Turkish state forces kidnapped two people from the Jindires district of Afrin. According to reports from the ground, the kidnapped civilians, Heysem Rafai Oso from the village of Kefer Delêya Jor and Heysem Mihemed Cuma from the village of Gaziyê, were taken to an unknown location and their aftermath remains unknown.

Over 200 people kidnapped in seven months

According to the Afrin-Syria Human Rights Organization, 208 citizens, including 24 women and a child, have been abducted since the beginning of 2023. During the same period of time, at least 13 people, including 3 women, were killed. More than 16,000 trees were cut down, over a thousand trees were uprooted and over 70 hectares of land were burned.

In a statement on August 10, the organization stated that, “The invading Turkish state systematically violates human rights by carrying out crimes such as massacres, kidnappings, violence, ransoms, confiscation of people's properties, reselling the confiscated materials in the market and plundering the environment.”

Background

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 Airforce 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 bar occasional skirmishes between YPG/YPJ and jihadi forces on its borders. As a result, Afrin offered peaceful sanctuary to over 300,000 internally displaced people from elsewhere in Syria.