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Exorbitant Extortion in Afrin: Quarter Million Dollars Demanded from Gumruk
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According to local activists' testimonies, the detention of olive harvest in mills points to a systematic policy of impoverishing residents and forcing them to submit to demands
Local activists in Afrin are documenting an unprecedented wave of restrictions on residents of Gumruk village since Turkey-linked armed groups took control of it on the eighteenth of this month.
According to activists, the armed groups, represented by the Joint Force and Sultan Murad Division, imposed a series of repressive measures immediately upon taking control of the village, after seizing it from Northern Hawks militants.
Activists from the region say these groups have introduced a new extortion system, including seizing 50% of olive harvest from properties classified as "agencies," plus 7% of olive oil collected directly at the mills.
The activists report that armed groups are currently detaining oil quantities inside the mills, depriving owners of access to their basic needs from it.
According to local sources, the so-called "Abu Al-Jamajim," the village's leader, in cooperation with the economic official "Abu Fayyad," and under the supervision of commander "Malik Hussein Al-Jasim," issued a decision imposing a new extortion fee of a quarter million US dollars on village residents.
Activists indicate that the armed groups set a mechanism for collecting the amount by imposing two and a half dollars per olive tree, regardless of its age or productivity.
The activists confirm that these practices represent a sample of a reality that includes more than 360 villages in the Afrin region, where the area has been subjected to continuous violations for more than six years.
The violations, according to activists' documentation, include property confiscation, imposing extortion fees, restricting freedoms, in addition to other practices affecting the daily life of the original Kurdish residents.
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