Afrinpost
The militants of the Islamic militias affiliated with the Turkish occupation and the Muslim Brotherhood organization, are appropriating the homes of the displaced people of Afrin, and selling them to settlers coming from the countryside of Damascus, Hama and Idlib, for sums ranging between three thousand and five thousand US dollars that the Muslim Brotherhood militia leaders and militants take for their own pockets.
In a report by North-Press Agency, Um Fawzi (a pseudonym), an elderly woman in Afrin, said that “Jaish Al-Islam” militia accused “her brother of fleeing his children from the city when it was invaded by Turkish forces and affiliated factions.” His children fled because of their affiliation with the Autonomous Administration, and this makes his house in Al-Ashrafieh neighborhood a prize for Jaish Al-Sharqiya, and when he denied the faction’s claim, they threw him in their prisons.
She added, “Immediately after my brother was arrested, they took control of his house full of furniture and made it their headquarters, and then the house of one of the faction leaders.”
Um Fawzi pointed out that her brother remained in prison for nearly two months, to be released and given the choice between staying in the city with one of his relatives or moving to the areas controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces, where “he chose to leave so that he did not see his house looted before his eyes without being able to change anything of that painful reality.”
The residents of Afrin live in isolation without much mixing with the settlers who now make up more than half of the region’s population, under the rule and domination of the Muslim Brotherhood militia. The indigenous Kurds are subjected to all violations of extortion, looting, plunder, threats, kidnapping and killing, according to “Um Fawzi” and displaced people who fled because of Violations of those militias.
Rasha Dallo (a pseudonym) for a young woman from Afrin, said that armed men belonging to “Jaish Al-Sharqiya” militia “took over the homes of her brothers and relatives after they displaced one part and killed and arrested another without pity or mercy.”
She added, “Because of my brothers leaving for fear of being arrested and staying alone at home, I stayed for a period of time with my relatives who preferred to stay in their homes despite the persecution of Ahrar Al-Sharqiya, and they were forced to pay royalties for their crops, as they considered leaving the houses and fleeing a humiliation that they could not bear.”
After insistence from her family in Manbij and warning her of the danger of arrest or “things that cannot be blamed,” as she described it, she decided to wait for securing the road to Manbij, to carry some of her personal belongings and to leave her memories in her city, which she “stayed for a lifetime”.
Amir Al-Hamwi, who is from Al-Lataminah in the northern countryside of Hama, said that he came after his departure to the city of Ariha in the southern countryside of Idlib, but with the escalation of the battles in Jabal Al-Zawiya, he decided to move away from the area of clashes to the countryside of Aleppo and to stay in the city of Afrin.
He added: “I agreed with an elderly woman in the city of Afrin on the fare, but a checkpoint of Jaish Al-Sharqiya stopped me and asked for my ID and asked why I came to Afrin, and when I told him my story, he got angry and said that I cannot live in any house in Afrin without permission, because He is responsible for this sector, and I can not rent without permission and official permission from him. ”
He left for fear of being harmed by the armed factions in Afrin, and chose to stay in any area in Idlib, “instead of staying these corrupt groups,” he said.
Civilian settlers residing in homes in the Afrin region say that they are aware that these buying and selling operations are illegal, and that merely paying these sums to the leaders of the National Army militia does not make them the owners of the homes of the displaced and the original homeowners, but they guarantee that they will remain in these homes throughout the occupation of the Muslim Brotherhood militias affiliated with Turkey of the territory.
For his part, one of the militants who defected from Jaish Al-Sharqiya, who refused to reveal his name for security reasons, said: “Because of the lack of job opportunities to meet the needs of my house, I had to work with the Sharqiya Army faction for about five months, and because of the bad dealings of the people of Afrin city, I decided to quit working with them so that I would not be a tool for fraud and defrauding the population, ”he said.
He added to North-Press, “Every leader and commander in the National Army factions has his power in the sector that they divided among themselves and plundered and robbed the property of their homes, even unequipped homes. Each commander brought iron doors and placed them at the entrance to the building or apartment and then wrote on them that “This house belongs to the x faction leader”, so that whoever wishes to hire or buy can communicate with that leader directly. ”
