Turkish state cut down 500 more olive trees in Afrin

According to local accounts, on February 15, the invading Turkish state forces chopped down more than 500 olive trees belonging to residents of Meryemin village in Shera region.

These trees were found to be the property of locals named Mehmûd Mihemed Elî and Ehmed Cemal El-Dîn.

The destruction and plunder have continued since the Turkish state and its mercenaries occupied Afrin. The gangs that confiscate people’s olive trees sell the olive oil to the world market as “Turkish manufactured,” and the wood they take from the trees they chop in the occupied territories’ markets.

OLIVE TREE PLUNDER

Following the Turkish state’s occupation of Afrin in 2018, a regime of terror and plunder was established. While the region’s principal resource, olives and olive-based goods, were taken and commercialized on a global scale, thousands of trees were either cut down and smuggled into Turkey or sold in occupied territories.

According to a report dated 30 December 2021 by the Afrin-Syria Human Rights Organization, about 333,900 olive trees and trees in forest regions have been cut down in the last four years. Twelve thousand olive trees and other sorts of trees were destroyed.

In the report, it was noted that “Olives, stolen commodities, and assets, are marketed, as if they were Turkish goods, in global markets such as Spain and the United States. Since last year, confiscated olive trees and supplies have been transported to the Hemam village of Cindirês and moved to the Turkish side.”