2019-07-01
The area known as Afrin is comprised of the Civic Center in addition to and seven surrounding areas and includes more than 366 villages. The population, before the occupation, was an estimated 700 thousand people. Of these, the Kurds are 96% (according to the population hour on the site of the Central Bureau of Statistics and some media reports and local.
Now, after a year and three months of occupation, a marked increase in robberies and arrests in combination with the rise of of looting and kidnapping incidences has resulted in the general state of chaos in Afrin. While it was considered relatively safe prior to the occupation, which resulted in it becoming a preferred destination for many displaced Syrians at the time, control of the area by armed factions supported by Turkey—after the operation called (olive branch)—forced the people to evacuate their homes and villages causing further displacement as a necessary means of protecting one’s family and lives.
At the end of the military operations, a few residents of the area and villages returned to their homes on foot, despite the hardships of road travel and many obstacles and barriers involved in the trip. Of a group of 30 families traveling from the village of Jelbel in Mount Lilon, one belonging to the Afrin area was prevented from entering the village. They were forced to go to ‘Afrin and live there’. According to' A, A', the remaining residents of the village fled east of their village to Kashtar and Abyan, an average 3 km further away.
On 6 April, the Turkish army entered with heavy vehicles the village of Jalbal (Jalbara). According to eyewitnesses (A.kh.M,and and MHA), they proceeded to demolish a number of houses and facilities which were part of the public village: the house of 'Ali Sa'id' Issa; the village water parts of a graveyard; agricultural extension unit; the primary school in the north of the village; approximately fifteen houses.