Invaders force Kurdish men in Afrin to pay heavy fines

Turkey-appointed Military Police forces young Kurdish men to pay heavy fines.

Local sources from inside Afrin reported that the so-called Military Police in Afrin has accused all young Kurds of being "draftees" or having served "self-defense duty" during the previous Autonomous Administration and, therefore have to either pay either a fine of (1000) Turkish liras or face imprisonment for three months.

According to the Afrin Human Rights Organisation, this the second time in a row that the young men have been blackmailed to " settle their issues". In fact, they had already been extortionately forced to pay a sum of 1,500 Turkish liras each "to settle their status" through intimidation and brute force.

“Under the direct supervision and directions of the Turkish intelligence service Turkey-backed militias and Turkish army use fascist-style scare tactics to depopulate the area of its impoverished remaining Kurds who now only comprise less than 20 percent of the overall population compared to 95 percent before the crisis started in Syria in 2011,” said the Afrin Human Rights Organisation.

Turkish invasion left the majority Kurds displaced and their homes and properties appropriated by Turkmen and Sunni Arab armed militiamen and their families.

Afrin has been occupied by Turkey since March 2018. 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.