AANES Seizes Absentee Owners’ Shops and Homes in Aleppo Neighbourhoods

In October, the Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria (AANES) took control of vacant homes and shops within its areas of control in the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighbourhoods in the city of Aleppo.

The acquisition of these properties aims to accommodate Kurdish refugees recently displaced from Lebanon into the two neighbourhoods, according to officials from the Shops and Housing Committees of the Municipality. Meanwhile, the seizure of closed shops was intended to allow local residents to utilise these spaces rather than leave them unused.

These properties belong to absent Kurdish and Arab owners, some residing in Europe or Turkey, while others live in Afrin under Syrian opposition control. Some of these homes have been given to recently arrived Kurdish refugees from Lebanon, many originally from Aleppo and its rural areas.

Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh, located in northeast Aleppo, are predominantly Kurdish neighbourhoods that were vacated by regime forces in the latter half of 2012, leaving them under the management of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD). Since then, the PYD established the General Council of the AANES in these neighbourhoods, which is composed of the military wing (People’s Protection Units (YPG)) and a civilian administration represented by the “People’s Municipality” overseeing the area. By late 2016, the YPG, and regime forces, fought against armed opposition groups in eastern Aleppo, resulting in PYD maintaining control of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh.

In late October, personnel from the Shops Committee broke the locks of three closed shops in the main market, owned by a Syrian living in Germany, a resident from Sheikh Maqsoud told The Syria Report. A military force affiliated with the municipality accompanied the committee, preventing people from approaching or objecting to the actions.

The committee conducted a nominal inventory of the goods and contents in the seized shops, moving them to municipal warehouses for “safekeeping.” Relatives of the owner of these three shops were notified that their contents would be kept as “deposits” by the municipality, to be returned if the owners returned to the neighbourhoods.

Another local source criticised the committee’s claims, suggesting complexities around ownership, as some properties belonged to Kurds now residing in Afrin under the Syrian Interim Government’s control, whom the AANES accuses of supporting the opposition. Other shops belong to former Arab residents of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh who relocated to regime-held areas in Aleppo or live outside Syria.

The Municipality has rented out the seized shops at nominal rates to affiliates of the AANES, with some shops jointly managed by Shops Committee employees and local merchants. One shop owner affected by the seizures told The Syria Report that the municipality gave no prior warning before breaking locks and taking possession. According to him, the municipality should have required owners to reoccupy their shops. He claims the municipality acted as though it owned the shops, leasing them at will to selected affiliates who may alter or sublease the shops indefinitely under “furough” contracts, a lease type that extends automatically regardless of the original owner’s wishes.

In October, the Housing Committee intensively toured Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh, breaking into all vacant residences for the purpose of housing Kurdish residents recently returned from Lebanon, originating from Sheikh Maqsoud, Ashrafieh, and Afrin. Some seized homes remain empty, still under municipal authority. Absent owners worry their properties might be rented out or assigned to AANES staff or YPG members.

According to The Syria Report’s local correspondent, 250 homes have been seized, with their contents transferred to municipal warehouses. The Housing Committee has assigned 150 of these properties to refugees from Lebanon, with most granted homes under one-year rental contracts, for which they pay a monthly fee of USD 20.

The Municipality underwent significant changes following the appointment of Nouri Sheikhou (“Abu Hawkar”) as joint head of the General Council for the AANES in Ashrafieh and Sheikh Maqsoud in September, according to a local source. Abu Hawkar’s administration style is “rigid and semi-military” due to his close ties with the YPG leadership in the region, the source added. Shortly after his appointment, Abu Hawkar dismissed the Municipality head, Mohammed Amin Aliko, replacing him with Mustafa Shaheen, a former YPG officer. Both Shaheen and Abu Hawkar have military backgrounds and have shown little hesitation in prosecuting opponents of the AANES and restricting property rights, including the extortion of absent owners’ properties.