Kurdish journalist Jamal Balî has shared a video showing deforestation in the Turkish-occupied Afrin (Efrîn) area of northern Syria through satellite images. The clip shows how an area near Maydanki Lake, captured in June 2023, has completely lost its forest cover compared to the pre-invasion period.
Since the Turkish Armed Forces invaded and occupied Afrin in January 2018, many journalists have reported on environmental crimes in the occupied region. The region is known for its olive production, the trees of which characterise the landscape of the area. However, after the invasion, deforestation and the sale of olive trees in order to free ground for military and settlement purposes have skyrocketed, causing immense damage to the region and changing the landscape irreparably. One report used image analysis to show that in the three years up to 2021, 58% of the forest had been affected by deforestation and land clearing.
Evidence surfaces of Turkish-backed militias uprooting, selling Afrin’s olive trees
As other reports have documented, since the beginning of the occupation Turkey has pursued a policy of forced assimilation and demographic manipulation in the Afrin region. The Turkish state has built new settlements to rehouse Syrian refugees returned from Turkey or Arabs displaced from other parts of Syria. Even the street signs in Kurdish language have been replaced by Turkish or Arabic. Turkish state-sponsored gangs are also active in the region and the population is exposed to all kinds of violence on a daily basis, including kidnappings and killings.
Turkey’s latest enclave in Afrin highlights ongoing demographic changes
To address the crimes happening in Afrin, tow organisations, the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) and Syrians for Truth and Justice (STJ) have lodged a criminal complaint with the German Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office, but so far no investigation appears to have been launched.
