“Peace Spring” areas in 2023 | Over 200 casualties in acts of violence…20 explosions and infightings…scores of human rights violations

Human rights violations have been escalating in areas under the control of Turkish forces and their proxy factions in Al-Hasakah and Al-Raqqah, known as “Peace Spring” area, since they were captured in October 2019. These forces’ aim is to accomplish specific economic and political objectives through exploiting the region’s wealth, resources and people.

 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) has monitored and tracked all developments and violations committed in “Peace Spring” areas in 2023.

 

 

Acts of violence leave scores of casualties

 

In 2023, 121 people were killed in “Peace Spring” area, and over 82 civilians and combatants were injured; the fatalities are distributed as follows:

 

-35 civilians, including five women and seven children:

 

• 17 civilians were killed by Turkish Jandarma.

 

• Seven civilians, including two women and two children, were killed by factions.

 

• Four civilians, including three women, were murdered.

 

• Three children were killed in indiscriminate gunfire.

 

• A child was shot dead by unknown gunmen.

 

• A young man died under torture in a prison of Turkish-backed factions.

 

• Two civilians, including a child, were killed in explosions of old ordnance.

 

-79 combatants:

 

• 49 killed by SDF.

 

• 15 killed in infightings.

 

• Nine killed in explosions.

 

• 12 shot dead by unknown gunmen.

 

• Three killed in explosions.

 

-Seven Turkish soldiers:

 

• One killed in a landmine explosion.

 

• Six killed by SDF.

 

Here is a monthly breakdown of fatalities documented in “Peace Spring” area in 2023:

 

• January: Six people: five civilians and one combatant.

 

• February: Three people: one civilian and two combatants.

 

• March: Two civilians.

 

• April: Five people: four combatants and one Turkish soldier.

 

• May: Two persons: a little girl and one combatant.

 

• June: Five people: four civilians, including a child, and one combatant.

 

• July: 16 people: four children and 12 combatants.

 

• August: 14 people: six civilians, including a woman, and eight combatants.

 

• September: 35 people: four civilians, including a woman and a child, and 31 combatants.

 

• October: 12 persons: three women, three militiamen and six Turkish soldiers.

 

• November: Ten people: three civilians and seven combatants.

 

• December: 11 people: two civilians and nine combatants.

 

 

Infightings

 

“Peace Spring” area in Al-Hasakah and Al-Raqqah experienced 16 factional, tribal and family infightings in 2023, during which 21 people were killed and tens others injured. The fatalities are distributed as follows:

 

• Six civilians, including a woman and two children.

 

• 15 combatants.

 

A monthly distribution of infightings documented in “Peace Spring” area in 2023 is as follows:

 

• January: 2

 

• February: No infightings were documented.

 

• March: 2

 

• April: 2

 

• May: 1

 

• June: 1

 

• July: 4

 

• August: 1

 

• September: 1

 

• October: No infightings were documented.

 

• November: 1

 

• December: 1

 

 

Explosions

 

Moreover, SOHR documented five explosions of landmines, booby-trapped cars and motorcycles and IEDs in “Peace Spring” area in 2023, which left six fatalities: a man, a child, three combatants and one Turkish soldier. Here is a monthly distribution of these explosions:

 

• January: No explosions were documented.

 

• February: 1

 

• March: No explosions were documented.

 

• April: 1

 

• May: No explosions were documented.

 

• June: No explosions were documented.

 

• July: 1

 

• August: No explosions were documented.

 

• September: 1

 

• October: No explosions were documented.

 

• November: 1

 

• December: No explosions were documented.

 

 

Moreover, SOHR has documented scores of other violations in 2023, the most prominent of which can be summarised as follows:

 

January 1: Members of “Al-Hamza” Division stormed the house of a civilian in Tel Arqam village in Ras Al-Ain countryside, because the house’s owner refused to pay levies to the members of the Division. According to reliable SOHR sources, members of the Turkish-backed “Al-Hamza” Division trespassed the house and opened fire indiscriminately in the village and on the residents of the house, injuring the son of the house’s owner severely, and he was taken to a hospital in Ceylanpinar in Turkey.

 

January 12: Members of “Al-Sultan Murad” faction, supported by the Turkish-backed Military Police, stormed Al-Aamiriyah and Al-Ahras villages in south eastern Ras Al-Ain countryside within “Peace Spring” area in Al-Hasakah countryside. According to reliable SOHR sources, The area experienced large-scale arrest campaign by “Al-Sultan Murad” faction, which targeted several young men from the two villages for “dealing with SDF,” and their whereabouts remains unknown. Moreover, “Al-Sultan Murad” faction arrested over 12 young men, after trespassing their houses, insulting their families and shackling some women who showed resistance to the faction’s members, in addition to stealing their cellular phones. These practices triggered public anger in both villages and neighbouring villages.

 

February 16: Residents of Tal Abyad in Al-Raqqah countryside set up tents furnished and supplied with heating systems, blankets and outdoors bathrooms for people from Deir Ezzor, Al-Raqqah, Al-Hasakah, Minbij, Al-Qamishly and Aleppo countryside, who were coming from Turkey. According to SOHR sources, these tents were set up for hosting nearly 1,000 Syrian men, women and children who lost everything in Turkey, after the collapse of their houses due to the devastating earthquake. Meanwhile, the “Syrian Interim Government” and factions of the “National Army” closed the crossing-points between “peace Spring” areas and SDF-controlled areas. Accordingly, hundreds of those people remained stranded in group tents. Moreover, the weak-willed individuals exploited the critical humanitarian situation of those people who were stranded in “Peace Spring” area and demanded huge sums of money of 200 up to 1,000 USD from each person in return for helping them to sneak to SDF-controlled areas.

 

March 19: A commander of “Malek Shah” faction which operates under the banner of the Turkish-backed “National Army” stormed the house of a civilian in Taghim Ajaj village in “Peace Spring” area in the northern countryside of Al-Hasakah in order to take, by force, a sum of money of an estimated 2,000 USD which the house’s owner had borrowed from the owner of an agricultural pharmacy in Ras Al-Ain city. According to SOHR sources, the owner of the agricultural pharmacy asked the commander for help in return for giving him a share of the money. It is worth noting that the house’s owner asked the pharmacy’s owner to give him more time until he could secure the required money. The commander and several subordinated militiamen, backed by the 20^th Division stormed the house, brandished weapons at the house’s owner in front of his children and wife and verbally abused them.

 

March 23: Members of the Turkish-backed “Al-Sultan Murad” faction stole a “prefabricated” school in Kherbat Al-Bir in Manajeer town in the southern countryside of Ras Al-Ain (Sere Kaniye) north west Al-Hasakah within “Peace Spring” area. According to SOHR sources, the school was taken to an unknown place, amid a state of anger among the village’s residents who failed to prevent the faction’s members from stealing the only school in the village.

 

April 22: Turkish forces brought in heavy diggers to “Peace Spring” area to dig a trench in a farmland belonging to residents in Al-Rawiyah village in the west of Ras Al-Ain in north-western Al-Hasakah. In this context, tens of the village’s residents gathered and expressed their rejection of the digging work by Turkish forces on their land, amid growing tension between Turkish forces and the residents. Turkish forces asked the commanders of “Ahrar Al-Sharqiyah” and “Sultan Murad” factions to keep the residents away from the area where digging work was underway by force. Meanwhile, residents of Ras Al-Ain countryside within “Peace Spring” area pelt Turkish forces and their machineries with stones to prevent them from continuing digging the trench which would form an exclusion zone, amid concerns by the residents about losing parts of their land. On the following day, April 23, residents from Rawiyah and Al-Aziziyah villages in north-western Al-Hasakah staged a protest, denouncing the practices of the Turkish forces and digging trenches in agricultural land which is 300 meters far from the Turkey border and belongs to residents from the two villages. The protesters considered digging the trenches aims at dividing the lands, imposing influence by Turkish forces and their proxies and seizing wide spaces, so the protesters attacked the Turkish vehicles and pelt them with stones to stop the digging operation, while the Turkish forces demanded military support to break up the protest. On that day, protests against Turkish forces and their proxies expanded after Turkish forces dug a trench to establish a prohibited area in “Peace Spring” area, where protests took place in five villages: Al-Dohamaa, Rowaya, Al-Aziza, Al-Adwaniya and Mabroka, near the Syria border with Turkey in western Ras Al-Ain countryside north western of Al-Hasakah. Dozens of men, women and children gathered in front of Turkish heavy diggers and machineries that were digging trenches in border villages, where residents pelt Turkish soldiers with and chanted slogans against them, such as “the occupier must leave”, despite threats by Turkish forces to kill them if they kept intercepting the digging machines. The residents believed that the digging operations, that Turkish forces started, aimed to steal their land. On April 24, Turkish forces temporarily suspended the digging of trenches near the border strip between Syria and Turkey in Ras Al-Ain countryside in “Peace Spring” area over the broad public rejection of establishing an “exclusion zone,” which manifested in demonstrations by the residents of the five villages. According to SOHR sources, Turkish forces assigned a faction to resume digging work, so that the residents would not block it.

 

June 5: Young men from Al-Ekaydat tribe attacked a checkpoint of “Al-Sultan Murad” faction in Al-Halow village in Ras Al-Ain countryside in northern Al-Hasakah, where members of the checkpoint had beaten a young man and his wife from Al-Ekaydat tribe, after refusing to pay a levy. Verbal altercation erupted between the couple and the checkpoint’s members, after the checkpoint’s members verbally abused the young man’s wife. According to SOHR sources,  the checkpoint’s members escaped, while the attackers vowed to punish them for insulting  the young man and his wife, amid a state of tension in the area.

 

July 14: Members of “Al-Hamza Division” and “Al-Rahman Corps” set fire to seven houses this evening in Um Ishbah village in “Peace Spring” areas in Abu Rasin countryside. Those houses belonged to civilians who had been forced to displaced from the village to Turkey and SDF-controlled areas, fleeing atrocities and blatant violations by Turkish-backed militiamen. The houses, which were burned on that day under the pretext that “their owners were agents working for the former Autonomous Administration,” had been looted by Turkish-backed factions.

 

Also in July, SOHR sources reported that the area of Tel Abyad in “Peace Spring” area which is controlled by Turkish forces and their proxy factions in Al-Raqqah countryside experienced broad public discontent due to the violations committed by armed factions operating under the banner of the “National Army,” especially arbitrary arrests which have targeted civilians and activists, predominance over all affairs in the region and corruption, at a time when Turkish authorities continue turning a blind eye to those violations. Accordingly, the region’s residents called for staging sit-in protests and demonstrations to express their rejection of those violations and reaffirm their adherence to the fundamentals of the Syrian revolutions. Through those demonstrations, residents also seek to exert pressure on Turkish authorities to interfere and put an end to those violations. Moreover, residents in Sluk town, Hammam Al-Turkman and Tel Abyad city called upon Turkish authorities and affiliated officials for:

 

• Dissolving the so called “economic bureaus.”

 

• Putting an end to the factions’ domination over civil affairs, including their control of crossings and monopolising crops, fuels and silos.

 

• Improving services.

 

• Reducing fees imposed at Tal Abyad crossing and crossings in northern Syria without any intervention from factions.

 

However, all those demands remain unfulfilled, as Turkish-backed factions are the de-facto ruler of the region and seek only to achieve their narrow interests; this has spurred many civilians to give up their jobs in official institutions, especially with the escalating corruption in those institutions.

 

August 18: Members of the Military Police beat, insulted and tortured a man suffering from mental displacement, under the pretext that “the man verbally harassed a girl inside the market of Ras Al-Ain city” within “Peace Spring” area in Al-Hasakah countryside.

 

October 29: An arson incident took place in the only bread bakery which provides Ras Al-Ain city (Sere Kaniye) with bread. The arson resulted in the burning of all machines, depriving the city’s residents of bread. According to SOHR sources, the arson was committed to cover a theft in the bread bakery, a few days after replacing the old machines with new ones, where officials claimed that the new machines cost 70,000 USD. The bakery is dominated by “Al-Hamzat” Division which imposes its control of this part of “Peace Spring” area and, in turn, dominates the administration of the bakery and its products.

 

November 26: Members of the “National Army” kidnapped a farmer, while he was ploughing his land near Aliya Village in western countryside of Tel Tamr district near the frontlines between “Peace Spring” area and areas of Tel Tamr Military Council in Al-Hasakah countryside, with no information regarding his fate.

 

Moreover, people of the Ras Al-Ain/Sere Kaniyeh area, controlled by the Turkish forces, within “Peace Spring” area, suffer from the power, abuses and violations committed against them by the factions operating under the banner of the “National Army”. Moreover, the recent seizure of humanitarian aid entering the area has been added to their suffering. Ankara-backed factions, especially “Al-Hamzat”, “Al-Sultan Murad” and “Malek Shah”, supervise the process of distributing aid in the region, who in turn distribute it to their families, relatives and gunmen, and exclude needy families from aid. The aid includes foodstuffs, blankets, stationery and other aid that did not reach the majority of families living in the area.

 

During the distribution process, the factions deliberately take souvenir photos, to convince the humanitarian organizations that they are distributing it to the needy and poor people, but in fact, they store the aid in their warehouses, amid threats to anyone provides information about refusing to distribute it to the families.

 

 

Overall, this bleak picture remains in place, with the widespread corruption and tyranny of the Turkish-backed factions without any deterrent preventing them from committing further humanitarian crimes against Syrian civilians in the “Peace Spring” areas.

 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, therefore, renews its appeal to the international community not to abandon its responsibility and obligations and find a lasting solution to the tragedy of the region’s civilians that are plagued with systematic abuse and violations committed by lawless factions, including thefts, murders, looting, arrests and kidnappings.

 

 

 

The Syrian Observatory would like to point out that all information and figures mentioned in this report have been documented and updated until the date of publication, December 26.