Four more civilians kidnapped in Turkish-occupied Afrin

The Turkish forces and allied mercenaries continue committing crimes in the territories they have invaded in North-East Syria in violation of international law.

Turkish forces have kidnapped four people from the village of Jalama in Afrin’s Jindires district. The abductees were identified as Cîhad Berekat (35), Xebat Mihemd Hebeş (30), Elî Mistefa Hebeş and Mihemed Subhî Hemo.

According to reports from the ground, the occupation forces have asked for 6,000 TL ransom to release the kidnapped civilians, of whom Mihemed Subhî Hemo was taken to the security center in Afrin city center, while the aftermath of others is not known.

The Turkish state built a regime of terror in the regions it occupied in North-East Syria, especially in Afrin, which has been under Turkish invasion since March 2018. In Afrin, which was turned into a scene of systematic war crimes, kidnapping, execution, torture, looting and forced displacement became daily routines.

Between the commencement of the Afrin invasion operation on January 20, 2018 and the conclusion of 2020, the invaders killed at least 637 civilians and kidnapped 7,800. 

According to the Afrin non-governmental organizations’ balance sheet of the crimes committed by the Turkish state and its mercenaries against women in Afrin, 84 women have been killed in Afrin since 18 March 2018. Six of these women ended their lives because they could not cope with what they had gone through. Over a thousand women were abducted by mercenaries on different dates. The fate of many is still unknown. Sexual abuse crimes against 71 women were committed.