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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.

Explained: How Denying Children their Syrian Mother’s Nationality Impacts HLP Rights

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Depriving the Syrian mother of granting nationality to her children directly affects their rights to housing, land, and property ownership, including their ability to legally manage real estate, their rights to inheritance, and the transfer and registration of property in their names in the Land Record.

According to Decree No. 276 of 1969 concerning Syrian nationality, there are only two ways to acquire nationality: either through the principle of territory for those born on Syrian soil, even if of unknown parents, or through paternal lineage for those born to a Syrian father, regardless of the place of birth.

The decree does not grant nationality to those born to a Syrian mother and a foreign father. This means a Syrian mother cannot pass her nationality to her child through maternal lineage, except under strict conditions.

Notably, the law grants Syrian mothers the right to pass on their nationality to their children in only one case: if the birth occurs on Syrian soil and the father is unknown. This exception thus equates the birth on Syrian soil of a child with an unknown father to that of a child with unknown parents. A child born to a Syrian mother and a known but stateless father will also be stateless. This situation includes a significant segment of Syrian Kurds known as the unregistered and the foreigners of Hassakeh.

While children of a Syrian mother and a foreign father can, in principle, inherit the mother’s movable and financial assets, they are treated as foreigners in matters of real estate. According to Law No. 11 of 2011, which regulates the ownership of real rights to property by non-Syrians in Syria, a foreigner can own only one legally licensed built property, not exceeding 140 square meters, for residential purposes only.

Children of a Syrian mother and a foreign father are not permitted to own property inherited from their mother, except in one case: the principle of reciprocity. This means that if the foreign country where they hold citizenship allows the transfer of property ownership to Syrians through inheritance, then the children of a Syrian mother and a foreign father can inherit property from their mother. If their country does not allow this, the children are not permitted to inherit property from their mother, whether the property is inside or outside a zoning plan.

Law No. 11 of 2011 grants them a two-year period from the date of inheritance, meaning from the death of their mother, to transfer the ownership of the property to a Syrian citizen through sale or transfer. If this two-year period expires without action, the property ownership is transferred to the General Commission for the Management and Protection of State Properties, which will compensate the heirs according to the provisions of Expropriation Law No. 20 of 1983.

Law No. 11 of 2011 allows for an exception to the above rules through a decision by the Council of Ministers, based on a proposal by the Ministers of Interior and Foreign Affairs, who can permit the transfer of property ownership in Syria through inheritance if the heirs are non-Syrian.

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.

Security Approval Requirements Hinder Real Estate Operations for Kurds in Hassakeh

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To conduct any real estate transaction in the border area of Hassakeh Governorate under de facto control of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), an administrative process called “legal licensing” must be carried out that requires prior security approval. This process and its relevant security approval can only be obtained through the security services of the Syrian regime.

Though the AANES has controlled the Hassakeh governorate since 2014 and established directorates, institutions and courts, it has not established its own Directorate of Cadastral Affairs due to the lack of available Land registries. Therefore, the documentation of real estate occurrences in Hassakeh remains limited to real estate documentation offices under the Directorate of Cadastral Affairs in the Ministry of Local Administration of the Damascus government and the relevant courts under the Ministry of Justice.

The headquarters of these courts and real estate documentation offices are located in the “security squares” controlled by the regime’s forces in the cities of Hassakeh, Qamishli and Al-Malikiah. These courts and offices require those wishing to confirm their real estate occurrences on lands outside of zoning plans and in the border areas with Turkey and Iraq to obtain prior security approval issued by a decision of the Minister of Interior based on a proposal from the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, and approval from the Ministry of Defence. This is per the Law No. 41 of 2004 Determination of Border Areas, amended by Decree No. 43 of 2011. Law No. 41 of 2004 and its amendments aim to impose a security belt within the Syrian territories along the borders, limiting legal transactions in real estate ownership in border areas.

Practically, anyone wishing to conduct any real estate transaction in the border area must undertake the legal licensing’s administrative process. This involves submitting a request to the Directorate of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, accompanied by individual registration extracts for the parties involved in the real estate transaction, a copy of the legal contracts between them, a real estate registration statement, and a land area statement. The property details, parties involved in the real estate transaction, and the request for legal licensing are then sent to the Ministries of Interior and Defence, which contact the security services to conduct a security study on the contract parties. Based on this study, security approval or rejection is given.

Until 2011, parties involved in a real estate sale, for example, were required to present the legal licence during the progression of a lawsuit to confirm the property sale contract in the Civil Court of First Instance. If the legal licence was not presented, the lawsuit would later be dismissed in court. Buyers often resort to a court ruling to prove the purchase of a property. This is done for various reasons, including when the real estate is not subdivided, there is difficulty in obtaining prior security approval, or there are problems obtaining a construction permit, even if the land is ready for construction.

Often, lawyers would suffice with filing a lawsuit to confirm a real estate sale contract and registering it in court. If the legal licence was approved, they would continue with the lawsuit; if it was rejected, they would be satisfied with a copy of the session minutes, which the buyer would use as proof of their property ownership.

However, Law No. 43 of 2011, which amends Law No. 41 of 2004, abolished this possibility and mandated a legal licence before filing the lawsuit. The security apparatuses require that parties involved in real estate transactions in the border areas reside in Syria when requested for an investigation, or their departure from Syria must have been legal through official crossings and airports. This condition often deprives many refugees in neighbouring countries who left Syrian territories through irregular means of obtaining a legal licence. The security study to approve or reject the legal licence typically takes four months. In case of rejection, one must wait a year before reapplying for the legal licence to the Directorate of Agriculture.

In practice, obtaining security approval for the legal licence is difficult if one of the transaction parties is Kurdish. The Syria Report has not found any circular or decision from any official Syrian body prohibiting Kurds from receiving security approvals for legal licensing. This remains the case even after Decree No. 49 of 2011 issuance, which granted Syrian nationality to those registered as “foreigners” in Hassakeh. Security personnel meticulously investigate details about the parties involved in the real estate transaction, including their tribal and ethnic lineage, relatives, whereabouts and professions. They interview neighbours, work colleagues, mukhtars and others. Lists of names whose legal licensing applications have been rejected are displayed in the real estate documentation offices.

Kurdish farmers in border areas often resort to concluding informal sale contracts when purchasing land and informal sharecropping or agricultural investment contracts when leasing it. In both cases, these contracts are not documented with any official authority, which affects land prices.

Kamiran, who is Kurdish, told The Syria Report that in 2020, he bought agricultural land in the border area with Turkey and paid an SYP 150,000 (around USD 170 then) bribe to the security personnel who investigated him at his home. Despite this, his application for legal licensing was rejected, and he was forced to sell the land he had purchased under an informal contract.

Similarly, Hasni, who is also Kurdish, told The Syria Report that he obtained the legal licence to register agricultural land he bought outside the zoning plan in his name in the land registry after paying USD 2,000 to a security services intermediary.

On the other hand, Mohammad, an Arab, said his father bought a two-hectare plot of land 20 years ago in the countryside of Qamishli. However, he did not obtain the legal licence because the seller had been convicted in a separate case involving the Agricultural Cooperative Bank. Consequently, Mohammad’s father could not secure a court ruling affirming the validity of his purchase, and all he possesses is a document registering the lawsuit. A few years ago, the original seller of the land returned and claimed it, arguing that it was still in his name in the Land Registry. Therefore, Mohammad resorted to a court affiliated with the judicial apparatus of the AANES and filed a property extortion lawsuit. However, the court also rejected his case due to the absence of a court ruling or ownership deed in Mohammad’s family’s possession.

Property Rights Violations Continue in Ras Al-Ayn and Tal Abyad

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Nearly four years ago, in October 2019, factions from the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) took control of a strip of borderland between Syria and Turkey, which includes the cities of Tal Abyad in the Raqqa governorate and Ras Al-Ayn in the Hassakeh governorate. 

The region had been under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) since 2013 and was governed by majority-Kurdish autonomous administration institutions, while some departments and institutions of the Damascus government remained present at that time.

After the SNA factions took over this strip of borderland, many residents – especially Kurds – fled towards the Kurdistan region of neighbouring Iraq and to areas controlled by the Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria (AANES) in Hassakeh and Raqqa. 

Many of these displaced people are still reluctant to return, seeing the unstable security situation in their hometowns. This fear is reinforced by reports of violations by the opposition SNA factions toward displaced former residents’ housing, land and property rights. These factions have seized homes and businesses of the displaced Kurds, justifying their actions by accusing them of affiliating with the SDF or collaborating with the AANES.

Keljehan Harsan was displaced from Ras Al-Ayn and is currently staying in her sister’s house in Amouda. She told a correspondent for The Syria Report that since her forced displacement in 2019, she has been worried about what happened to the house she left behind. Harsan’s Arab neighbours who remained in Ras Al-Ayn told her that her house was looted and burnt. In that house, Keljehan left memories of her family and was only able to take the bare essentials with her, as she feared oncoming clashes. She left all the awards that her late musician husband had received and old possessions of her children who are now living scattered around the world.

Hendrin Eeso, who was forcibly displaced from Ras Al-Ayn to the city of Qamishli, told The Syria Report that her family left behind a two-storey building, which is now inhabited by a displaced family from Deir-ez-Zor without any legal basis or financial compensation. Eeso said that her family left behind all their furniture and personal necessities, and they are now living in a rented home in Qamishli.

The vast majority of the Kurds residents of Ras al-Ayn, were displaced after the SNA took control of the city. However, many Arabs were also forcibly displaced from the city, leaving their properties behind.

Khalid Al-Ahmad, who today resides in the Al-Twina camp in Hassakeh, said that his son used to work for an AANES institution. Fearing retribution and arbitrary detention by the SNA, the entire family left the city. Ahmad said he fears returning and would prefer to sell his house in Ras Al-Ayn to buy another one in Hassakeh. However, he added that he forgot to take the title deeds of the house when they left: “Even if I had the ownership papers with me, under the current circumstances, no one would buy the house.”

About 20,000 displaced people from Ras Al-Ayn live in the camps of Al-Talai, Al-Twina, and Tel Al-Samn in Hassakeh amid harsh conditions such as scarce water supply and desert temperature fluctuations, according to The Syria Report correspondent.

One resident, who is now living in a house left behind by someone displaced from Tel Abyad, told The Syria Report that an armed faction asked him to house another family with him in exchange for USD 2,000 and for an undetermined duration. This resident is not renting the house and does not even know the original owner; he simply occupied it. The resident said that a similar offer was made by the armed faction to many occupants of properties left vacant by the displaced. 

The families they are often asked to house are usually forcibly displaced from opposition areas like the countryside of Damascus, and fight alongside the SNA. 

In return, residents who agree to shelter such families receive a written unofficial guarantee from the armed faction stating that no entity can evict them from the property. This note aims to prevent the original property owner from reclaiming their home if they return to the area.

Meanwhile, some factions make returnees pay a “protection” fee of as much as USD 1,000 to assist them in reclaiming their vacant properties or evicting the current occupants. Unofficial and undocumented measures like this can lead to many disputes between the armed factions over residences in their zones of influence. Some returnees might even face monetary demands for protection from multiple factions at once.

According to a 2021 report prepared by lawyers from the PÊL- Civil Waves NGO operating in AANES areas, opposition factions have taken over more than 3,000 homes of those forcibly displaced from Ras Al-Ayn alone. Some of these homes are occupied by newly displaced people who have come to the region, including Iraqis. For instance, in the neighbourhoods of Al-Mahatta and Al-Kharabat in Ras Al-Ayn, more than 20 Iraqi families have resided in homes belonging to displaced individuals since 2019, without any legal documentation formally allowing them to do so.

Property ownership documents for all towns and rural areas of the Hassakeh governorate are preserved in the land registry located in the security square under the control of regime forces in the centre of Hassakeh city. Specialised rooms in the Hassakeh courthouse handle the tasks of the Ras Al-Ayn courts. This provides some reassurance to property owners displaced from Ras Al-Ayn, as no unlawful changes can be made in the property records. 

However, on the flip side, this protection remains only theoretical for properties currently occupied and used by those other than the rightful owners. Harsan said that her family loses the annual agricultural yield from a piece of land spanning 200 hectares, as armed faction members control and exploit the area without any compensation.

Rising Number of Kurds Formalise Property Ownership in Northeast Syria

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Until just a few years before 2011, the sales of houses, commercial shops, and agricultural lands in northeastern Syria were done via contracts that were not officially registered in the courts or Land Registry.

There were various reasons for this. One was the reliance on personal trust between people due to tribal kinship relationships. Another was a limited understanding of legal matters. There was also a desire to avoid the financial costs of property transfer. Moreover, thousands of Kurds were stripped of their Syrian nationality under the exceptional 1962 census and were deprived of most of their housing, land and property rights, leaving them unable to carry out formal real estate transactions.

As a result, many properties and lands in northeastern Syria remained communally owned and undivided. Their ownership documents were unofficial sale contracts known as “barania contracts” – in Arabic, barania means “outside”, here referring to contracts being “outside” the legal system, i.e., informal. However, the accumulation of these issues over time led to many serious problems affecting housing, land and property rights.

Today, a number of factors — urban growth and zoning expansion, population growth with internally displaced families from other governorates, and multiple, overlapping authorities in control of northeastern Syria– leave the heirs in the governorate fearing they could lose their property rights. Decree No. 49 of 2011, which finally granted Syrian nationality to Kurds previously registered as “foreigners”, has contributed to a surge in demands from this group to formalise real estate transactions that occurred during the period in which they were deprived of Syrian nationality as ownership by foreigners is very restricted.

As a result, many people are now seeking to solidify their property ownership in the official land registries. To do this, an individual (or one of their heirs) wishing to confirm their property ownership, referred to as the “first party”, must present the unofficial “barania” sales contract to the original seller (or one of their heirs) — referred to as the “second party” — under whose name the property is still registered. The first party then asks the second party to acknowledge the validity of the barani contract in court.

In many cases, the second party unofficially demands a sum colloquially termed the “taradia” (or “appeasement”) in exchange for acknowledging the sale in court. Currently, this amount depends on the property’s size and location. One heir occupying a property in Qamishli told The Syria Report that he paid around USD 3,000 to the lawyers of the original property seller’s heirs (under whose name the property is still registered) to have them acknowledge the barania sales contract’s validity in court, even though the sale occurred 40 years ago.

If the first party’s lawyer initiates a case to validate the property sale for their client in the relevant court, and official notifications are made through newspapers, and the second party or their legal representative becomes aware of this, the second party often intervenes in the lawsuit. At this point, if the first party does not pay the taradia, then the second party usually obstructs the lawsuit’s progress. The second party may then resort to prolonging the lawsuit, either by denying the barania contract’s validity or challenging its authenticity, alleging forgery.

If the first party has lost the barania sales contract, the second party might demand a larger payment, asking for witnesses from the neighbourhood who can confirm that the first party indeed occupied the property before 2011. Thus, particularly if the property in question is commercial or residential, the first party might be compelled to yield to the second party’s demands.

For example, when Zuhair, one Hassakeh resident, conducted a topographical survey on a plot intended for construction that he purchased 30 years ago, he discovered that 30 square metres of it were public property. Nonetheless, Zuhair had to pay a taradia for the entire land area before the original seller agreed to confirm the contract’s validity in court. 

In contrast, AbdulRahman, another local resident, didn’t need to pay any taradia when he filed a case to validate the purchase contract of his house, which he has lived in for 40 years. This was because the seller had emigrated from Syria years ago and didn’t delegate anyone to handle his affairs. The seller did not attend the court hearing, despite being notified through official newspapers. After listening to two witnesses and conducting a local investigation, the judge decided on the matter, issuing a decision to validate the contract.

Palestinian Aid Group Builds Settlement for Displaced Syrians in Afrin

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The Ajnadin Palestine displacement camp for Syrians officially opened on January 04, 2023, in the Afrin region in the northern part of the Aleppo governorate. Referred to as a “village,” the project aims to secure semi-permanent alternative housing for displaced Syrians in opposition-held areas. A local group called the Idlib Nation Team, active in Afrin, built the village with support and funding from Ajnadin, a Palestinian NGO based in the Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Bayt Hanina. 

According to media reports, Ajnadin transferred the funds for the village from its account in the Israeli Habolim Bank. The fact that a Palestinian NGO in Israeli-occupied territory is funding a displacement housing project in Syria sheds light on the sheer depth of the crisis faced by displaced Syrians. 

A source from Ajnadin told The Syria Report that the newly built village contains 50 dwellings for 50 families who had previously been living in displacement camps in rural Afrin. Each home has two bedrooms, a salon, a kitchen, and a bathroom, totalling around 45 square metres. There are two one-cubic-metre water tanks per unit, interior doors and windows, two main iron doors, and a 35-square-metre garden. A sewage network services the entire village. It also has a mosque and an Islamic studies centre for teaching Sharia and Quran. 

The village is built on about 2.50 hectares of flat un-planted agricultural land near Shatika, a town in the Jandares district west of Afrin. However, the existing 50 dwellings only occupy one hectare of land, with the remainder set aside for a future stage of expansion in the project to build more housing units.  

In the second phase of the village, the Idlib Nation Team will build 50 more homes and a school. Construction was supposed to begin in the first few months of 2023 but was postponed until the end of the year due to the February 06 earthquake, a source from the Idlib Nation Team told The Syria Report. 

The Idlib Nation Team increased its support for the village and its residents after the earthquake. It set up a camp of dozens of tents to accommodate people affected by the disaster. The organisation was also in charge of implementing this project and confirmed it opened a village school last March for the children.

A source from the Idlib Nation Team told The Syria Report that the local council in Jandares granted the organisation land to build the village. The source added that Turkish officials in the area approved the project. However, the contract between the organisation and the local council does not indicate that the team owns the land or the residential units. Rather, the organisation’s role, according to the contract, is limited to the construction and supervision of housing operations. The local council is responsible for managing the village. 

The homes cannot be sold or transferred to the families who live there. These families only have the right to use the housing units and cannot lease them. Therefore, according to the source, the village effectively belongs to the Jandares Local Council.  

In 2018, Turkey-backed opposition factions took control of the entire Afrin region during Operation Olive Branch, forcing the displacement of much of the original population, most of whom were Kurds. There were also many violations of housing, land and property rights. In addition, more than 100,000 forcibly displaced people from the countryside of Damascus, Homs, and Aleppo also moved to Afrin, with many of them living in the homes of displaced Kurds.

A local source told The Syria Report that the land on which the village was built is not public or endowment property but privately owned by individuals from the Kurdish Manan family, which was forcibly displaced from the area in 2018. The opposition factions controlling the area accuse members of the Manan family of belonging to the majority Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). Several family members were reportedly killed during the fighting in 2018.

The Manan family’s land is not an isolated case: it is among other lands that some opposition factions have extorted since 2018 on the pretext that their owners belong to the YPG. Sometimes, some factions grant these lands to local organisations to build residential villages to house the families of displaced opposition fighters from other parts of Syria.

Residential Building Collapses in Kurdish-controlled Aleppo Neighbourhood

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In the early morning on January 22, a building collapsed in east Aleppo’s Al-Sheikh Maqsoud neighbourhood, killing 18 residents. Though the building was newly constructed, it was not properly licensed and lacked structural integrity. 

Al-Sheikh Maqsoud and neighbouring Ashrafieh are under the military control of the majority-Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). The People’s Municipality, a part of the Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria (AANES), provides public services to the two neighbourhoods. The rest of Aleppo city is controlled by regime forces and allied militias. It receives public services from the government’s Aleppo City Council, which operates under the Ministry of Local Administration and Environment. 

Regime military checkpoints surround the YPG-held areas in Al-Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh, sometimes enforcing full or partial sieges according to the state of relations between Damascus and AANES. For example, the past three months have seen the regime checkpoints prevent the entry of fuel, food supplies, baby formula and medicines into the two neighbourhoods due to an ongoing crisis between the two sides. 

However, the scope of last week’s building collapse prompted the People’s Municipality to seek assistance from the Aleppo City Council to search the rubble for victims and survivors, according to The Syria Report’s local correspondent. The council sent Civil Defence and firefighting teams with heavy machinery and ambulances. However, the People’s Municipality reportedly prevented some of them from entering the area without providing any reason. 

Rescue teams removed 18 bodies from the rubble and identified 16 of them. Three injured people were transferred to the Martyr Khaled Fajr Hospital in Al-Sheikh Maqsoud. According to our correspondent, the YPG prevented the Aleppo City Council medical teams from transferring the injured to hospitals in regime-held areas. 

Eyewitnesses told The Syria Report that the rescue operations abruptly halted without apparent reason at noontime January 23, before some victims remaining under the rubble could be reached. Residents said they believe at least two people are still trapped, and whether they are alive or dead is unknown. Immediately after the rescue work stopped, the YPG requested all Aleppo City Council assistance teams to leave its control area. 

The collapsed building was constructed in 2018 without a licence from any municipal authority, according to The Syria Report‘s correspondent. That means the building was relatively new and hadn’t been impacted by bombing, whether directly or indirectly. The lasting impacts of wartime bombings are the main reasons other buildings in east Aleppo have collapsed. 

According to eyewitnesses, the five-storey building in Al-Sheikh Maqsoud collapsed completely. It was made up mostly of concrete blocks without a reinforced structure, indicating weak columns, foundations and roofs. Seeking the highest possible profit margins, contractors working on unlicensed buildings often use only small quantities of cement and iron, putting the structural integrity at risk. 

The ground floor of the collapsed building also served as a car wash business. Last year, some columns on the ground floor were removed to expand the car wash and allow cars to drive through more easily. The facility had no system to drain the water from washing cars. 

The building’s owner is a construction contractor, Abu Aref, who was displaced from the rural Afrin area northwest of Aleppo. For some time, he held a position in the People’s Municipality in Al-Sheikh Maqsoud. He constructed the five-storey residential building without a licence, replacing an old house he had previously purchased and demolished. 

Abu Aref constructed other buildings in this same way in Al-Sheikh Maqsoud, and he is not the only contractor responsible for poorly executed, unlicensed construction. Such construction has become widespread in Al-Sheikh Maqsoud due to the growing demand for housing by Kurdish families displaced from Afrin since 2018. That year, Turkish forces and their affiliated Syrian opposition forces carried out a military campaign against the YPG in Afrin, and forcibly displaced many Kurdish residents, who sought safety in YPG-held territory. 

The demand for housing in Al-Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh is not limited to displaced Kurds but also people from surrounding regime-held Aleppo neighbourhoods. The YPG-held neighbourhoods are generally safer and enjoy a greater degree of freedom. Public services are better available, as well as food supplies, fuel and job opportunities. Rental prices have risen as a result, with the area becoming profitable for many construction contractors and merchants with ties to the YPG. 

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. 

Land Ownership and Registration in Border Areas

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This law, which has been updated several times in the past years, regulates the ownership, transfer and registration of land in border areas.

Law No. 41 of 2004
Determination of Border Areas

The President of the Republic,
In accordance with the provisions of the Constitution,
Pursuant to what has been approved by the People’s Council in its session held on 04/09/1425 Hijri, 18/10/2004 Gregorian,
Promulgates the following:

Article 1
No in rem property rights may be established, transferred, modified, or acquired on land situated in a border area, nor may it be occupied by leasing, investment, or in any other way for a period exceeding three years for the name or benefit of a natural or legal person without prior authorisation.

Only the land located within the organisational schemes shall be exempted.

Article 2
The border areas shall be determined by a decree issued based upon the recommandation of the Ministry of Defence.

Article 3

1.    The authorisation stipulated in Article 1 of this Law shall be issued by a decision from the Minister of the Interior or his authorised representative, based upon the recommandation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform and the approval of the Ministry of Defence.

2.    Rejection by the Minister of the Interior of an authorisation shall be considered absolute and not subject to any form of review. However, the request may be resubmitted in the event that the reason the authorisation was prohibited has abated or that a year has passed from the date of the rejection.

Article 4

1.    Court proceedingsrelated to a request to confirm any of the rights stipulated in Article 1 of this Law shall not be registered nor marked in the registry if they are not accompanied by an authorisation. All cases outstanding upon the date that the provisions of this Law enter into force shall be rejected if the authorisation is not provided, taking into consideration the provisions of Article 31 of Decision No. 186 of the year 1926. Land falling within the organisational schemes shall be exempted from this.

2.    The decisions of real estate judges pertaining to the delimitation and liberalisation of land in border areas shall be implemented and recorded in the real estate records provided that upon registration they are marked with an indication that no title deed may be granted, any contract implemented, or any transaction performed until after obtaining authorisation. Land falling within the organisational schemes shall be exempted from this.

Article 5
Transactions for confiscation of ownership of land in border areas implemented by executive departments at the Ministry of Justice shall be subject to public auction for the aforementioned authorisation. In the event that the final bidder does not obtain this authorisation, the outright transfer shall be legally invalidated and the property shall be re-offered for sale in public auction. Land falling within organisational schemes shall be exempted from this.

Article 6
In the event that an application for authorisation is not submitted within three months of the date of the transfer of the right in rem for land in a border area or from the date of its occupation by lease or investment or by any means for a period exceeding three years, the occupancy shall be considered invalid. Land falling within organisational schemes shall be exempted from this.

1.    In the event that land in a border area is occupied by way of leasing or investment or by any means for a period not exceeding three years, the occupant of the aforementioned land must inform the concerned administrative authority for the location of this land within the time period specified in Article 6 of this Law. Land falling within organisational schemes shall be exempted from this.

2.    The acquisition of in rem property rights or occupancy rights by way of inheritance or transfer shall not apply to land in border areasunless the concerned administrative authorities stipulated in the previous paragraph are informed.

3.    Anyone who employs farmers, labourers, or experts in cases included in this Law must notify the concerned administrative authority about all matters pertaining to their employment in accordance with the procedures provided in the executive instructions.

Article 7

1.    In the event that land is occupied through leasing or investment or by any way for a period not exceeding three years, the one occupying the aforementioned property must inform the concerned administrative authority in the location of the property within the period specified for that in Article 6 of this Law.

2.    The acquisition of in rem property rights or occupancy rights by way of inheritance or transfer shall not apply to land in border areas unless the concerned administrative authorities stipulated in the previous paragraph are informed.

3.    Anyone who employs farmers, labourers, or experts in cases included in this Law must notify the concerned administrative authority about all matters pertaining to their employment in accordance with the procedures provided in the executive instructions.

Article 8

1.    Property departments and notaries public shall refrain from performing the transactions included in the provisions of this Law unless accompanied by prior licensing or a copy of the notification of the required concerned administrative authority as the case may be.

2.    All contracts, actions, and procedures carried out in violation of the provisions of this Law or carried out under a pseudonym with the aim of avoiding its provisions shall be considered void, as shall all sub-clauses intended to ensure their implementation.

3.    The public prosecutor must establish the necessary suits to void the contracts, actions, and procedures in violation of the provisions of this Law and follow up on the implementation of the rulings issued for that purpose.

Article 9

1.    A punishment of imprisonment for six months to two years and a fine of ten thousand (10,000) Syrian pounds to one hundred thousand (100,000) Syrian pounds shall be applied to anyone who violates the provisions of Article 1 or Paragraph 1 of Article 8 of this Law.

2.    A punishment of imprisonment from three months to a year and a fine of three thousand (3,000) Syrian pounds to ten thousand (10,000) Syrian pounds be applied to anyone who violates Paragraphs 1 or 3 of Article 7 of this Law. A fine of three thousand (3,000) pounds to ten thousand (10,000) pounds shall be applied to anyone who violates the provisions of Paragraph 2 of Article 7 of this Law.

Article 10
The provisions of this Law shall not be applicable in the following instances:

1.    Transfer of in rem property rights or tenancy or investment rights to the benefit of public authorities.

2.    Transactions for categorisation or correction of descriptions.

3.    Transaction to establish, transfer, modify, or acquire any in rem property right or occupation by way of leasing or investment or by any method pertaining to parents and their children.

4.    Licensing procedures are being carried out in governorate centres as quickly as possible.

Article 11
The Minister of the Interior shall issue executive instructions for this Law.

Article 12
Legislative Decree No. 193 dated 03/04/1952 and Legislative Decree No. 75 dated 28/07/1962 shall be repealed.

Article 13
This Law shall be published in the Official Gazette.

Damascus, 13/09/1425 Hijri, 26/10/2004 Gregorian.

President of the Republic
Bashar al-Assad

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