of Fafertin are one family, their ancestors the two brothers are known (Ezzedine and Qirsh). The people of Fafertin depend on raising livestock and cultivating wheat, barley and vegetables.
Fafertin was administratively affiliated with Sherawa district, like other villages of Mount Leylon, during the Autonomous Administration period, and all of its original inhabitants were Kurds. With the start of the Turkish aggression, the village suffered from the siege, and because it is located south of the city of Afrin, the control of it was delayed by the Turkish army and the militia of the Muslim Brotherhood, because the aggression forces deliberately left a crossing to displace the people from Afrin to al-Shahba areas.
After the occupation
On 3/18/2018, the invading forces entered Afrin, and thus the crossing was closed, and the village was occupied on 3/21/2018 by “Failaq Sham” militia, which is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood organization and is close to Ankara.
A source stated that the militia militants are harassing the indigenous Kurdish population, and displaced more than half of the village of Fafertin, and hundreds of settlers coming from the western countryside of Aleppo have been settled, adding that the number of village homes before the occupation was 175 with a population of more than 500, but the number of Kurds in the village are currently only 50 homes, meaning that more than 70% of the people are now displaced.
On the other hand, the occupation forces and their militias brought about 600 settlers from the western countryside of Aleppo and settled them in the seized houses in the village.
According to a source from the village, the so-called “Abu Ali Atshan” is the leader of the Failaq al-Sham militia who occupy the village, and they number about 100 armed men. There are three militia headquarters in the village, one of which is on the outskirts of the village, where an olive field owned by the citizen Jamil Hassan Hanoo, and the second in the poultry farm of the citizen, Ibrahim Khalil Sheikho, and the third headquarters is located at the village junction, where in the house of citizen “Ibrahim Shoti” located.
The armed men of “Failaq al-Sham” militia practice the worst kinds of violations against the remaining Kurdish residents in the village, to push them out of the village by force.
The source notes that large areas of civilian properties have been seized by settlers and militants, noting that all those who left the village have become permissible for the militants and settlers and consider it “spoils” and because they seize the properties in bulk, the militants do not impose monthly royalties on the village.
With regard to public buildings and services, the source said that school hours are intermittent, and there is no electricity, water, and many of the necessities of life missing, while the village mosque remained in its condition.
Violations
In early April 2020, gunmen from “Failaq al-Sham” militia expelled the young man, “Adel Ahmed” from the village of “Fafertin” from his home, then brutally beat him and insulted him and transferred him to one of their prisons.
At the beginning of last December, several villages were under siege due to an operation that killed a Turkish officer and a leader in Failaq al-Sham militia. Several villages were besieged, stormed and citizens kidnapped, and on Saturday 12/5/2020 an armed patrol of the militia, led by “Hammoud Subhi al-Jar“(from the village of Kafrnin in the western countryside of Aleppo) raided the home of the Kurdish citizen of Kurdistan Muhammad Barakat. They threatened her husband with death, because of the efforts he was making to release her.
