Turkish-backed group besieges Syrian-Kurdish village after protest

Northern Syria/Washington — 

A village in northwestern Syria has been under siege by a Turkish-backed group of armed militants following a women-led protest against ongoing abuses carried out by the Syrian faction.

The Kurdish village of Kakhira in Syria’s Afrin district came under siege Sunday after fighters affiliated with the Suleiman Shah Brigade cut off internet access and set up additional checkpoints in and around the community, Kurdish news network Rudaw reported on Monday.

The village and other parts of Afrin came under the control of Turkish military and Turkish-backed Syrian groups in March 2018 following a major military offensive against Kurdish forces.

Many armed factions operating in the area, including the Suleiman Shah Brigade, are extremist groups that have imposed stringent restrictions on the local Kurdish population. International rights groups, such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have accused these groups of carrying out violations against civilian residents of Afrin.

The recent protest in Kakhira was sparked by the announcement of a new set of taxation against olive farmers and the subsequent arrests of several residents who had opposed the new levy, according to local sources.

“The demonstrators were met with harsh beatings and live bullets by the armed group, leaving at least six people wounded, including four women,” said Sozdar Rizgar, a former village resident who currently lives in a displacement camp elsewhere in northern Syria.

She told VOA that the militiamen have restricted all access to and from the village.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, which has researchers throughout the war-torn country, put the number of those wounded at eight.

Another source inside Afrin, who insisted on anonymity for fear of retribution, told VOA that fighters linked to the Suleiman Shah Brigade have in recent weeks seized several properties belonging to Kakhira villagers.

“The most recent example was last week, when the fighters confiscated a civilian house whose owner later died of a heart attack,” the source said.

Last year, the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on the Suleiman Shah Brigade and another armed group called the Hamza Division for “serious human rights abuses against those residing in the Afrin region of northern Syria.”

In a report released last week, the U.N. Syria Commission of Inquiry said armed groups in northwest Syria use brutal torture tactics in their detention centers that are like those of the Syrian government.

Ahmed Qitme, a researcher at the Paris-based advocacy group Syrians for Truth and Justice, said such international designations and condemnations have not deterred armed groups in Afrin from carrying out these abuses.

“They act with impunity because they feel that nobody could stop them as long as they have the backing of Turkey,” he told VOA.

The Kurdish National Council in Syria, an opposition group based in northern Syria, has called on Turkish authorities to exert pressure on armed factions and put an end to rights violations in Afrin.

The Turkish government has not publicly commented on the ongoing events in northwest Syria. Officials at Turkey’s Foreign Ministry did not respond to VOA’s requests for comment in time for publication.

The Syrian National Army — an umbrella group for all armed factions in northwest Syria, including Suleiman Shah Brigade — also did not respond to VOA’s request for comment.

This story originated in VOA’s Kurdish Service.