property_extorsion – Syria Report

Damascus traders are pressuring property owners west of the old Damascus-Suweida road to sell at lower prices than the prevailing prices in the area. The reason for the focus on these properties is unclear, though recent rumours hint at a possible reinstatement of the Al-Salam Highway project passing through the area or the start of a new industrial zone project.

These properties belong to the village of Khirbet Al-Shiyab, which is part of the Kisweh district in the Rural Damascus governorate. Khirbet Al-Shiyab is located on the administrative border between the governorates of Damascus and Suweida, adjacent to the village of Khalkhala and its military airport in the northern rural part of the Suweida governorate. The area is close to the city of Sayyida Zeinab in Rural Damascus. It contains military sites belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and its allied Syrian militias. Although the village of Khirbet Al-Shiyab is small, part of its land has been expropriated since the 1960s for the benefit of the Ministry of Defence, with air defence brigades such as Brigade-157 and Brigade-155 having their headquarters nearby. Due to the presence of Roman and Ottoman archaeological sites, the village also has seen expropriations for the benefit of the Directorate of Antiquities and Museums in the Ministry of Culture.

It appears that Damascus real estate traders have been looking for agricultural land in the area for months and are purchasing land whose property records have no disposal restrictions. This has caused a stir in the real estate market in Khirbet Al-Shiyab, as well as in neighbouring villages and towns such as Matala, Najha, and Al-Adiliyah, raising their prices.

The reason for the rush to buy land in this area is unclear. However, some influential traders and businessmen initiate the purchase of land or properties in specific areas, often due to their prior knowledge of plans to implement investment or service projects that could increase property prices there. Thus, these traders can profit by purchasing properties at low prices and then selling them at higher prices after the planned projects are implemented.

For example, Mohammad owns 10 hectares of land in Khirbet al-Shiyab communally with two partners, holding a title deed since before 2011. The land is agricultural, with one of its edges stretching 50 metres along the old Damascus-Suweida road, and it is bordered to the west by the Al-Salam Highway project. Mohammad told The Syria Report that Damascus real estate traders, some with close connections to security and military bodies, are pressuring land and property owners in the area to sell below the prevailing market rates. Mohammad explained that one trader offered them SYP 20 million per dunum (about USD 1,350), while the current rate in the area is much higher (SYP 120 million). When the partners refused to sell, personnel from the Brigade-157 air defence set up a tent on their land. The officer in charge of the tent told Mohammad that a military point and air defence system would later be established on their land to “counter Israeli attacks.”

According to Mohammad, the tent and the threat of establishing a military site on their land were coordinated between the real estate trader and officers from Brigade 157, all to pressure the partners into selling the land at a low price. However, Mohammad managed to remove the soldiers’ tent through his acquaintance with an officer in the military intelligence division responsible for the area.

In any case, this is legally considered property extorsion, meaning taking over someone else’s property without their consent or obtaining possession of it without a legal title to ownership or a legitimate reason.

A similar situation happened with Said, who told The Syria Report that he was forced to sell part of his land to a Damascus trader at much lower than the market rate to get rid of a military force that had taken over his land under the pretext of installing an air defence system. Said adds that after the sale was completed, the military personnel withdrew and left no trace behind.

Notably, these lands in Khirbet al-Shiyab were previously proposed as part of the Al-Salam Highway project, a commercial international route connecting Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. The Al-Salam Highway is expected to cross the Syrian-Lebanese border at the Masnaa-Jdeidet Yabous point, then pass through the towns of Abu Qawooq, Mazraat Al-Nafoor, and Husseiniya in Quneitra, and the cities and towns of Zakia, Moadamiyet Al-Sham, Khan Al-Shih, Qatana and Khirbet Al-Shiyab in Rural Damascus, and Ghbaggib and Mankat Al-Hatab in Daraa, reaching the Nassib-Jaber border crossing with Jordan.

Rumours about the Al-Salam Highway project began in 2006, coinciding with a property-buying spree along its proposed route by real estate brokers on behalf of the Mashreq Investment Fund company, owned by businessman Rami Makhlouf. The company managed to purchase hundreds of hectares along the proposed route. Most of these lands are rocky and unfit for agriculture. Some of the lands were taken by the regime’s Seventh Division, preventing their owners from using them without officially expropriating them. This buying spree led to a rise in land prices along the proposed route, with the price per dunum (1,000 square metres) reaching SYP 2.5 million (approximately USD 50,000 at the time) from a pre-2006 price of SYP 20,000 (about USD 400).

The situation was not without complications. Most of the properties purchased by Mashreq Investment Fund were undivided shares of commonly owned lands, meaning Mashreq became an additional communal partner. Therefore, in March 2019, Mashreq lawyers filed lawsuits against the other share-owning partners in various locations to terminate the common ownership. For example, a meeting was held between the real estate judge and the common partners in the city of Zakia to agree on termination. During the meeting, brokers offered the remaining common owners in those lands to sell their shares to the company for USD 3,000 per dunum. However, most of the partners refused the offer and refused to agree to a subdivision plan that would transfer their shares away from the proposed highway’s route.

Despite renewed discussions about reviving the Al-Salam Highway project, no tangible changes have occurred except in Khirbet Al-Shiyab. Instead, there are plans for another project in the area, potentially driving Damascus traders to purchase land there. A source from the village speculated to The Syria Report that the motivation behind land purchases could be a proposed plan to establish an “eco-friendly” industrial zone. This initiative was previously announced by the Director of Decision Support and Regional Planning in the Rural Damascus Governorate, AbdulRazzaq Damiriya, in December 2018 and also by the Director of Industrial Zones in Damascus, Asaad Khalouf, in February 2019.

The proposed industrial zone project would cover 250 hectares of land next to Khirbet Al-Shiyab and is expected to include eco-friendly industries such as textiles, pharmaceuticals, wood crafts, traditional heritage crafts, and more. Mr Damiriya mentioned to the official news agency SANA that the governorate had signed a contract with Tishreen University to prepare the general and detailed zoning plans and planning studies for the new industrial zone, including land use plans, topographics, and subdivision plans. He noted that most properties proposed for the industrial zone are state-owned, while 30 to 40 hectares are privately owned.

Mr Damiriya stated that the rest of the land would not be expropriated but would be developed under a public-private partnership law. According to Law No. 5 of 2016 on public-private partnerships, such partnerships are contractual relationships of agreed duration between a public entity and a private sector partner. The private partner invests in designing, constructing, executing, maintaining, rehabilitating, developing, managing, or operating a public facility or project for the public entity, aiming to contribute directly to public service or any service in the public interest to the contracting public entity or on its behalf to the end beneficiary. Despite Damiriya’s announcement that work on the industrial zone would begin in 2019 and the subdivision of plots would be completed by 2020, no developments have occurred on the ground since then.

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.

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