Visit The Syria Report Subscribe to our mailing list
EN ع
  • Twitter
Syria Report
  • All articles
  • News
  • Analysis & Features
  • Reports & Papers
  • Regulations
  • Directory
  • Search
  • Menu Menu
Home1 / HLP2 / News3 / Home Seizure in Northern Syria Highlights Potential Role of Turkish Foundation in Violation of Property Rights4
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Home Seizure in Northern Syria Highlights Potential Role of Turkish Foundation in Violation of Property Rights

22-07-2020/in HLP, News /by admin
The seizure of a Kurdish activist’s property in northern Syria highlights the complexity of the situation there and the competing roles of local councils, armed forces and Turkish institutions.

About a month ago, the Turkish aid organisation IHH — which stands for Humanitarian Relief Foundation in Turkish — opened a centre for Arabic language, orphan support and children’s Quran memorisation in the home of Kurdish-Syrian journalist Muhyedin Isso in Ras al-Ain, a town just across the border from Turkey. The governor of Turkey’s southern Urfa province unveiled the centre in a public ceremony on June 23.
 
Mr Isso shared a video on his Facebook page the same day that appears to show dozens of people receiving the Turkish governor inaugurating a children’s Quran memorisation centre.
 
Mr Isso, who now resides in Germany, told The Syria Report that the incident was the second time since 2012 that warring parties have seized the house owned by his family, who are now displaced between neighbouring Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan.
 
Ras Al-Ain is traditionally home to Kurds, Arabs, Assyrians and Chechens. A stretch of the more than 100-year-old defunct Berlin-Baghdad Railway passes by the city, which sits just across the border from the Turkish city of Ceylanpinar. Ras Al-Ain has been captured by different groups over the course of the war due to its strategic location on the border. 
 
The city changed hands several times after 2012 before it was eventually captured by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in 2013.
 
During its control over the city from 2013 to 2019, the YPG targeted some Arab residents, accusing them of belonging to armed opposition groups, and took over a number of their homes in the city’s northern neighbourhoods next to the border. Those areas were converted into military zones, with tunnels and barricades to counter any potential Turkish military incursion. Ankara considers the YPG to be the Syrian branch of the PKK, a separatist Kurdish group that has been waging an armed insurgency in Turkey for decades. 
 
Isso, a journalist and activist, fled to Iraqi Kurdistan in 2012 amid threats to his safety from the Syrian intelligence apparatus after he was elected to the administrative body of the opposition-affiliated Syrian Journalists Association. He later sought refuge in Germany in 2014. Isso’s family members, on the other hand, were forced to flee in October 2019, when Turkish-backed National Army rebel factions captured the city as part of the so-called Peace Spring military incursion. 
 
More than 180,000 people were displaced from the border area between Ras al-Ain and the nearby Syrian city of Tal Abyad due to Peace Spring, according to the UN. Most of them were Kurds, and fled to the Washo Kani displacement camp near Hassakeh, as well as to Turkey, Iraqi Kurdistan and Europe. 
 
According to Mr Isso, the deputy head of the local council, Issa Al-Bunni, reached out to his family to ask that they voluntarily give up the house to local authorities so that it could be reopened as a Quran memorisation centre. The family refused and has kept photos of their ownership documents in the hopes that they might return to the house soon. 
 
Isso published a scathing post last month on his Facebook account denouncing what he called the Turkish “occupation” of Ras al-Ain, and the seizure of his family’s house. 
 
Al-Bunni, who is also an IHH representative, painted a slightly different picture to The Syria Report. He said that the area is still a military zone under the authority of National Army factions and that the IHH had agreed with military factions to evacuate some of the houses within the zone, and then communicate with the owners to refurbish them and rent them under annual contracts for usage by organisations working for the public good. The costs of repairs would be deducted from the rent, Al-Bunni added, arguing that the arrangement would be beneficial for both sides: first, the homes would be converted from military to civilian use, and second, they would be restored. Homeowners would be allowed to return at any time, he said.
 
However, Mr Bunni could not communicate with the family until after local authorities finished renovating the house, indicating that the repairs took place without the homeowners’ permission. The owners eventually refused to rent out the home and instead asked the local council to protect it and prevent it from falling back into the hands of armed factions.
 
According to Al-Bunni, the local council is unable to protect the house and must return it to the factions if the owners refuse to lease it. As a civilian body, the council is only able to issue and record contracts.
 
The opening of the centre puts all sides in a difficult position: on one hand, Isso’s family is unable to evict the current occupants of the house, while on the other, the local council is unable to keep the house out of the hands of armed factions should the family continue to refuse to rent it out.
Post Views: 0
Tags: english
Share this entry
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on WhatsApp
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share by Mail
https://hlp.syria-report.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Logo-300x81.png 0 0 admin https://hlp.syria-report.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Logo-300x81.png admin2020-07-22 13:51:152021-07-14 15:46:09Home Seizure in Northern Syria Highlights Potential Role of Turkish Foundation in Violation of Property Rights

Read also

  • Explained: Limitation of Real Estate Disposal
  • NDF Extorts Real Estate in Homs’ Al-Zahraa Neighbourhood
  • Explained: How the General Directorate of Cadastral Affairs Stores Documents
  • Government Raises Prices of Alternative Housing in Marota City
HelpAbout usContact usAdvertise with The Syria ReportTerms & conditions
Copyright © 2022 The Syria Report – all rights reserved. Your use of this website is subject to our legal terms & conditions
استيلاء على منزل في شمال سوريا يسلط الضوء... هل تصبح الفيحاء أكبر ضواحي دمشق؟
Scroll to top

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

Ok

Cookie and Privacy Settings



How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refuseing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.

We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.

We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Google reCaptcha Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

Privacy Policy

You can read about our cookies and privacy settings in detail on our Privacy Policy Page.