afrinpost– Exclusive
An armed member of the Turkish-affiliated “Hamza Division” militia, identified as “Aqaba Al-Bashkawi,” is preventing farmers in the village of Atmana, located in the Rajo sub-district of northern Syria, from farming their agricultural land so that their sheep could graze there.
According to our reporter, Al-Bashkawi, the brother of the militia’s security chief, Yazid Al-Bashkawi, is preventing locals from farming the land between the villages of Atmana, Miske and Hejîko while freely allowing his own herd of 250 sheep, as well as his father’s herd, to graze there.
Images obtained by “afrinpost” show a number of sheep grazing on land belonging to a local farmer, Omar Youssef, which is planted with loquat trees at the junction of Atmana village.
The Turkish-backed Islamist militias continue to tighten their grip on the people of Afrin and threaten them with death if they attempt to speak out or file complaints against them, in an effort to force them to flee and abandon their properties and livelihoods to serve Turkey’s policy of demographic change in the region.
