SNA factions sell property of original inhabitants of Syria’s Afrin
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Turkish-backed armed opposition factions, aka the Syrian National Army (SNA), have recently sold several houses owned by the original inhabitants of Afrin region, northwest Syria, to settlers from other areas.
According to Afrin Post website, SNA militants sold three apartments in one building in the Ashrafiyeh neighborhood in the city of Afrin to settlers at very low prices, selling each house at $1,300.
Turkey and its affiliated SNA factions occupied Afrin in March 2018 after launching a military operation dubbed “Olive Branch.”
The operation resulted in the killing and injury of thousands, and the displacement of about 300,000 of the original Kurdish inhabitants. As for those who chose to remain in their homeland and not to flee, they have been subjected to widespread human rights violations.
The apartments are owned by civilians Adel Sheikho, Muhammad Mannan, and Hannan Hassan, all of whom hail from the town of Jindires in the southwest of Afrin.
A militant in SNA’s Ahrar al-Sharqiya faction sold two houses, owned by Yazidi civilians Ibrahim Hassan and Hannan Abu Ibrahim from the Ashrafiyeh neighborhood, at $800 for each, the website indicated.
In addition, a militant in al-Jabha al-Shamiya (Levant Front) sold a house owned by a civilian in the Ashrafiyeh neighborhood to at $700.
The source added that a settler from Deir ez-Zor Governorate in eastern Syria sold on Tuesday the house of a civilian from Jindires countryside at $900 and the furniture at $800.
On Feb. 29, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report Turkey bears responsibility for the serious abuses and potential war crimes carried out by its forces and affiliated SNA factions in areas under its occupation in northern Syria.
The report documented “violations of housing, land, and property rights, including widespread looting and pillaging as well as property seizures and extortion, and the failure of attempted accountability measures to curb abuses or to provide restitution to victims.”