Media activist arrested in Afrin for criticizing Turkish-backed group: SOHR

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Turkish-backed factions occupying the northwestern Syrian Kurdish enclave of Afrin arrested a media activist on charges of dealing with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) war monitor reported on Wednesday.

The SOHR report said that the “activist is one of the most prominent activists supporting Turkish-backed factions in Afrin city.”

According to a report by Human Rights Organization -Afrin -Syria, media activist Ahmed Al-Barhou was arrested on Tuesday for criticizing the Syrian National Army (SNA), Turkey’s paramilitary proxy force that occupies Afrin.

“He was taken to the military headquarters,” the report said. “Until now his faith is unknown.”

The group also said that Ahmed Al-Barhou was previously a member of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) during the battle of Aleppo, but later became active as a civil and media activist.

In an Oct. 25 Facebook post, Al-Barhou criticized the military police in Afrin for arresting innocent civilians there.

He wrote that the SNA-affiliated Military Police in the Sharran district of Afrin attempted to arrest an individual suspected of having ties to the Islamic State (ISIS). However, the suspect managed to flee before the police arrived.

The police arrested two girls along with their cousin and father instead.

“When one of the relatives asked about them, he was also detained,” Al-Barhou recounted. “Note there were a number of times they tried to arrest the wanted person previously, but he was able to flee his house moments before they arrived.”

Azad Afrin, the pseudonym of a Kurdish activist from Afrin living in Europe, told Kurdistan 24 that the arrest shows there is no difference “between the groups that claim to fight (Syrian President Bashar al-) Assad and the Syrian government.”

“Also in the past, the Syrian government forces arrested people for criticizing the military police or other security services,” he said. “Now the FSA is doing the same.”

“There is no difference between the FSA and Assad, they are the same but supported by other countries,” he added.

It's not the first time groups have arrested activists in Afrin, which has been occupied by Turkey and the SNA since March 2018.

In 2018, a Turkish-backed group arrested the  media activist Bilal Srewel in Afrin, who is originally from East Ghouta, after subjecting him to intense torture, for taking pictures.

Read More: Syrian opposition activist tortured for taking pictures in Afrin

The Sultan Murad Brigade reportedly arrested Srewel for taking photographs. without permission in Afrin. He was later released.

Bilal is a survivor of the siege of Ghouta, during which he was severely injured by Syrian government shelling.