The Turkish state established a complete terror regime in Afrin, which it occupied in 2018. Kidnapping, torture, execution, extortion and plunder have become daily crimes.

According to local sources, the ‘Military Police’, the paramilitary criminal apparatus established by the Turkish state in the occupation zone in northern Syria, kidnapped a citizen named Ebdurehman Mistefa from Mabeta on Monday, 15 July.

The 49-year-old man from Mabata district was reportedly deported from Turkey a week ago, and his whereabouts and fate are currently unknown.

Sources in the region also reported that the ‘Al Muntesir Billah’ gang group, commanded by a ringleader named Abdullah Abu Casim, cut down hundreds of olive trees belonging to citizens in the city of Afrin and Shehba cantons.

According to local sources, the gang leader Abu Casim and his cousin Ehmed Îbrahîm El Berho from Hama city took the felled trees to Erebo and Erebê Hemşelekê villages in Mabata district to sell them.

Afrin occupied since 2018

Afrin Canton was the westernmost canton of Rojava and North and East Syria, home to 200,000 ethnic Kurds. Though the population was overwhelmingly Kurdish, it was home to diverse religious groups including Yazidis, Alawites and Christians alongside Sunni Muslims.

On 20 January 2018, Turkey launched air strikes on 100 locations in Afrin, as the onset of an invasion they dubbed ‘Operation Olive Branch.’

The Turkish Air Force indiscriminately shelled civilians as well as YPG/YPJ positions, while a ground assault was carried out by factions and militias organised under the umbrella of the Turkish-backed National Army.

By 15 March, Turkish-backed militias had encircled Afrin city and placed it under artillery bombardment. A Turkish airstrike struck the city’s only functioning hospital, killing 16 civilians.

Civilians fled and the SDF retreated, and by 18 March Turkey was in de facto occupation of Afrin. Between 400 and 500 civilians died in the invasion, overwhelmingly as a result of Turkish bombing. Other civilians were summarily executed in the field.

Prior to the Turkish invasion, Afrin had been one of the most peaceful and secure parts of Syria, virtually never seeing combat during the civil war but occasional skirmishes between YPG/YPJ and jihadist forces on its borders. As a result, Afrin offered peaceful sanctuary to over 300,000 internally displaced people from elsewhere in Syria.