Lelun Afrin
The district of Sheikh Al-Hadid / Shiya and villages under the control of Sultan Suleiman Shah’s faction are witnessing popular discontent, due to the imposing of financial fines and taxes on the people with various pretexts, one of which amounted to about forty thousand dollars on the entire population of the village.
In the details, private local sources confirmed to the “Lelun Association for Victims”, who refused to reveal their identities afraid of arrest, that the Sultan Suleiman Shah squad, known as Al-Amshat, led by Muhammad Al-Jassem, nicknamed “Abu Amsha”, imposes financial fines on the Kurds returning from the indigenous population to their homes in villages which they control, after summoning them to the security branches and interrogating them for varying periods. Some of them are subjected to torture and imprisonment, until they are allowed to reside and recover their homes and property after paying a ransom and varying financial fines according to the charge against them, including the towns: Sheikh Hadid / Shiya, Sanara, Anqala and Kakhera, Shetka, Khalil, and Alkana). Those amounts ranged between 1,000-1,500 US dollars, under the pretext of settling their situation.
Many armed factions, which are controlled by Turkey and control the whole of Afrin region, and the district of Sheikh Al-Hadid / Shiya specially its affiliated villages, impose sums and financial fines on each family of the returning Kurdish population from Aleppo city and the neighboring regional countries such as Lebanon, Turkey and the Kurdistan Region. Note that the process of collecting money takes place in the Kurdish regions only, not in other regions such as Azaz, Al-Bab, Jarabulus, Marea, and others.
On the other hand, another local source told “Lelun” that the “Bahar Relief Society” distributed financial aid at the beginning of August 2023, in the amount of $150, to some families in several villages, including Sheikh Al-Hadid, Sanara, and Anqala. Members of the aforementioned faction ( Al-Amshat) took $100 from each family at gunpoint. Where poor families of the indigenous Kurdish population and the displaced, who suffer from great difficulties in securing basic needs, periodically receive financial aid, which makes them a target for the armed factions’ ambitions to take their share from them.
In the same context, the “Al-Amshat” faction imposed a fine of $50 on about 400 families from the village of “Kakhra” after they received cash aid of $100 from the “Al-Ihsan Charity Association” at the beginning of August 2023 but after the association left the village, members of the faction summoned all the families who received financial aid and forced them to hand over the amount publicly. Cases of collecting money from families are repeated under various pretexts and on different occasions.
Also, as part of the policy of harassing the indigenous people in the region, people are repeatedly prevented from harvesting their agricultural crops to force them to pay certain percentages of money imposed by the faction on the people in order to allow them to harvest the crops. In this regard, private local sources told “Lelun” that the “Al-Amshat” faction imposed an exorbitant tax (forty thousand US dollars) on the people of the village of “Kakhra / Yakhour” in the Maabatli district, under the pretext that the villagers harvested the sumac crop without obtaining “the approval or permission” from the aforementioned faction. Same faction imposed a tax of three thousand US dollars on the “Mirkan/Hassiyeh”s people and a thousand US dollars on “Shitka” village of the Maabatli district in the Afrin region, under the pretext that the people harvested the sumac crop without the permission of the faction as well. .
On the other hand, a source from the region told “Lelun” field researcher that a tax of 100 Turkish liras was imposed on each walnut tree of the villagers of Shitka who own walnut trees, in order to be allowed to manage and reap them.