Turkey Has Been Looting, Burning Northern Syria for 2 Years
Trump has turned a blind eye to massive Turkish violence, destruction and theft in Syria
US President Donald Trump is a Turkish sympathizer, for reasons that befuddle even his closest advisors. In May 2017, he complained when Congress moved to block sales of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey, and was conspicuously silent about coming sanctions on Turkey.
Trump’s recent unilateral decision to pull American troops out of Syria is highly unpopular, even among his fiercest defenders. His decision leaves Kurdish allies exposed, and Syrian citizens defenseless. Even with a US presence, some areas along the north and west borders have already been pillaged and burned, homes seized, families displaced, hospitals closed and water supplies tainted.
After a failed coup attempt in Turkey in 2016, President Recep Erdogan has been taking over Syrian border towns by backing rogue militias. Turkey’s justification for this aggression is a desire to “secure” the Turkish-Syrian border against “terrorists”.
The Turkish invasion of Syria has already happened
Trump makes empty, public-facing threats that Turkey had better not invade Syria, while ignoring that an invasion has already happened and has been happening under his watch, with his silent approval.
Erdogan justifies his actions by claiming to be securing Turkey’s Syrian border. But in reality, civilians have been caught in a vicious triangle of abuse from Turkish-backed militia, ISIL groups, and even Kurdish militia who deem any individual not sufficiently supportive. The United Nations report lists murder, torture, kidnapping, gender-based violence, destruction of property, and destruction of places of religious or cultural significance among the crimes against Syrian citizens.
Erdogan installed Turkish “government” in northern Syrian towns
Of the three groups prone to violence, Turkey has been the most egregious offender. In addition to brutalizing locals, roving militia loot and burn the surrounding countryside. Turkey has installed its own local governance in some regions, sometimes by directly installing Turkish council members, sometimes by threat and bribery.
The end result of Turkish “governance” however, has been corruption and neglect. The UN reports that civilians suffer from lack of access to basic humanitarian services, displacement, and armed violence. Farms and fields are burned, agricultural products stolen and taken into Turkey. In addition to suffering theft and destruction from Syrian militia allied to Turkey, farmers are now being forced to turn over 15–30% of their produce as an “agricultural tax”, and farmers must pay armed militia members in order to have access to their fields.
Hospitals have been attacked and medical staff beaten. There are increasing reports of disease resulting from a lack of access to clean water, particularly in Afrin, one of the hardest-hit rural areas. Very few NGO’s are allowed into the northern regions controlled by Turkey, and all of them must be registered in Turkey. The few that are allowed to operate are unable to meet the humanitarian needs of the population. People needing advanced medical care are sent to hospitals in the south, but armed Turkish guards at checkpoints extort huge amounts of money from the patients.
More than 300,000 people have been displaced, their homes and farms looted or seized. Militia members take whatever they want. Warehouses and stores have been looted and emptied. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that one elderly woman was severely beaten and dragged from her home, simply because soldiers wanted her home and belongings.
“Operation Olive Branch” was an excuse to seize and burn olive groves
In March 2018, the Turkish government surrounded and seized the Syrian city of Afrin during an ongoing cross-border offensive President Erdogan calls Operation Olive Branch.
A June 2018 report from the United Nations Human Rights High Commissioner details abuse of civilians in northern Syria by Turkish-backed militia.
Afrin is a town and agricultural region in northwest Syria, near the border of Turkey. Its economy is based almost entirely on the production of olives and related products such as oil and soap. Afrin is responsible for 30% of Syria’s olive production. Olive trees cover 65% of agricultural land in Afrin, with the rest devoted to fruit orchards.
Erdogan’s tongue-in-cheek operative name clearly does not refer to an olive branch of peace — it refers to his intent to seize Syria’s agricultural products and the income they produce.
Turkey seized Afrin from Kurdish farmers, and now sells Syrian olive oil to finance their deaths
Since Erdogan’s 2018 incursion, over 12,000 olive trees have been destroyed and over 50,000 tons of olive oil seized by armed Turkish militia. Olive oil production facilities were looted and burned, olive presses were dismantled and stolen.
Turkey also seized control of nearly 75% of the existing olive groves, and now farmers must pay bribes to the armed groups to gain access to the olive groves. What little product is left after theft, damage, extortion and taxes, farmers are forced to sell to Turkish middlemen for half the usual price. According to The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the equipment and produce collected from local groves are then sold to finance the Turkish-backed militias fighting against the interests of the primarily Kurdish farmers themselves.
Meanwhile, the production of Turkish olive oil producers has inexplicably tripled, and Turkish producers are wooing larger European and international markets. It appears that the stolen olive oil is being “rebranded” — bottled, labeled, and sold as being Turkish in origin.
Although Turkey currently claims responsibility for the governance of Afrin, including the welfare of its citizens, Turkish ministers have made it clear that they tacitly approve of the destruction and theft. “As a government, we don’t want the PKK [Kurdistan Workers Party] to make money” from the olives, Minister of Agriculture Bekir Pakdemirli replied when pressed about the stolen oil by Nurettin Macin, a deputy of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party. “We want the revenue from Afrin to come to us.”
Trump just blew up US plans for a border safe zone
The US State Department and Department of Defense had been working on plans for a buffer zone on the border between Turkey and Syria, but under President Trump and Jared “Peace in the Middle East” Kushner, the plan was never implemented. Trump never sent additional troops or took any action to create a safe zone for Syrian citizens.
Instead, complete withdrawal of a US military presence, however slight and ineffective, has given Erdogan a green light to shove his military across the border and bomb Kurdish civilians. Trump agreed to Erdogan’s direct request to remove the troops during a phone call on Sunday. Erdogan pitched Trump on the idea of letting Turkey establish its own “safe zone” for Syrians — a ridiculous claim considering the violence and abuse perpetrated by Erdogan’s own militias.
Turkey’s incursion into Syria did not start this week, and it did not start with Trump’s recent announcement. Erdogan has been raping the Syrian countryside for years, with Trump’s blind-eye support. All that remains now is for Erdogan to actually drive Turkish tanks over the border and plant a flag.
The invasion of Syria is not about to happen. It is over.
