In a continuous series of actions of the SNA in the occupied areas…Turkish-backed forces transform the homes of displaced Syrian civilians into military headquarters, and violations expand

Yamin Al Khalid – Aleppo
Translated by: Hejar Abo
Since supporting Turkey’s occupation of lands in Syria, the “Syrian National Army” has continued to carry out massive violations and acts against human rights, from confiscating civilian homes, government buildings and public facilities, to seizing and arresting people and their property in occupied Afrin, documented by reports of international human rights organizations, and today the series of violations is expanding as the Syrian National Army factions transfer the homes of displaced civilians from Afrin to military headquarters, and use them on the military side.

Numerous violations witnessed in several areas under the control and occupation of the Syrian National Army, transforming buildings and homes belonging to civilians into military headquarters and barracks, after arbitrarily expelling and displacing their owners, since the occupation of Turkey and armed factions in the Syrian National Army to the areas of northern Syria, especially the cities of Afrin and Serêkaniyê/ Ras al-Ain, Tal Abiyad and others, which resulted in the displacement of a large number of families and and loss of their properties, in addition to the out of service of government buildings, civil institutions and vital facilities after their vandalism and tampering, and the conversion of them to personal headquarters.

Lives and property belonging to civilians turned into headquarters and barracks
Since the Syrian opposition forces, both political and armed, have been subjected to the dominance of the Turkish occupation in an unfair partnership with Turkey, the strike tool for civilians has become in the hands of Turkey, and a contributor to the implementation of Turkey’s interests and projects in Syria, to the extent that the history of the “Syrian National Army” factions is full of violations and war crimes, in addition to human rights violations, while Turkey is trying to cover up its occupation and the crimes of the Syrian opposition factions, international and human rights organizations document dozens of reports that support the narrative of Turkey occupying Syrian lands, displacing the indigenous population, and bringing human groups from other areas with the aim of demographic change. Unleashing the factions of the Syrian National Army to wreak havoc and change the infrastructure of the occupied areas

“Aso News Network” has monitored violations committed by the armed Syrian opposition factions, in confiscating homes, buildings and vital facilities and converting them into military headquarters and barracks.
Journalist activist “Suleiman Assaf” (pseudonym) in the city of Afrin refers to Aso News Network, to the points where schools are located in the city of Afrin, which have been converted into military barracks. He says that members of the “special forces” of the Turkish occupation are stationed in a school in the city of Afrin. It is the “Faisal Al-Qudour” school located in “Al-Filat” neighborhood inside the city. The Turkish occupation has transformed the school into a military barracks since the beginning of the occupation of the city in March 2018, while members of military uniforms, known as “military police” are stationed, and the Turkish occupation supported their establishment, In the secondary school for girls inside the city, while elements of the “civil police” are stationed with the participation of elements of the Turkish occupation forces inside the “AlZira’a” school in the city, and “Amir Gobari” school is under the control of the Turkish occupation forces, from which they are used as a military barracks, while “Amir Ghobari” school is under the control of the Turkish occupation forces.Transforming “Azhar Afrin” school into a military barracks, inside which the Turkish occupation forces are stationed, and “Al-Asdiqa’ ” school, in which joint forces from the Turkish occupation and the Syrian National Army are currently stationed.

The Turkish occupation aims to impose Turkification and impose demographic change on the region, thus absenting education, and working with a specific aim to transform the role of education into a military barracks to impose a military character on the region. “Suleiman Assaf” mentions that in most of the areas that belong to Afrin, such as Jindires, Sharan, Maabatli, Rajo and Shiyeh, There is a heavy military presence of the Turkish occupation and the factions of the Syrian National Army, in many secondary and preparatory schools, while the Turkish invasion of Afrin resulted in the sabotage and destruction of dozens of schools in Afrin and its countryside, leaving them out of service due to the systematic bombardment they were subjected to by the Turkish occupation aircraft during the battles. that took place in the year 2018 and ended with the occupation of these areas.

Not only schools, but civilian property that turns into military barracks
The matter does not stop at the demographic change, and the transformation of the facilities into military headquarters, but rather the homes of civilians and indigenous people displaced from Afrin, which have been converted into military barracks. Private Sources of Aso News Network from inside Afrin indicated that dozens of houses belonging to civilians were converted into military headquarters and barracks in which they are stationed, the Turkish occupation and the Syrian National Army. In the village of Gawanda in Rajo district, for example, the house of the civilian Khalil Shukri Mustafa, from the original inhabitants of the area, was transformed into a military barracks and headquarters for the Turkish occupation forces, while a house in the village of Kafar Safra” in Jindires district, for a military headquarters of the Turkish occupation, and the “Samarkand” Brigade, loyal to the Turkish occupation, shares control of the house.

On October 8, 2021, armed elements affiliated with “Al-Ahfad Army” faction, loyal to the Turkish occupation, stormed three houses in Maabatli district, expelling the original owners of the houses and converting the houses into military headquarters.They stormed a number of houses in the village of “Kafar Jannah”, which is affiliated to the occupied city of Afrin, and attacked the owners of the houses and expelled them by force of arms.

Turkey controls and occupies the areas of Afrin, and is practicing exceptional policies that are closer to the occupation in the region, and this is indicated by documents of international institutions and UN reports.

In Shiyeh/Sheikh Hadid district, between 50 and 80 houses belonging to civilians were seized, and they were controlled by the “Sultan Suleiman Shah Division” factionloyal to the Turkish occupation, as they all turned into military headquarters and military accommodation barracks for the elements, and many of these houses were vandalized and converted into headquarters after the expulsion and displacement of its original inhabitants outside the region.

There are many homes owned by displaced civilians from the Yazidi-majority “Basofan” village, south of the occupied city of Afrin, after its residents were expelled and displaced, and they were seized by members of the “Fayilaq Al-Sham ” faction and turned them into military headquarters belonging to the faction, including the civilian home of “Dalgash” Al-Omar”, and a house for an elderly woman named “Ghazala Al-Salmo” and the house of the civilian “Suleiman Jaafar”, noting that the remaining residents of the village do not constitute 5 percent of the original population, as there are currently less than 100 indigenous people out of 2,000 people, This is because they were expelled and displaced by the factions for reasons mostly related to religious affiliation, he said.

The practices of the Turkish occupation continue in all the occupied cities. In Serekaniye / Ras al-Ain, the factions of the Syrian National Army, supported by the Turkish occupation, seized civilian homes, and in the countryside they seized villages and razed homes belonging to civilians, as happened in the village of Ain Al-Hissan, west of Serekaniye / Ras al-Ain, and the village of al-Dawdiya, which was bulldozed and turned into a military base, and the Serekaniye / Ras al-Ain Displaced Committee published, on last March 22, in a statement that a group of mercenaries of the Hamza Division of the National Army, in conjunction with the Newroz holiday, carried out a bulldozing More than 9 houses in the village of Ain Hissan, southwest of Serekaniye / Ras al-Ain, in addition to razing their orchards to turn the village into military headquarters and yards for training mercenaries.

And the names of the owners of the houses whose homes were bulldozed by the Turkish occupation army and its mercenaries, they are: Ali Mustafa Hammo Kor, Mazloum Ali Mustafa Hammo Kor, Dogan Ali Mustafa Hammo Kor, Ahmed Mohammad Hammo Kor, Ali Mohammad Hammo Kor, Abdul Qader Mohammad Hammo Kor, Mahmoud Mohammad Hamo Kor, Adnan Mohammadd Hammo Core, Aziz Mohammad Hamo Kor, Aziz Mustafa Hamo Kor, Farhad Aziz Mustafa, Hammo Kor, Ali Aziz Mustafa Hammo Kor.

International and human rights organizations: pro-Turkish forces responsible for confiscating property
A 2018 Amnesty International report stated that since the Turkish Armed Forces and allied armed groups took control of Afrin in March 2018, many of those who managed to return discovered that armed groups loyal to Turkey had confiscated their property and stole their belongings.

In this context, ten people told Amnesty International that Syrian armed groups had confiscated property and shops in Afrin, and displaced people said that their relatives and neighbors had told them that their homes had become military headquarters for armed groups loyal to Turkey or that displaced families from Eastern Ghouta and Homs were living in.

A teacher from the displaced in one of the camps in al-Shahba area told Amnesty International that his house was confiscated by the “Faylaq Al-Sham ” group in Jindires area. .

The 2020 Human Rights Report included that the fact-finding committee “confirmed the existence of repeated patterns of systematic looting and appropriation of property” by members of the National Army in Afrin and Ras al-Ain and that “after looting civilian property, army fighters and their families occupied homes after civilians fled, or Ultimately they forced the residents, mostly of Kurdish origin, to flee their homes through threats, extortion, murder, kidnapping, torture and detention. The Fact-Finding committee also reported that Turkish-backed Syrian armed opposition groups looted and confiscated schools, businesses and agricultural machinery.

The danger of turning civilian property into headquarters and barracks in the long run
On the other hand, the activist residing in the city of Al-Bab, “Mohammad Al-Ahmad” (pseudonym) told Aso News Network that the conversion of civilian homes and vital facilities into barracks and military headquarters by the factions loyal to the Turkish occupation, results in the civilians losing their property and pushing them to flee from their homes, as well as the exit of civilians from their homes. And Government buildings, health centers and schools out of service.

And that turning bakeries, places of worship, civil institutions, and others, into military headquarters in the northern countryside of Aleppo, is nothing but evidence of the ignorance and barbarism of the armed factions, and that the Turkish occupation brought nothing but destruction and devastation to the areas they occupied, he said.

While the Turkish forces and their loyal factions are still taking many homes, schools, government buildings and important installations as military barracks, in clear defiance of all international laws that criminalize this act.

It is noteworthy that the Turkish occupation forces and the factions loyal to them, since the beginning of the occupation in March 2018 of the Afrin areas, did not distinguish between military and civilian targets and used excessive force against civilian homes and important vital installations, and these violations are still continuing