“Olive Branch” area in October 2024 | Nearly 40 arbitrary arrests and over 80 other human rights violations by Turkish-backed factions

Since Turkish forces and their proxy factions captured several areas in north-western Aleppo, namely Afrin canton, after a military operation known as “Olive Branch”, humanitarian crises have been emerging and worsening gradually, with violations, attacks and explosions occurring almost daily. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) has monitored and tracked prominent developments and gross violations in these areas in October 2024, which can be summarised in the following main points:

 

 

Acts of violence leave casualties

 

In October, SOHR documented the death of 14 people in areas under the control of Turkish forces and factions operating under the banner of “Olive Branch” operations room in the north-western countryside of Aleppo; they are as follows:

 

• Three civilians, including a woman, were killed in indiscriminate gunfire and infightings.

 

• 11 combatants: three were killed in clashes with “Tahrir Afrin” Forces and eight were killed in factional infightings.

 

Here are further details on the circumstances of those deaths:

 

• A young man was killed with gunshot fired by mistake from his cousin’s gun in Jandiris city in Afrin countryside.

 

• A man and a woman died of the wounds they had sustained in indiscriminate gunfire on the camps of Kafr Jannah village during clashes between “Al-Jabha Al-Shamiyyah” and the “joint forces” in the region.

 

• A member of “Al-Sham Corps” was killed in an attack by Kurdish forces on positions of the faction on the frontline of Kabashin village in Shirawa district in Afrin countryside.

 

• Four members of the “joint forces” were killed in violent clashes with “Al-Jabha Al-Shamiyyah” on the frontlines of Kafr Jannah and Qatmah in Sharran district in Afrin countryside.

 

• Four members of “Liwaa Soqour Al-Shamal” were killed in violent clashes with the “joint forces” in the villages of Sheikhorzah, Sa’rnajkah and Kotali in Maabatli district in Afrin countryside.

 

• A member of “Liwaa Al-Uzbek” which is affiliated to the “joint forces” was killed in clashes with “Tahrir Afrin” Forces (Afrin Liberation Forces) on Anab frontline in Afrin countryside.

 

• A member of the “joint forces” was killed by a landmine explosion, while a group of militiamen were attempting to sneak into positions of “Tahrir Afrin” Forces on Baynah frontline in Shirawa district in Afrin countryside.

 

 

Ongoing heinous crimes and violations

 

As Turkish-backed factions continue their blatant violations on a daily basis against the residents who have chosen to stay in their areas over displacement and against people displaced to Afrin canton, SOHR has documented the arbitrary arrest of 34 civilians, including two women, by Turkish-backed factions and three cases of kidnapping in October.

 

 

Furthermore, SOHR has documented over 80 other violations distributed as follows:

 

-Six incidents of seizing farmlands belonging to forcibly displaced people from Afrin, where members of “Suqour Hayyan” faction sold the season of 910 olive trees to their loyalists for a sum of 4000 USD, belonging to four civilians forcibly displaced from Afrin by the military operation during 2018, where these fields were managed by clients for two years..

 

-18 incidents of imposition of levies by factions, military police and Turkish intelligence; they are as follows:

 

• 14 incidents in which ransoms of 300 to 5,000 USD each were paid by families in return for the release of detainees.

 

• An incidents in which members of a group led by “Adnan Al-Khuwailid / Abu Walid Al-Izza” of “Al-Sultan Murad” Division imposed a levy reached 60% on the olive harvest from fields owned by displaced civilians, where these fields are run by persons in Qournah village in Bulbul district. The group’s members also threatened to seize theses fields if the levies were not paid.

 

• A levy of 400 TL was imposed by “Al-Sham Corps” under the pretext of “guarding fields,” as well as another levy of 100 USD to be paid every season. In addition, the faction imposed other levies on the residents of Sharran district in Afrin countryside.

 

• An incidents in which “Al-Hamza Division” imposed levies of 2.00 USD on every fruit-bearing tree and of 0.50 up to 1.00 USD on plain trees, along with interrogation of several residents and imposition of taxes on them under the pretext of administrating displaced people’s properties.

 

 

Assaults

 

Also, SOHR documented four assaults in “Olive Branch” area in the past month; they can be summarised as follows:

 

• Members of “Islamic Ahrar Al-Sham” Faction assaulted two young men working as guards of olive fields that belong to Kurdish civilians in Jinderes in Efrin countryside under the pretext of “guarding olive fields in areas dominated by the faction without obtaining permissions.

 

• Members of “Al-Hamza” Division stormed a house in Kafr Zait village in Afrin countryside where they brutally beat the owner of the house and threatened to kill him, where the civilian had filed a complaint against them, after they had authorized a man to administrate an olive grove belonging to the civilian behind his back.

 

• Members of “Al-Sultan Murad Division” attacked a civilian from Bulbul distrtict in Efrin countryside while picking olive from his field, for charges of “picking olive before its time”, where they didn’t just violently assault him they also stole nearly 15 bags of olive from the field.

 

 

Thefts

 

Also, in October SOHR documented 52 thefts committed by different factions of the ‘National Army,” where the harvest of 6,110 olive trees were looted by those factions. The factions had prevent residents from harvesting their crops under the pretext that “the olive did not ripened,” before residents were shocked when they found out that on the harvest was stolen by the faction.

 

 

Infightings

 

“Olive Branch” area experienced only one infighting in October between the “joint forces” on one hand, and “Liwaa Soqour Al-Shamal” and “Al-Jabha Al-Shamiyyah” on the other over rejection by the command of “Liwaa Soqour Al-Shamal” to disband the faction according to direct orders by Turkish forces.

 

The clashes left 10 people dead; they are as follows:

 

• Four members of the “joint forces.”

 

• Four members of “Liwaa Soqour Al-Shamal.”

 

• Two civilians, including a woman.

 

In addition, tens of members of the conflicting powers and 27 civilians, including three children, were injured in these clashes.

 

 

Explosions

 

“Olive Branch” area experienced no explosions in the past month.

 

 

It seems that violations in “Olive Branch” areas will not stop as long as Turkish forces and their proxies keep breaching all international laws and charters, while no party or international or regional player is exhibiting any willingness to put an end to these “grave” violations, despite SOHR’s repeated warnings about the dreadful humanitarian situation in the region.