afrinpost – Exclusive
The people of Afrin region are living in difficult conditions, as a result of the imposition of royalties, looting and plunder that affect their properties and sources of livelihood, and the scarcity of job opportunities, in addition to using the Turkish lira, the problem further exacerbated by the overcrowding of the region with IDPs brought by the Turkish authorities from the conflict areas in Syria.
afrinpost contacted citizens inside of Afrin, and the discussion was about the difficult living conditions that the people face Turkish and its militants rule.
High prices and dealing in Turkish lira
Ahmed, a Kurdish citizen from Afrin, who works as a taxi driver, spoke to the Afrinpost reporter, and said that they are going through difficult living conditions as a result of the high prices, in addition to the high price of gasoline, and what exacerbated the suffering is trading in the Turkish lira, as he is forced to deal with his customers in Turkish lira, which negatively affected his business.
He was forced to raise the fee for several reasons due to the general high prices, the high prices of spare parts and gasoline and dealing in Turkish lira, which was the reason for the decrease in the number of customers and the high decline in work and income, and he indicated that the lowest price in Afrin is five Turkish liras, and because of the high cost families prefer to walk rather than take ride, which has a negative impact on his living situation and makes it difficult to secure daily sustenance, and this situation prompts him to borrow money from his friends to secure his family’s needs.
Ahmed described the nature of the daily work of taxi drivers and said: After everyday hardship, we provide a small profit margin, after deducting the expenses, fuel and car maintenance costs, and we give the share to the taxi owners, and this simple margin is hardly enough, and if there is any increase in fuel prices, we have only to increase the fare, and this is normal in light of the increase in the prices of most essential commodities.
Royalties and pressuring families
Kamal, a Kurdish citizen from the village of Kafardele Tahtani, works as a farmer and owns a tractor. He talked about another section of suffering. He said that his living situation in general was good, before the occupation of Afrin, and he was able to secure the needs of his family without much trouble, as his work was good and his financial return was sufficient, and he could even, if he wanted, save some money for the emergency and the future.
“After the occupation of Afrin and the “National Army” militia controlled the village, large royalties were imposed on the farmers, which greatly negatively affected their living conditions, and the financial return declined, in addition to the fact that dealing in Turkish lira made the living situation more difficult.” Kamal added.
These practices aim to increase pressure on the remaining indigenous people of Afrin, forcing them to leave and forcibly displacing them, with the aim of changing the demography of the entire Kurdish region. In addition to the general situation, high prices, kidnappings, lootings, while clashes break out from time to time between the mercenaries due to their differences over the sharing of what was stolen and looted.
Stealing fruits seasons and extortion
Another citizen, A.M., from the village of Qujuman, spoke to afrinpost reporter, and confirmed that he is going through a difficult living situation after IDPs stole his olive season, and after this great loss of the resource on which his source of living, has accumulated debts amounting to about two million Syrian pounds. He describes what happened as completely ruining his family.
“Because of the high prices of bread in the village, we have to buy flour and make bread in our homes, but if we buy bread from bakeries, we need 5,000 Syrian Pounds, only to buy bread, so what if we add to it our purchases of vegetables, foodstuffs, and other necessary goods.” The citizen A.M. added.
“In an overall comparison between the past and the present, before the occupation I used to work in my field, while my children worked in Jenderes district, and their financial conditions were good and they did not need to borrow money from anyone, and the olive harvest was sufficient to open small projects to secure the future of them.” The citizen (A.M.) says
Now, the mercenaries do not allow his children to go to work in Jenderes district, and they are married and have families and children, so how can they secure milk for their children while they are preventing them from working, or allowing them to work in the fields? And the IDPs did not leave us anything. These people are like locusts that spread everywhere, and if they target a field or orchard, they will not leave anything.
Citizen A.M. presents other examples of the difficulty of living, which are royalties and extortion, and he says: The mercenaries imposed very large royalties on us, stole the olive harvest, and kidnapped my son, and we had to pay a large ransom for them in exchange for his release, but the story is not over, as they come to us. From time to time, they accuse my son of having served in Autonomous Administration, so that we would have to pay them a sum of money again so that they would not kidnap him, and this is what burdened us, and made us live in difficult conditions.
