Turkish-backed Syrian opposition factions are uniquely taking over cotton crops and farmers are complaining

Aso-Lorin Sabri

Officials of the Democratic Self-Administration, in Rojava, north and east of Syria, said that the armed opposition factions are seizing the cotton crop, in areas belonging to Sri Kaneh / Ras al-Ain and Tal Abyad.

Speaking “Suleiman Baroud” Co-Chairman of the Economic and Agriculture Organization to Aso News Network, the opposition factions are stealing and robbing cotton crop, which amounts in the territory of Al-Jazeera (about 3 thousand tons).

He added that the losses suffered by the cotton crop, due to the Turkish aggression on the region is very large and will contribute to the reduction of domestic production and affect it
Armed factions prevent residents from returning to areas they have controlled.

Mohammed Ali Ibrahim, a farmer from the Turkish-occupied city of Sari Kane, expressed his grief over the loss of his cotton crop. “I have fallen into my land by growing cotton this year for five months. To Turkey.”

“Our plight is great. Our city has been occupied and our crop stolen, and we are displaced,” he says.
Suleiman Baroud stated that the Salhabiya Center, which opened in Raqqa, had received the dues of cotton marketed to him.

The center was interrupted due to the inability to absorb the next quantities of the center, in addition to a flaw in marketing.
Baroud said: transport mechanisms in Raqqa are going well.
Baroud said: preparations are underway to disburse farmers’ dues at Jalabiya center in Kobani, starting in the first week of November.

Baroud stressed that self-management is obliged to pay the bills to farmers who handed over their production to the centers allocated by the Economy and Agriculture Commission in northern and eastern Syria.

Akram Tammu, a farmer from Sri Kanih, appealed to the international community and humanitarian organizations to press for the return of the people, saying they were living in difficult conditions in the camps he described as disastrous.
It is noteworthy that the self-administration had decided to receive the cotton crop from farmers in five centers: the center of the Mahlaj in Hasakah, and Mabrouka in Sri Kani, and 10 km in Deir Ezzor, and Salhabiya in Raqqa, and Jalabiya center in Kobani.

One-third of the area of agricultural land is located in the area of Sri Kaneh, Zircan and Abu Racine.