ANKARA, TURKEY
The debates on the looted olives of Efrin were highlighted in the 2020 budget negotiations in the Turkish Grand National Assembly.
MP of the Kemalist CHP, Unal Cevikoz, stated “the FSA is stealing olives and olive oil and brings it to Turkey,” to whcih the a fascist AKP MP, Ugur Aydemir, replied “Yes, it is coming to Turkey, we admit it. Will we leave them in the hands of the PKK? ”
The Grand National Assembly of Turkey gathered for the planning and budget talks for 2020. During the talks, discussion on the olives of Efrin drew attention.
Speaking, the Republican People’s Party (CHP) Deputy Chairman Ünal Çeviköz said: “It is not possible to ensure Syria’s territorial integrity, political sovereignty and independence through the formation of a Gaziantep-based provisional Syrian Government, by putting the president of this formation on television and allowing this formation, the Free Syrian Army to establish schools in Syria with the importation of stolen olives and olive oils to Turkey. While the whole world is expecting a decrese in our military presence in Syria, it seems that AKP has no intention to leave.”
Replying to Çeviköz, former Foreign Minister and AKP Istanbul MP Volkan Bozkır said, “Sir says that the FSA is an olive thief. We are talking about the people who carried out three operations and gave martyrs in these regions with the Turkish Armed Forces.”
The CHP Konya Deputy Abdullatif Sener asked, “is Mr. Volkan Bozkır, the FSA’s spokesman?”
Meanwhile, AKP deputy İbrahim Aydemir called out, “if they are acting with me, yes, I am their spokesman. We are talking about FSA acting together with the Turkish Armed Forces. If you speak about the FSA, you also speak about the Turkish Armed Forces.”
The foolish AKP member, Ugur Aydemir, bringing the issue back on the agenda in the budget speech said: “olives and olive oil from Syria, Afrin, come to Turkey. People living there, people in Afrin produce olives, they produce olive oil. If we do not receive them dear friends who will take them? Who will buy them, who will sell them?”
When the HDP Izmir deputy, Serpil KemalBay, called “so you admit,” Aydemir replied “yes, is coming to Turkey, we admit. Will we leave them in the hands of the PKK?”
Aydemir said further: “Turkey went there by it’s own means and sold products of the citizens there because Turkey is helping to produce them. Let us know this.”
Efrin
Since the establishment of autonomy in Efrin, the Turkish military and allied jihadist groups have attacked Efrin hundreds of times. On January 20, 2018, the Turkish military, along with its jihadist allies (including Syrian and foreign fighters) launched a full-scale military offensive against Efrin, bringing indiscriminate terror to what was once an island of stability and democracy within war ravaged Syria.
According to the Efrin Human Rights Organization, at least 227 civilians were killed in Efrîn, including 167 adult males, 28 females and 32 children since January 20, 2018, when the Turkish state began invasion attacks; 87 children, 638 civilians were injured. In addition, the invaders cut 15 thousand olive trees in Efrîn, where 70-year-old olive trees were found. 15 thousand juniper and 10 thousand grapefruit trees were plundered by the invaders. The human rights organization says 3 to 5 million trees have been plundered by the invaders.
In regards to the stolen olives and lives, Saleh Ibo, the Agricultural Council Deputy Chairperson for the district of Efrin, told AFN that Turkey has made at least $80 million from the seized Syrian olives.
“They have also been confiscating the fields and olive groves of people who have had to flee Afrin due to the Turkish state violence in the months since the invasion,” he said. “We can say that 80 percent of the olives in Afrin are being taken to Turkey with no cost through the [paramilitary groups] and the councils they formed.”
According to local sources who spoke with El Público, the olives are pressed in local mills that have been taken over by these paramilitary groups. The resulting oil is then transported over the border to Turkey where it is blended with and labeled as Turkish olive oil, before it is then sent on to European Union countries.
“The Syrian Observatory learned that thousands of olive oil tanks were stolen from olive compressors in Afrin countryside, by factions operating in the ‘Olive Branch’ operation, and they were sold in several markets,” the Observatory said in a statement on its website.
“The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored the confiscation of thousands of olive oil tanks and the olive harvest, and the cutting of hundreds of trees to be sold as firewood,” the statement continued.
