38-year-old Abdurehman Îbiş Biko, living in the village of Kurzele in Afrin’s Sherawa district, was kidnapped by the Turkish-backed al-Hamzat group two months ago. He was then subject to heavy torture at the hands of the jihadist mercenaries.

The man was released in return for ransom paid by his family 20 days ago. Having suffered critical injuries during the inhuman treatment he suffered, he lost his life after 20 days.

Biko was married, father of three, and working in a restaurant in Afrin.

Afrin has been occupied by Turkey since March 2018. Kidnappings are a common source of income for the Islamist mercenaries of the Turkish state. Since the beginning of the occupation of Afrin, human rights violations and war crimes have been on the agenda in what was once the safest region of all Syria. In addition to a classic colonial policy, Turkey continues to practice a policy of ethnic cleansing, which has driven hundreds of thousands of people from their ancestral settlements. The demographic change in favour of Turkey and its Islamist invasion forces, crimes such as kidnapping, torture, extortion and murder are happening with the de facto approval of the international community of states.

The women of Afrin in particular suffer from the invasion. Between March 2018 and November 2019 alone, the Afrin Human Rights Association documented 1200 cases of violence by the occupying forces. According to this, 40 women were murdered, 60 women became the target of sexual violence, one hundred women were physically tortured and almost 1000 women were abducted. The number of unreported cases is probably much higher. At least five women took their own lives in the same period as a result of the violence of the occupying forces.