The Turkish-backed National Army factions continue to systematically seize and invest civilian property in the northern countryside of Aleppo

Yamin Al Khaled – ASO News Network
North-west Syria – Occupied Afrin
Editing: Ismail Selim

After they forcibly displaced and robbed them of their homes in Afrin, and under the force of arms, the Syrian National Army factions rent, sell and own the homes of the indigenous people, in addition to settling settlers inside the confiscated and stolen homes in the northern countryside of Aleppo, especially within the Kurdish region of Afrin.

The process of ownership and leasing is taking place in different ways and amounts, under the auspices of leaders within the Syrian National Army factions loyal to and supported by the Turkish occupation.

Local residents told ASO News Network, “Since Turkey and its loyal factions launched a military operation to occupy the areas of Afrin and its environs, on January 20, 2018, a series of confiscation of Kurdish civilians’ property and their displacement from their areas began, which led to a decrease in their presence to less than 20 percent
The confiscation operations are carried out in a systematic manner by the factions loyal to the Turkish occupation on the one hand, and on the other hand by leaders who have quotas the areas among themselves and each of them rents and sells houses in a certain neighborhood, street or village in different ways, and to Syrian settlers mostly who are displaced and refugees people have been Bringing them through Russian-Turkish understandings from the southern Syrian governorates.

The prices, methods and forms of ownership and leasing vary according to many testimonies obtained by ASO News Network (we did not disclose them in order to preserve their lives), which in total showed many information that indicates and clarifies the amount of huge sums accruing to these factions and leaders in the factions, as a result of the process of ownership and leasing For the properties of civilians who have been displaced or expelled and exiled in general, and in particular the Kurds, who made up the largest percentage in the Afrin region and its surrounding small villages.

According to civilians in Afrin, the monthly rent prices for confiscated houses range from 50 to 300 US dollars, as rent prices vary from one region to another.
The city of Afrin is one of the areas with the highest prices for house rents, while the neighboring small villages are the least expensive.

Diversity of methods of property confiscation and investment
There are three methods followed in settling the displaced and the refugees by the leaders of the national army factions loyal to the Turkish occupation, which are selling, ownership and leasing, and each method differs from the other, but all of them lead to the leader obtaining a large financial return.

According to sources from Afrin, the first method is to sell, and house prices generally range between three and 20 thousand dollars, depending on the location, area and space of ​​the house.

There is the method of leasing, which is that the settler pays a monthly fee for his presence in the house, and then the last method, which is the most common, which is ownership, where the settler pays a certain amount in exchange for his presence in the house for an optional period where he can stay in it for more than a year, then if he wants to leave the house. He agrees with another person and takes the amount he paid from him and then resides in his place, but the house remains the property of the leader who confiscated it and put his hand on it.

As for the confiscation of property and the exploitation of settlers, “Hassan al-Abd al-Rahim” (a pseudonym for a displaced from the Houla area in Homs countryside and residing in Afrin) says in his testimony to ASO News Network, about the story of his exploitation by a leader of “Al-Sham Legion” faction. He says that one of the organizations humanity handed him over a house in the city of Afrin to live in free of charge with his family consisting of a wife and three children, but what happened after about five months was that he received a report issued by “Al-Sham Legion” faction demanding that he pay a fine of $160.

He said that he ignored the report, contenting himself with informing the police department that the house had been given to him by a humanitarian organization and free of charge to live in, so the police force responded by saying that the issue of houses and real estate is not within their jurisdiction and that he should review the faction leadership.
“al-Abd al-Rahim” did not respond to that and returned to the house, and less than a week later, members of the “Al-Sham Legion” faction raided the house in an arbitrary manner and demanded that he vacate the house within 24 hours or pay a monthly rent of $100

Al-Abd al-Rahim tried to prevent this, but he had no choice but to accept the amount imposed on him, and he began to pay the amount and secure it with great difficulty, knowing that the house was confiscated and owned by one of the Kurdish families that had been displaced from it. Moreover one of the faction’s leader of Fayilaq Al-Sham” recently put his hand on the house and several neighboring houses, and began asking for 150 US dollars, and about two months ago, he and the leader had consultations mediated by a media close to the National Army.

Al-Abd al-Rahim concludes that, until now, it has not been clear what happened to his presence in this house, which is not originally owned by him or the “Fayilaq Al-Sham” faction. He fears that he will be forced by force of arms to vacate the house because the newly requested amount is too large for him and is not commensurate with his living and financial situation. In light of high prices, poverty and lack of job opportunities.

Confiscation is not limited to Kurdish property, but includes the displaced
The matter did not stop with the confiscation of the property of Kurdish civilians only, but there are also many Arab civilians who fell victim to the confiscation of their property by the factions loyal to the Turkish occupation, under various pretexts, including their lack of presence on their property and asylum outside Syria or accusing them of belonging to the regime, Kurdish forces or jihadist groups As a result, the factions and their leaders seized many houses and agricultural lands, rented and invested them.

This is what happened with “Hussam al-Sayied Issa,” who is from the city of Jarabulus and is currently in Turkey, where the factions accused him of being one of the security forces of “Tahrir al-Sham” (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra) and put its hand on his house, and in his testimony to ASO News Network, he says, that the house, the sources, consisting of two floors, more than six rooms and a large area of ​​land, were confiscated by the leadership of “al-Hamzat faction” on charges of belonging to “Tahrir al-Sham,” knowing that he never cooperated with it and is one of the staunch opponents of its policy, according to his description.

He added, his house was confiscated in the middle of the year 2019 after he traveled to Turkey, and he tried a lot to restore the house, but to no avail, and a displaced family from Damascus lives in it which he rented from the faction. He communicated many tımes wıth leaders from many factions, too. There are reports that have arrived through people accusing him of belonging to “Tahrir al-Sham” and that there is no possibility of restoring his home.

“Mr. Issa” ends his speech by saying, the method of confiscating civilian property in the northern countryside of Aleppo by the factions loyal to the Turkish occupation is no different from what the regime is doing in terms of confiscating the property of civilians displaced from their villages and towns, and international organizations must intervene to put an end to all of this and restore rights to their owners .

It is noteworthy that the case of property confiscation and owning is carried out under the eyes and hearing of the Turkish occupation, and accurate statistics are not available about the number of houses that were confiscated, as well as the amount of financial revenues that enter the pockets of the factions loyal to the Turkish occupation.