According to local sources, Turkish state forces have abducted five civilians from the village of Birimja in Afrin’s Mabata district on 9 August.

The kidnapped civilians were identified as Ehmed Bekir, Necimdîn Betal, Mihemd Nûri Seydo, İsam Mihemed Musa and Mustefa Seydo.

The fate of civilians abducted by the occupation forces in Afrin mainly remains unknown. The invaders demand a ransom of 150-200 thousand Syrian Lira to release them.

On 24 July, 72-year-old Kurdish civilian Ramazan Elo was abducted in Qestelê Xedreya village of Bilbile district.

The occupiers kidnapped 7 civilians, including 2 minors, in Sherawa district a on 6 July and 11 civilians in Mabata district on 9 June.

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.

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