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Profile: Museum District in Kobani

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In 2013, the Kurdish-led People’s Protection Units (YPG) took control of the city of Kobani (also known as Ayn Al-Arab) in the Aleppo governorate, located near the Syrian-Turkish border. Just a year later, in 2014, ISIS seized the city. Following fierce battles and a prolonged siege, the YPG, supported by the Global Coalition Against Daesh, expelled the ISIS fighters from the city in January 2015. Many parts of the city suffered significant damage, especially the Customs neighbourhood, an old area with narrow streets covering about 15 hectares, located just 200 metres from the Turkish-Syrian border.

In May 2015, Kurdish-led authorities in the northeast announced their intention to preserve this neighbourhood as it is, without rebuilding it, to serve as a testament to the “resistance and victory” over ISIS. A specialised committee called the “Kobani Reconstruction Coordination” was formed, emerging from a conference held by the Kobani Canton Authority. On June 25, 2015, the committee began receiving claims from affected property owners in the city, including approximately 300 owners in the Customs neighbourhood alone, to assess their claims and provide compensation.

At the end of 2015, the Real Estate Documentation Office of the Municipalities Authority, part of the Autonomous Administration, issued a decision listing all the affected property owners, which was ratified by the Kobani Canton Presidency. Compensation for those affected in the Customs neighbourhood involved allocating them plots of land equivalent in size to their damaged properties. These new plots are public property in a zoned area west of Kobani, now known as New Kobani District. The decision of the Municipalities Authority, ratified by the Kobani Canton, along with property allocation documents, are considered ownership documents for the new plots, allowing owners to manage and sell them.

In January 2016, the affected owners began building their new homes or commercial shops in the New Kobani District. A source from the AANES told The Syria Report that more than 20 percent of the affected property owners sold their allocated plots in New Kobani, aiming to emigrate, particularly to Europe.

The New Kobani District, located on the Aleppo-Kobani road, was, before the conflict, the site of the local livestock market (bazaar) and has a small cemetery. The site is still registered as state-owned land in the Land Record of the Damascus government.

In 2019, the old Customs neighbourhood was fenced off and designated as a military museum by the Autonomous Administration, becoming known as the Museum District. This decision faced opposition from local residents whose properties had completely collapsed. These property owners had only received plots of land ready for construction as compensation and did not receive any financial support to help them build new homes, as the damage to their properties was considered war damage.

In contrast, property owners whose buildings were partially damaged in the old Customs neighbourhood and could be rehabilitated received, in addition to the construction-ready plots in the New Kobani District, a monetary compensation to help them build on it. This led those whose properties had collapsed to object to the initial compensation. They eventually received financial compensation that allowed them to build new homes, with some even receiving building materials free of charge.

Turkish Bombardment Damages Homes in AANES-held Areas

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In 2023, Turkey continued to target areas controlled by the Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria (AANES) through airstrikes and artillery shelling, causing damage to homes and civilian areas and forcing residents to flee temporarily or permanently. Ankara accuses the AANES of being a front for the Democratic Union Party, the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Turkey categorises as a terrorist organisation.

The Monitoring and Documentation Unit at North Press Media Agency reported that 711 residential and commercial sites and 21 agricultural sites in northeastern Syria were hit by Turkish shelling in 2023. The shelling focused on the towns of Darbasiyah, Qamishli, Malikiyah, Tell Tamer, Zarkan, Tell Abyad, Tell Rifaat, Manbij, Kobani, Ayn Issa and Qahtaniyah.

The Turkish shelling often targets security and military sites, checkpoints, and headquarters of service and administrative bodies affiliated with the AANES in the targeted areas. The shelling damages homes, workplaces, infrastructure and roads, and sometimes forces residents of some areas to temporarily flee for days, especially from the northern border strip towards southern towns and cities.

The years-long shelling campaign by Turkey has created a general atmosphere of fear, anxiety and insecurity, prompting many residents to consider fleeing from Syria altogether. This has led to a decrease in property prices in the targeted areas, following an increase in housing supply and a decrease in demand, human rights sources told The Syria Report.

Aside from the shelling, other factors related to the conflict with Turkey have contributed to the decline in property prices. For instance, in the city of Hassakeh, the repeated shutdowns of the Alouk water pumping station over the past five years have reduced the quantity of potable water reaching homes. This has been an additional factor encouraging residents to leave the city and move to areas with better water availability.

Conversely, the real estate market prices in the cities of Amuda and Qamishli in the Hassakeh governorate have risen due to increased demand following the mass displacement to these cities after the armed opposition took control of the cities of Tell Abyad and Ras Al-Ayn in 2019, during the Turkish military operation “Peace Spring.” At that time, most Kurds fled from these cities to the larger, predominantly Kurdish cities in the Hassakeh governorate, especially Amuda and Qamishli.

While the AANES focuses on documenting and securing funds for rehabilitating and repairing infrastructure damaged by the shelling, such as electricity and water stations and oil derivatives, it  has not formed any committees to document damage to private properties.

The social contract of the AANES, which serves as its constitution, recognises private property as inviolable. However, owners of private homes cannot file complaints with municipal councils or seek judicial recourse for compensation over damages to their properties caused by Turkish shelling. The AANES does not consider itself responsible for compensating these property owners.

Owners of partially damaged private properties bear the costs of repairs, to the extent that their financial means and the donations they receive allow. Meanwhile, many private properties that have suffered significant destruction, including homes, factories, wedding halls and artisan workshops, remain unrestored.

In the city of Darbasiyah, two homes (one of them adjacent to a military facility belonging to the Asayish internal security forces) suffered significant damage after the facility was targeted by Turkish shelling on December 23, 2023. The homeowners estimated the cost of repairs at about USD 5,000 for each house. The homeowners told The Syria Report that they received no compensation from any official entity of the AANES, whether civilian or military.

Farhan, from a border village near the city of Qamishli, was sitting with his wife at home when their kitchen was hit by an artillery shell in 2023. The family repaired the kitchen at their own expense, but fearing further shelling, they sold the house and moved to live in areas farther from the border with Turkey.

A similar situation occurred with Wana, who lived with her husband in Tell Tamer and was forced to flee to Qamishli multiple times due to the ongoing shelling between the SDF and opposition factions controlling Ras Al-Ayn. In December 2023, Wana and her husband decided to move to Qamishli and rent a house there, despite their difficult financial situation and their inability to secure stable employment in Qamishli.

Explained: The Endowments Law in Autonomous Administration Areas

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The General Council for the Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria (AANES), acting as a parliament, issued Endowments Law No. 13 on November 15, 2023. The law aims to oversee all religious activities, develop Islamic education, regulate fatwas, and supervise religious rituals.

In the law’s second and third chapters, Articles 13-27 outline the principles for managing the finances and properties of awqaf (endowments), their disposal, and investment strategies. It also establishes guidelines for leasing endowments properties or parts thereof alongside the rights of the beneficiaries. Furthermore, it sets rules for the judiciary when considering disputes related to leasing, disposal, and restoration of such properties.

Endowments Law No. 31 of 2018 regulates the Ministry of Endowments’ role in managing and investing such properties in regime-controlled areas. According to Law No. 31, endowment properties are special; they are neither state-owned nor privately owned, although they primarily originated from private donations. Such properties include mosques, Sufi lodges, schools, libraries, cemeteries, shrines, and mausoleums.

However, in areas under the control of the AANES, endowment properties were managed by a special body – called the Authority of Muslim Scholars – from 2014 until the issuance of Law No. 13 of 2023.

According to the new law, any dealings with endowment properties in areas under the AANES require approval from the Democratic Islamic Conference, acting as a Ministry of Endowments that oversees religious work, its regulations, judgments, fatwa issuance, and religious education. According to Article 1 of Law No. 13, the Conference is an independent legal entity with financial autonomy, followed by committees and the Department of Endowments and Endowment Assets. The Department of Endowments is the locally competent committee derived from the Conference, while Endowment Assets include both movable and immovable properties allocated for public benefit according to Islamic law provisions.

The Democratic Islamic Conference, through its Endowments Department, is now responsible for managing endowment funds, setting necessary regulations, preserving them, and taking measures for their optimal development and investment. It also takes administrative actions to remove encroachments and violations on these funds.

According to the law, endowments include all endowment funds and properties and all things that were or have become integral parts of the endowment property or its appurtenances or necessary accessories to it. These properties must be registered with the Endowments Administration.

The law clarified that financial rights due to the endowment from others do not become statute-barred and are considered a privileged debt, collected according to the public funds collection law. No right of prescription applies to endowment properties. The law further clarified that anyone occupying or utilising an endowment property, partially or entirely, without a valid contract documented with the Endowments Department is considered an encroacher and violator of the property. The law affirmed that the Endowments Department’s collection of occupation fees for an endowment property does not constitute a contract for the violator on the property.

Law No. 13 of 2023, in its Article 14, confirmed the prohibition of selling endowments or transferring them and forbidding their inheritance, mortgaging, or even insuring them. Conversely, Article 52 of Law No. 31 of 2018, applied in regime-controlled areas, allowed the ministry and the Central Endowments Council to sell properties or, mortgage them or exchange one endowments property for another, which contradicts the fundamental principle of endowments that prohibits selling and dealing such funds outside the purpose for which they were established.

Law No. 13 of 2023 stipulates that leasing endowment properties or parts thereof can only be done through auction, according to its provisions. However, the law includes no texts or provisions regarding the auction process. Meanwhile, Law No. 31 of 2018 allowed the leasing of endowment properties through auction, requiring the lessee to pay the cash equivalent determined by the auction, in addition to paying the annual rent specified in the contract, with a commitment to increase the rent according to the percentages specified in the book of conditions and the contract.

Law No. 13 of 2023 permits the leasing of endowment properties by mutual agreement based on a decision from the Democratic Islamic Conference if the lessee is a public entity. All leases of endowment properties are renewable for a period not exceeding ten years, with the lessee obliged to increase the rent according to specified ratios.

Administrative and Legal Obstacles Prevent Confirmation of Property Ownership in AANES Areas

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Admist rising real estate prices, increasing pressure of housing needs for displaced people in the Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria (AANES) areas, and the continuous migration of locals abroad, residents seek to document their property ownership by all available means. However, they face obstacles, mainly due to the judicial overlap and the dual authority in charge of real estate documentation between the Damascus government and AANES authorities.

Many people in AANES areas are trying to legally confirm their ownership by filing lawsuits to ensure sales contracts in the civil courts, for the first instance, under the Ministry of Justice in the Damascus government. In this case, the buyer only receives a judicial decision to confirm ownership if the property is located within a zoning plan. The Damascus real estate authorities refuse to carry out lawsuits to confirm sales contracts for properties outside of zoning plans and require a letter from the concerned municipality indicating the zoning nature of the property and the Building Code followed. The issue is that the zoning nature of most real estate areas outside major city centres is still undivided commonly owned land. As in all informal settlements, landowners sell parts of it or properties built on it as undivided shares.

For example, Ahmad has a property in Hassakeh city and confirmed the sales contract by a judicial decision from the civil court of first instance. However, when Ahmad sold his property, the same court refused to confirm the previous sales contract it had issued and asked the new buyer to obtain a letter from the municipality showing the zoning nature of the property. When he consulted the municipality, they conducted a topographic survey of the property and compared it with their zoning plans. They found that the house was built on land designated for a public park.

Expropriation for public benefit is exclusively done by a decision notified to the stakeholders, with appropriate compensation. However, in Ahmad’s case, the land was noted in the zoning plan to be a public park, but in reality, it had not yet been expropriated for that purpose. As long as the expropriation decision is not issued, the property is not public property. Therefore, ownership can be confirmed until the expropriation decision and compensation are properly issued. However, this did not happen with Ahmad, as his lawsuit was dismissed, and he could not confirm the sales contract and transfer the property to the new buyer.

Similarly, Khaled, who purchased a house and filed a lawsuit to confirm the sales contract, was surprised to find that the land on which the house was built was designated in the zoning plans to construct a school. Khaled could not confirm his ownership in this case, so he cancelled the sales contract and recovered what he had paid to the seller.

In reality, as long as there is no restraint on the disposal of the property, the owner has complete freedom to manage it. Even if the property is marked for public benefit in the zoning plans, the court should decide to confirm the sales contracts and not deprive the buyer of confirming their ownership, even if the implementation of those plans is delayed. Over the past years, the war has disrupted the urban expansion of cities and towns and, therefore, the process of updating the zoning plans and aligning them with realities on the ground.

Khalil said that when he filed a lawsuit to confirm the purchase contract of his house, which he has owned for decades on the outskirts of Qamishli city, the civil court of first instance demanded a legal permit. A legal permit is an administrative process conducted by the Directorates of Agriculture and Real Estate Affairs if the property is located in border areas outside of zoning plans. In this case, prior security approval endorsed by the Ministries of Defense and Interior is required.

As Khalil discovered, the Qamishli municipality had been planning to zone that area for years and included it in the city’s zoning plan. However, administrative procedures delayed this process, and then the war led to the neglect of the issue, which remains unresolved.

On the other hand, the AANES does not recognise the allocation documents issued by municipalities affiliated with Damascus after 2011. Allocation documents are akin to property ownership documents issued by municipalities to confirm the ownership of properties, most of which are lands sold to individuals. The AANES bases this on the regulations and systems law it issued in 2014 to regulate urban development. AANES authorities require those wishing to obtain an allocation document to purchase properties from its municipalities exclusively.

This applies to properties sold by municipalities affiliated with Damascus after 2011. The AANES does not recognise the allocation documents issued by the regime’s municipalities after 2011 and asks their purchasers to obtain new allocation documents from its municipalities. The buyer is forced to repurchase the property from the AANES’ municipalities. A buyer may choose not to do this, but if they want to build on the land, they must, again, obtain a construction permit from the AANES’ municipalities. Here, it becomes necessary to obtain an AANES allocation document.

Another Qamilshi resident, Layla, said that she obtained an allocation document from the Damascus-affiliated Qamishli municipality in 2013. However, in 2023, the AANES’s municipality asked her to repurchase the same land from them to issue a construction permit for it.

Explained: Judicial Overlap and HLP Rights in AANES-Held Areas

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Since its founding in 2014 under the name “Democratic Federation of Rojava – Northern Syria”, the Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria (AANES) has clashed with Damascus-run authorities, which continued to function in the so-called “security squares” held by the regime in various cities of northeastern Syria. The AANES judiciary also has seen competition and dispute with the Damascus government, affecting matters related to housing, land and property rights. 

As AANES took control of prisons in the area in 2014, it established a judicial structure headed by the Social Justice Council to act as ministry of justice, and affiliated diwan departments to act as courts. These diwans have two levels: first are the Social Justice Diwans, which oversee various cases except for terrorism-related suits. Second are the Discrimination Authority Diwans, which act as appeals courts. This system has seen significant difficulties and challenges, including continued operation of Damascus-run courts, which operate in the regime-run security squares. 

These regime-run courts have continued their duties at all levels of litigation: reconciliation, first instance, appeals and cassation. However, the authority of the judicial police charged with executing the court’s decisions are limited only to the security square areas. If the judicial officer is asked to send a subpoena or other notification to someone outside of the security square, then the phrase “outside of authority” is written on the request.

Meanwhile, the AANES recognises rulings made by the Damascus-run courts, including those affirming sales contracts, leases, termination of common ownership, settlement and more. In real estate cases, there is an additional problem, however: an absence of official Land Registry records under the AANES amid continued reliance on records made by local departments of the central Directorate of Cadastral Affairs in Damascus. Those local departments have also continued their duties inside the security squares.

To resolve part of this problem, the AANES Social Justice Council issued Decree No. 6 in 2021, which prevented Justice Diwans from accepting real estate in-kind lawsuits related to the original property rights for rural properties located outside of zoning plans. The decree required a return to pre-2013 status for rural properties and state-owned properties, i.e., before the announcement of the formation of the Democratic Federation of Rojava – Northern Syria. It also obligated Justice Diwans not to consider lawsuits related to the origin of the real estate rights, which had previously been considered and ruled on by a final judicial decision, regardless of the issuing entity. The Council said this decree was meant to preserve the rights of citizens, avert any potential future disputes, maintain public interest and safeguard property rights. One of the reasons for issuing the decree was the AANES’ desire to stop judicial overlap in the areas it controls.

Decree No. 6 could mean some risks to HLP rights, such as freezing the hearing of some real estate dispute cases, resulting in time lost. For example, a man named Ahmad in Qamishli told The Syria Report that an AANES court refused to consider his lawsuit to reclaim a property before the government’s Civil Court of First Instance in the city decided on a lawsuit over the origin of the property right between him and his opponent. Only once Ahmad obtains a ruling from the Damascus-run court confirming his ownership can he proceed to implementation through the regime-affiliated judicial officer in Qamishli. However, if this implementation is not done properly because the property is “outside of control”, it is then Ahmad’s right to file a lawsuit for property extortion before the AANES’ courts, which resort to Asayish forces for implementation.

Fakhri is another resident who has been impacted by judicial overlap. He was young when his father died in 2001, before the implementation of a judicial ruling to recover a property from occupants who refused to hand it over. In 2019, Fakhri requested implementation of the 2001 decision through the implementation department of the Damascus-affiliated judicial officer in Qamishli. The judicial officer refused because the neighbourhood where the property is located is “outside of security control.”

Fakhri filed a lawsuit in 2022 before an AANES court for handover of the extorted property. The court refused to consider the lawsuit and returned it based on Decree No. 6, after the property occupant highlighted a judicial decision issued in 2013 by the Damascus-run Civil Conciliation Court in Qamishli, confirming his ownership of the same property. Thus, the dispute over the origin of the real estate right, which had previously been considered and ruled on by a final judicial decision from a court affiliated with Damascus, was upheld.

AANES courts do consider property extortion cases, according to Decree No. 6. Extortion is taking someone else’s property without their consent, or doing so without a legal document of ownership or a legitimate reason. The law does not require coercion as a condition for extortion; seizure without a legal justification suffices. The penalty for extortion, according to the AANES Penal Code, is up to two years in prison, and it is one of the most common complaints received by the public prosecutor in AANES areas. 

Upon his return from Germany in 2022, Nabil found that his partner in an industrial shop in Qamishli had sold his share without consulting him. The shop was not divided between the old partners. According to the new sales contract, the buyer’s share of the shop was not determined. Nabil filed an objection to the sale, claiming that he should have been prioritised to buy his partner’s share, as the shop was communally owned. The People’s Court in Qamishli dismissed Nabil’s lawsuit, referring to Decree No. 6, due to the existence of an allotment document issued by the Qamishli Municipal Council indicating the share of each partner, which Nabil rejected. He resorted to filing an objection lawsuit before the regime’s courts in Qamishli for the same case.

AANES Road Expansions Threatens Resident HLP Rights

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In July 2022, the municipality of Qamishli, which is part of the majority Kurdish-controlled Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria (AANES), began work to beautify and expand the western entrance of the city, known as Amuda Road. However, property owners on both sides of the road raised grievances that the project violates their property rights.

The road expansion will follow an old detailed zoning plan issued in 1994. It will be 600 metres long and nine metres wide. Four of the nine metres will be designated for sidewalks and five for a green strip. The expansion will cut into properties 34 and 36 in the Halalia No. 408 real estate zone. Some 31 individuals, most of whom bought their shares before the 1994 zoning plan was issued, own these two properties. Since then, some of the owners have built homes or shops on their shares, which are now threatened with partial or full demolition.

One of those property owners told The Syria Report that their 100-square-metre house is located directly on the road, which will eat into 90 square metres. 

The AANES established its municipalities in 2014 and seized most of the municipal buildings in the parts of northeastern Syria it controls. However, they preserved the old archives and documents, as well as engineering plans, surveys, topographical charts, and zoning plans, which they relied on to grant construction permits and conduct urban planning tasks. Meanwhile, the municipalities still operating under the Damascus government’s Ministry of Local Administration moved to new, smaller locations in Qamishli, Hassakeh, Amuda and Deirek. There, they have a small staff, and their work is limited to authenticating old documents they issued and providing some administrative data.

In 2022, AANES’ Qamishli municipality twice issued eviction notices for property owners along the road expansion area. However, the notices had no legal basis and did not include a signal for expropriating the properties under eviction. They also failed to include any compensation for the property owners. The owners rejected the eviction notices and prevented municipal workers from carrying out preparatory work on the road project. 

Nevertheless, in July 2022, municipal workers began demolishing an earthen wall surrounding a house in the eviction area. But the residents gathered and confronted the workers, halting the demolition. Afterwards, affected residents submitted a collective complaint to the municipality against the project and presented their ownership deeds. In addition, they demanded financial or in-kind compensation for the damages they would incur due to the road project. 

One of the residents, whose property was at risk of demolition, told The Syria Report that municipal employees in Qamishli, some of whom are part of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), responded to the protesters with rhetorical language and party slogans. The employees said that people from the majority-Kurdish Afrin region of Aleppo governorate had seen their properties seized, looted and extorted by the Turkish-backed National Army. They criticised the Qamishli residents for demanding compensation for the road expansion project. 

Still, the municipality temporarily halted work on the project and tried to persuade residents to get on board. In September 2022, the municipality formed a committee to study and prepare a proposal for compensating the affected residents based on current property prices in that real estate area. The committee included employees from the municipality’s Violations Department and Topographical Department, as well as from the Real Estate Offices Union, a part of the Federation of Professions, an AANES-run organisation aiming to regulate certain labour in the market. The Federation of Professions is responsible for estimating property prices and resolving some real estate disputes. 

That December, the committee concluded they must provide cash compensation to residents affected by the road project. It estimated the price per square metre of land in the area to be between USD 500 and 800. However, the Municipalities Authority for Al-Jazira region, one of the AANES institutions tasked with supervising the area’s municipalities, rejected the committee’s idea. According to a correspondent for The Syria Report, this rejection was given verbally and without any justification. The Municipalities Authority invited the affected property owners to a meeting and tried convincing them that the area adjacent to the proposed road expansion would become commercial property and its value would increase. Still, the residents rejected the offer and demanded cash payment. The authority continued with administrative procedures to approve the road expansion project and sent this by mail to the Office of Municipal Affairs at the Council of Northeastern Syria. But the concerned residents returned and proposed a new idea for in-kind compensation via subdivisions of state-owned land to be coordinated between Qamishli’s government-run and AANES-run municipalities. 

More recently, on February 10, the Qamishli municipality’s executive office issued Administrative Decision No. 13, which states that the “green strip” along the road expansion zone will be converted into a setback to remain under the current residents’ ownership and that the zoning classification of the land will change from residential to commercial. The executive office considered this sufficient compensation for the property owners, who would benefit economically from what it said would be a better use of that land area. They could construct four-storey buildings per the commercial zone’s building codes. The new commercial classification will also increase the square-metre property prices. The Qamishli municipality’s technical office also affirmed that Decision No. 13 was submitted to the Municipalities Authority for Northeastern Syria, which will review it and either approve or reject it.

The Syria Report’s correspondent said that if Decision No. 13 is approved, those who objected to it will only have the option of filing a lawsuit to the judiciary to demand compensation. 

Article 41 of the AANES Social Contract Charter, issued in 2016, serves as a constitution. It states that private property is safeguarded and must be fairly compensated in cases of expropriation. Meanwhile, Article 88 says to resort to Syrian law and apply it in “legislative gaps” cases. In this case, with the absence of a specific expropriation law within the AANES, Syria’s Expropriation Law No. 20 of 1983 could be applicable, as it stipulates fair compensation for public benefit expropriation projects. 

AANES Occupies Absentee Properties for Free and via Forced Tenancy

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Recent years have seen the majority-Kurdish Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria (AANES) authorities seize many absentee-owned properties. When those absentees return home and demand their properties back, authorities have offered to lease them, without any compensation for the previous occupancy period. 

Seizure of absentees’ real estate is a form of property extortion without the owners’ consent or knowledge, and without any legal ownership title or legitimate reason to do so. 

Various entities within the AANES have taken possession of empty or absentee-owned real estate, including buildings, shops and homes. Most of the absentees are expatriates originally from the area whose properties have been seized by the AANES without their approval–sometimes without any notification. Many of these absentees were forced to return either permanently or temporarily, or appoint someone on their behalf, in order to sue the various AANES entities that had seized their properties. In most cases, they were able to reach a contractual agreement where the property-seizing entity would pay a monthly or annual rent. These contracts preserve the rights of the lessors and include terms on the time period for the lease, the eviction period and conditions to not modify the property. 

A correspondent for The Syria Report spoke with K. R., who appointed a lawyer via a power of attorney through the Syrian Embassy in Sweden to recover a property she owns in Qamishli that the AANES’ Union of Engineers took to use as their headquarters in 2018. When K. R. requested that the union vacate the property, they instead offered for her to rent it and even drew up a lease contract. The lawyer rejected this offer, explaining that his client feared losing her property after four years of occupancy without compensation. The union ended up vacating the property in late 2022 without paying any compensation to K. R. for the years it had occupied the space. 

However, the process isn’t always so simple. The Committee for Protecting Religions, which is affiliated with the AANES, occupied the home of Mr Al-Khatouni in the Al-Wasta neighbourhood of Qamishli without informing him. Mr Khatouni, who lives abroad, appointed his brother to recover the house. The committee agreed to vacate the property but requested a payment equal to the value of the improvements it had made to the home. Khatouni agreed to pay, but the committee returned and bargained over taking the water tanks and other equipment that they had installed, despite the fact that the payment included those items. When Mr Khatouni refused, the committee decided not to vacate the home and stayed on without paying rent. 

AANES courts do not hear civil real estate disputes for zoned areas until after the Department of Real Estate Complaints (part of the Categories Union) has heard and mediated such cases for reconciliation between the two sides. The Categories Union is an AANES organisation aimed at regulating market professions. Should efforts at mediation fail, then the Department of Real Estate Complaints sends a report to a court called the Justice Diwan to settle the dispute.

Meanwhile, the AANES’ Committee for Protecting Absentee Syriac and Assyrian Properties began a new policy in early 2022 to collect rental payments from AANES institutions that have occupied Christian-owned properties in the cities of Qamishli, Deirik and Al-Qahtaniyeh in the  Hassakeh governorate. In most cases, the committee negotiates with these AANES bodies without the authorisation or knowledge of the actual property owners. According to The Syria Report’s local correspondent, the committee takes a 35 percent cut of the occupants’ rental payments for itself, giving the remainder to the property owner. It is unclear what happens in cases where the property owner is deceased or has no heirs. 

The AANES formed the Committee for Protecting Absentee Syriac and Assyrian Properties in 2014 as a civil body to intervene before AANES courts in disputes involving absentee Christians. The committee considers complaints about extortion or occupation of absentees’ properties, as well as requests by tenants of these properties related to rental payments, vacancies and eviction. 

For example, the AANES’ Logistics Commission has occupied a building owned by A. Gh., an absentee, without payments since 2015. In October 2022, the Committee for Protecting Absentee Properties informed the Logistics Commission that it needed to either vacate the property or enter into a formal contract with payments calculated according to the property’s current market value. The two sides managed to reach an agreement and made a contract. However, A. Gh. had not appointed the committee to negotiate on his behalf or to lease out his property. In cases like this, any dispute or complaint from the original property owner about the contract must be directed to the committee, which drew up the lease agreement on their behalf. 

SNA Seize Properties of Residents Loyal to AANES in Tal Abyad

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Since pro-opposition Syrian National Army factions seized Tal Abyad and its surrounding countryside along the Syrian-Turkish border in 2019, many Kurdish residents were forced to flee the area. They ended up in areas controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the Raqqa and Hassakeh governorates. 

In their wake, SNA factions seized the properties of now-absent Kurdish residents working for the Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria (AANES) and the SDF. They have also taken properties belonging to displaced Arabs and Turkmen loyal to AANES. 

Tal Abyad is located in the Raqqa governorate and sits along the Syrian-Turkish border. The city was established in the early 1900s and became a destination for Armenians fleeing the genocide in Turkey. Before 2011, Tal Abyad was home to around 120,000 people, including Arabs from various tribes and Kurds, Turkmen, and Armenians. Tal Abyad residents work mainly in agriculture and trade. 

The city has also been known for its role in smuggling networks between Syria and Turkey. The Syrian government included the city in the provisions of Decree No. 41 of 2004, which regulates real estate ownership along the border. Under this decree and its amendments, people must obtain security approval before any legal disposal of their property in such areas. The Minister of Interior issues the approval based on a proposal from the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform and the Ministry of Defence. 

After intense battles with the Islamic State, the SDF captured Tal Abyad and the surrounding countryside in 2014 and maintained control of the border strip until October 2019, when the Turkish-backed SNA took the area during Operation Euphrates Shield. The operation aimed to remove SDF from a 30-kilometre belt of territory along the Syrian side of the border. 

Sheikh Hammad Al-Hammoud, a notable from one of the Arab tribes in Tal Abyad, told The Syria Report that he was displaced from the area during Operation Euphrates Shield. After he left in 2019, the SNA seized 100 hectares of his agricultural land in the village of Al-Ali Bajlih outside Tal Abyad under the pretext that he was loyal to AANES. 

Sheikh Al-Hammoud worked in agriculture and trade before 2011, but his favourable reputation and success in mediating disputes between residents landed him an appointment as a member of the AANES reconciliation office during its control of Tal Abyad from 2014 to 2019. The office is an official entity that aims to solve disputes amicably before reaching the court. 

According to Al-Hammoud, a group from the Ahrar Al-Sharqiyeh faction, which is part of the SNA, seized his land before the 2020 wheat harvest season without any prior warning or official charges against him, and without filing any actual case in court. 

Seizing someone else’s property without consent and a legal ownership deed or legitimate reason is considered extortion. No act of force needs to have occurred for a seizure to be classified as extortion.

Such seizures did not stop at the properties of employees of the AANES and its military and security institutions. They also extended to their families and relatives. 

AbdelMonaem is from the village of Sheriaan, south of Tal Abyad, and works as a traffic police officer for the AANES’ Asayish security forces. He was also displaced to Raqqa after Operation Euphrates Shield. According to AbdelMonaem, a group from the SNA-aligned Jabhat Al-Shamiyeh faction seized his 60-hectare agricultural land near the Al-Jallab River. However, the land is still registered in the name of AbdelMonaem’s father, who died in 2017. The heirs have not yet conducted the inheritance proceedings, so there are, in effect, multiple co-owners of the land, including seven sons and six daughters. 

Jabhat Al-Shamiyeh expelled AbdelMonaem’s brothers from the land just before the wheat and barley harvest in 2020, he says, under the pretext that he works with the Asayish. His family members paid the price. 

Meanwhile, Issa AbdulAziz is a Turkmen sheikh from the Al-Toubal clan who hails from the village of Hammam Al-Turkmen outside Tal Abyad. He was a political detainee in Syrian regime prisons from 1984 to 1996, charged with loyalty to the Iraqi Baath Party. Currently, AbdulAziz is a member of the Syrian Future Party, which supports AANES. 

AbdulAziz told The Syria Report that a group from Ahrar Al-Sharqiyeh seized 40 hectares of his family’s land before the 2020 wheat harvest season under the pretext that he works with the SDF. His 83-year-old mother went to Ahrar Al-Sharqiyeh’s headquarters in the area with documents proving that she and her husband, not AbdulAziz, owned the land. The faction referred her to court but without any luck. One Ahrar Al-Sharqiyeh leader reportedly told her: “When your son returns, the land will return to you.” Members of the faction are still cultivating the farmland. 

Meanwhile, AbdulRahman Al-Mohammad, who is from the village of Al-Jurn Al-Aswad outside Tal Abyad, bought three hectares of land from his neighbour in 2014. Due to the trust between the neighbours and because the local Cadastral Affairs directorates were not operating in the area during that period, Al-Mohammad did not formally register the purchase. The land’s previous owner was then displaced from the area during Operation Euphrates Shield. 

A group from Ahrar Al-Sharqiyeh seized the land by force in 2020 on the pretext that the owner was pro-regime. AbdulRahman could not convince the faction that he, not his former neighbour, was the land’s current owner. He was also unable to document his ownership of the property in the Land Registry. Repeated harassment by Ahrar Al-Sharqiyeh pushed AbdulRahman to flee to Raqqa. 

Problems Faced by ‘Migrant’ Tenants in AANES Areas

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A decision to set rental values in areas controlled by the Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria (AANES) has not regulated the rental market in Hassakeh. The lack of regulation and other challenges have left tenants, especially displaced people who have migrated to AANES-held territories, the weaker party in the tenant-landlord relationship.

The AANES’ Executive Council issued Decision No. 1 in February 2021 to regulate tenancy and set monthly rent prices in Syrian pounds. Prices ranged from SYP 10,000 to 150,000 for homes, depending on house specifications. The decision also put in place a unified template for lease contracts issued by the Categories Union, which must be formally documented with the relevant municipalities after approval from the local commune and the real estate affairs office of the Asayish internal security apparatus. A commune is the smallest unit of local governance within the AANES and exists at the neighbourhood and village levels. Meanwhile, the Categories Union is an AANES organisation that regulates market professions. 

Under the Decision No. 1 of 2021, each commune must maintain records of local rental properties. Each property has a record that includes a description, the owner’s name, the tenant’s name, the contract period, the rental payment amount, and the name of the real estate office maintaining the contract, among other things. This information must be updated whenever any changes occur. 

Many landlords do not stick to the prices the decision delineated, however. In practice, rent is priced in USD and can range between USD 40 and USD 250 per month. Landlords and tenants agree to register a pro forma rental amount when documenting their lease contracts with the municipality to comply with Decree No. 1.

The decision also gives tenants the right to file complaints against violators and tasked communes with monitoring the property rental process, identifying violations, and taking required legal steps. However, no complaints have been registered despite widespread violations and public outcry over rising rents, according to The Syria Report’s sources. This gap indicates distrust among tenants who appear to believe that their objections would be futile. Often, landlords deny their high prices before the communes or courts and then refuse to lease to complaining tenants or resort to legal evictions. In such conditions, tenants have little choice but to comply with the landlord and avoid risking material and moral hardship in the courts and complaint committees. 

Decision No. 1 states that a tenant must be given an acceptable period of time to vacate the property should there be a dispute between the lessor and landlord. The commune sets the eviction period. However, if the dispute escalates, a committee specialising in real estate complaints sets a deadline between one and three months. 

In the first stage of the dispute resolution, the commune can usually mediate the disagreement between the tenant and landlord before either of the two parties resorts to the AANES People’s Courts. According to The Syria Report’s sources, most tenancy lawsuits that make it to the courts are generally filed by the landlords due to the end of the contract period or the failure of tenants to vacate the property.

A landlord may also file a lawsuit for eviction for sabotaging the rented property. Sometimes such cases are filed with malicious intent to evict tenants who refuse to pay the increased rent. When the People’s Court issues a ruling to evict a tenant, then the judicial police or Asayish are then tasked with enforcing it. In turn, the tenant is entitled to submit a complaint about the landlord’s non-compliance with the rental contract. However, tenants usually decide not to take this route as they are the weaker party and risk losing their housing. 

Wafed card

Any person who has been displaced from another part of Syria to the AANES-held areas must present a wafed, or “migrant,” card and other documents to enter into a rental contract as a tenant. People residing in AANES whose civil registration is from outside the area must obtain these cards, issued by migrant centres affiliated with the AANES Ministry of Interior’s General Administration for Crossings and Migration. 

The card proves that its holder has a civil registration outside AANES areas of northeastern Syria, has undergone a security check, and has a sponsor within AANES territory. Their sponsor must be at least 18 years old and must not be avoiding compulsory military conscription. In some cases, the real estate affairs offices have requested that the sponsor be a property owner. Every displaced person seeking to live in AANES areas must have a sponsor. A person may sponsor up to five people, meaning a displaced family of 10 would need two sponsors. 

The migrant card includes personal information and the holder’s current address. The card is renewed every six months, during which cardholders must repeat the procedures, with the presence and signature of the sponsor. The card is necessary for moving through crossings and between different administrative areas. 

Migrant cards were introduced in 2019 for security purposes to prevent members of extremist organisations from entering AANES using false identity papers. Before the cards, the Asayish requested that displaced people living in AANES territory obtain residency permits from the mukhtars in their host areas. 

However, Kurdish people displaced from the Afrin area of rural northern Aleppo governorate are not required to undergo security checks or obtain migrant cards. Instead, the AANES’ Afrin Societal Association handles their affairs. 

When renewing their lease contracts, longstanding displaced tenants must obtain a migrant card to document their contracts formally. For displaced people who are not tenants, such as those living in the homes of their relatives, the local communes request rental agreements or proof of ownership to grant or renew their migrant cards. In such cases, people often have little choice but to draw up pro forma lease contracts and pay real estate brokerage offices SYP 250,000 to register them. 

AANES and Compensation for Those Impacted by Expropriation

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When the various institutions belonging to the Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria (AANES) expropriate privately owned lands for the public benefit, they compensate the original owners, albeit only if the latter demand such payments. The lack of laws about expropriation and bodies to regulate the process contribute to this phenomenon. The same issue applies to damages wrought on real estate and land due to the conflict and the security activities of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). 

First, land or real estate owners must submit a complaint to one of the agricultural real estate sub-committees in Northeast Syria, a region known as the Jazira. These sub-committees operate beneath the General Agricultural Real Estate Committee, affiliated with the AANES’ agriculture ministry, the Agriculture Authority. The judges who serve on these committees are appointed by the Justice Authority, the AANES’ justice ministry, and settle disputes related to agricultural lands and other real estate located outside the zoning plans of the area’s cities. They study the complaints and issue decisions to provide or withhold compensation. Complainants may also file lawsuits before the People’s Courts affiliated with the AANES. These courts, in turn, issue decisions on compensation that municipalities must follow. 

Expropriations for military use

In 2016, during the expansion of the Tal Baydar military base in the city of Tal Tamar, in the rural Hassakeh governorate, the Tal Tamar municipality expropriated some privately owned lands. The base consists of an airport, training facilities and warehouses. Both US forces and the SDF are stationed there. The owners of the expropriated lands submitted complaints and compensation requests to the Tal Tamar agricultural committee, which issued a decision to compensate them. Because AANES has no expropriation law, the payment was made similarly to an unlimited lease, with an annual value equivalent to the fertile agricultural seasons. At the same time, the landowners do not possess any actual lease contracts or expropriation decisions for their lands. 

A similar case occurred during work in 2014-2015 to expand the Salman Bek Agricultural Airport, which is located in the city of Amouda in rural Hassakeh and is currently occupied by the SDF for military purposes. The Amouda municipality expropriated civilian-owned properties surrounding the airport and compensated them, in line with decisions from the General Agricultural Real Estate Committee, with annual “lease” payments. 

Military and security damage to real estate

Privately owned real estate properties have been damaged due to war and security activities by the SDF in many border areas of the Hassakeh governorate. 

Some farmers submitted compensation requests for damages during the 2019-2020 agricultural season due to the SDF digging trenches and tunnels beneath their fields. But the General Agricultural Real Estate Committee rejected the farmers’ requests, claiming that the SDF would fill the trenches and tunnels, thereby making the damages temporary. The farmers later filled in the tunnels at their own expense after the SDF abandoned any efforts to do so. 

Digging such tunnels has harmed the foundations of homes in the villages along the Syrian border with Turkey and in the neighbourhoods of Al-Hilaliyeh and Al-Gharbiyeh in the northern part of Qamishli. Cracks appeared on the walls, raising fears amongst residents. Local administrative units, known as “communes,” rejected requests for compensation. 

Past expropriations

Municipalities within the AANES have rejected compensation requests for expropriations that occurred before 2014 on the pretext that they are not liable for such seizures, which Damascus carried out. However, the Syrian government’s municipal authorities are still active in some AANES areas, though they have minimal duties and budgets. For the most part, they certify certain documents that have previously been issued.

Some real estate owners whose properties in Amouda were expropriated in 2002 filed a lawsuit in 2019 before the AANES court after the municipality had refused to provide them compensation. In turn, the court rejected their request because the expropriation occurred when the regime was in control. Thus, the court found that the Syrian regime should have provided compensation at the time.

Qamishli Businessman Uses Forgery, Government Attempts to Seize Properties of Christian Absentees

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A prominent businessman in Qamishli recently tried to use forged documents to take possession of a real estate property in the Hassakeh governorate that is owned by an emigrant Assyrian Christian family. This attempted seizure is not the first of its kind, as similar attempts appear to target absentees’ properties.

The Ephram family, who are Assyrians, stated on July 7 saying that Jamil Hassari (nicknamed Abu Dallo) had not purchased any real estate from them. Rather, he merely rented commercial shops in the family’s building. The family said that they own those stores and have the proper title deeds.

Abu Dallo is a widely known businessman in Qamishli. He is a Kurdish merchant with good ties to officials from both the Syrian regime and the AANES. Sources told The Syria Report that he is also active in trade across the Simalka border crossing between Iraqi Kurdistan and northeastern Syria.

One woman from the family told The Syria Report that the Ephrams own a four-storey building on the main street in Qamishli. The family leased commercial shops on the ground floor, through permanent “furoogh” contracts.

Furoogh contracts have no fixed duration and are subject to compulsory lease extensions. Such contracts are still in force if they were signed before Tenancy Law No. 10 of 2006. Under the furoogh system, the tenant is entitled to hand over the shop, with all its materials and contents, to another tenant in exchange for what is known as a furoogh payment, which is equivalent to the shop’s real market value.

According to the Ephram family, Abu Dallo recently made the furoogh payment for all the merchants who were renting shops in the building. That means that he is indeed a tenant under the furoogh system.

Another Ephram family member told The Syria Report that Abu Dallo offered several months ago to buy the full property, but then reneged. The family believes that he withdrew the offer because he knows that the last male family member had plans to emigrate to Sweden, where his siblings already live.

Indeed, after he left for Sweden, Abu Dallo took advantage of his absence and attempted to seize the entire property using forged documents. He did this through a series of fake real estate contracts, each one in the name of one of his collaborators. In the last such contract, Abu Dallo “bought” the property. His next step would have been to file a claim with the Qamishli Court, part of the Syrian judicial authority, to formally confirm the sales contract. However, this never happened, as the family was alerted about his actions.

This is not the first instance of Abu Dallo using forgery to take possession of other people’s real estate. Sources told The Syria Report that the businessman has targeted other emigrants’ properties in Qamishli, especially properties belonging to Christians. Previously, the Ishaq family issued a statement condemning Abu Dallo’s seizure of their properties.

A group of judges, lawyers and cadastral employees reportedly collaborates with Abu Dallo to register his forged sales contracts in the Land Registry. Often he takes advantage of the dispersal of judicial authority in the Hassakeh governorate between courts under the authority of Damascus and those under the authority of the Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria (AANES).

The Ephram family said it took steps to prevent Abu Dallo from transferring ownership of their property to his name. First, they filed a lawsuit against him in the Qamishli court of the Syrian judicial authority. Second, they sent a letter to the Syrian embassy in Sweden. Also, the family said they believe the AANES shoulders moral responsibility for solving the issue, as Abu Dallo is considered to have close ties with the governing body.

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