Opposition Faction Taxes Olive Trees in Yahour, Afrin Countryside

Residents of Yahour, an opposition-controlled village also known as “Kakhira” in the Afrin countryside of northwestern Syria, have in recent weeks protested new taxes imposed by the Suleiman Shah Brigade, a Turkey-backed faction. These taxes limit the locals’ ability to cultivate the vacant lands of their forcibly displaced relatives. Vacant lands refer, here, to lands abandoned by their original owners. The faction, known locally as “the Amshat,” after its leader Mohammad Al-Jassim, also known as “Abu Amsha,” responded violently to the protests, arresting some of the demonstrators.

Before the start of the olive harvest season, the faction’s economic office imposed a tax of USD 8 per olive tree on vacant lands being farmed by locals with legal power of attorney from their relatives, who were forcibly displaced to areas under the control of Kurdish Protection Units (YPG), especially in the Shahba region, north of Aleppo.

In 2018, Turkey-backed opposition factions took control of the entire Afrin region in Operation Olive Branch, which resulted in the forced displacement of a large portion of the indigenous population, most of whom were Kurds, along with widespread violations of housing, land, and property rights. More than 100,000 people, forcibly displaced from the countryside of Damascus, Homs, and Aleppo, also moved to Afrin, with many settling in the homes of displaced Kurds.

Yahour administratively belongs to the Maabatli subdistrict in Afrin. The village originally had around 3,000 inhabitants, most of whom were Kurds, but half of them were displaced after 2018. The majority of those who remained in the village are elderly and women. The vacant homes left behind by displaced residents were taken over by forcibly displaced people from Damascus, Hama, and Idlib.

On September 14, the “Amshat” faction arrested three people in the village of Yahour, accusing them of “inciting” protests against the faction, a local correspondent for The Syria Report informed. On September 15, the families of the detainees, most of whom were women, gathered outside the Amshat’s security office in the village, demanding the release of their relatives. When the security office did not respond to their demands, the protesters marched to the faction’s economic office in the village, calling for the release of the detainees and the cancellation of the new tax.

After insistence by the protesters and their determination to remain in front of the office until their demands were met, the faction’s members forcibly dispersed the protest. They insulted and verbally abused the women, even physically assaulting some. Fearing that the protests might escalate following the assault on the women, the faction brought in military reinforcements from its headquarters in the nearby Sheikh Hadid subdistrict. The faction also cut off internet communications in Yahour, imposed a lockdown on the village by preventing people from entering or leaving, and set up checkpoints. They also detained at least seven people, including an elderly man.

The leadership of the Syrian National Army (SNA), which oversees the Amshat Brigade, described the incident as simply a quarrel between two families, one displaced and the other from the village. They sent a military police force to Yahour. On September 15, a delegation from the SNA leadership, including the Amshat leader Mohammad Al-Jassim and the leader of the Hamza Brigade, Saif Bolad, visited the village. They posed for photos with the locals and met with the village elders in an attempt to show that everything was normal.

The forcibly displaced residents of Yahour held solidarity protests in their places of displacement in northern Aleppo, especially in the towns of Wahshiyeh and Al-Ahdath under YPG control. They were directly affected by the events in Yahour, as most of them benefit from their vacant lands through power of attorney made with their relatives still living in the village, from which they receive a share of the profits.

Through this type of power of attorney, the remaining Kurdish residents of Afrin, not only in Yahour but in other areas too, have been able to cultivate their displaced relatives’ vacant lands. Under these legal powers of attorney, the displaced landowners grant their relatives or acquaintances still residing in Afrin the right to cultivate their vacant lands. To validate these powers of attorney, the landowner must have ownership documents. The only authority that can issue these ownership documents is the local offices of the General Directorate of Cadastral Affairs under the Damascus government, which still operates in some areas of the AANES but has ceased functioning in opposition-held areas in northwestern Syria. These documents can also be obtained directly from the Directorate of Cadastral Affairs in Aleppo, and many displaced Kurds in the AANES areas face no significant issues in accessing it. The power of attorney is then sent to the opposition’s Afrin court, either in writing or via a video call with a judge.

Anyone unable to obtain the necessary power of attorney cannot appoint someone to manage or cultivate their vacant land. In such cases, the economic offices affiliated with SNA factions take over the land and exploit it. In every area under the Syrian Interim Government’s control, there is a dominant faction among the National Army factions, and its economic office controls the properties of absentee landowners, as well as the revenue from trade, border crossings, and other sources.

Recently, even those who possess power of attorney have been forced to pay unlawful taxes on each olive tree, under the name “usufruct tax.” Through this tax, the Amshat faction is attempting to assert control over all vacant lands by restricting the rights of authorised individuals to cultivate their relatives’ lands.

The factions are also quick to revoke power of attorney, even those approved by the Afrin court, if there is any accusation or security report against the original landowner. This could be, for example, an allegation of supporting or being linked to Kurdish units, a claim of weak familial ties in the power of attorney, or even an accusation that the authorised individuals have neglected the farmland. Once the power of attorney is revoked, the controlling faction assumes the rights to manage the land.

Since 2019, there has been an unspoken internal agreement between the opposition’s local councils and National Army factions regarding the exploitation of vacant lands in Afrin which nobody claims under power of attorney. Under this agreement, the factions have taken control of these lands, with their economic offices receiving 86 percent  of the olive oil production, while the local councils receive only 14 percent. The local councils justify their share by claiming that it is used to fund municipal services.