Bayyrbujak Turkmen in the Syrian province of Latakia require the return of 4,500 hectares of the territory, which the family of the overthrown President Bashar al -Assad confiscated threats and pressure for the construction of palaces since 1974 or forcibly acquired at a much lower cost.
The inhabitants of the village grew olives, lemons and oranges with 4,500 hectares of land in the villages of Silaiyip Turkmen and Burch Islam in the Bayyrbujak area
Since 1974, the Assad family, eager to get these lands for the construction of palaces, applied threats, pressure, violence and torture to the inhabitants of villages who did not want to sell their fields.
Locals who were arrested and put to prison for far -fetched reasons or threatened to pave the way through the middle of their fields, were eventually forced to sell their lands at a much lower price.
Assad’s regime destroyed the fields with olive trees, built 4 palaces and protected them with wire fences.
The residents of the region, under the supervision of a soldier, were allowed to enter their olive groves only once a year to harvest.
The inhabitants of the village who still cannot forget what they had to go through, despite the overthrow of the Baas regime, told the Anadol correspondent about the pressure, threats and torture that they were subjected to.
I was accused of cooperation with a foreign state
70-year-old Wahid Said Shalh, who, together with his family, owned 50 hectares of the Earth before Assad’s regime captured it. He stated that he was imprisoned for “cooperation with a foreign state”, and his property was confiscated.
He earned a living with fishing.
“Once, representatives of the regime accused me of slander, saying:” You meet with Turkish commanders and drain the information. Although I denied this lie, they arrested me and took Sednaya to prison. They tortured me there. For a month I could not wear clothes. “
Shalha added that he had been in prison for three years, and then returned to his village.
“We had 50 hectares of the vineyard here. My uncles, brothers and me have shares in this earth. We inherited this land from our grandfather. Representatives of the regime demanded the land from me. I told them that I would not sell and they will not sell For five years, they called and threatened me.