Sham Falcons & Mu’tasim Divisions: Erdogan’s corrupt gangs in Syria and Libya

The Sham Falcons & Mu’tasim Divisions have become the main components of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s mercenaries achieving his goals and aspirations in Libya, after he lavishing them with money, funding and military training in Syria to pave the way for his forces’ aggression to gain access to Libyan territory after Ankara announced its support for the militias loyal to Fayez al-Sarraj’s Government of National Accord (GNA).

The armed brigades loyal to Turkey intent on providing support to the Turkish forces in the Syrian north, as the “Sham Falcons & Mu’tasim Divisions did this during the operations of the Euphrates Shield on August 24, 2016, and the Olive Branch on January 20, 2018.

After the opening of centers to attract fighters from the pro-Ankara factions to fight in Libya, one of those centers was supervised by the “Mu’tasim Brigade” at the end of December 2019, as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed that the Afrin area north of Aleppo, Syria, witnessed the opening of 4 centers, within the headquarters of the pro-factions.

The pro-Turkish brigades practiced a number of violations in Libya, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, they carried out field executions against the prisoners who fell in their grip during the battles that took place near the capital, in addition to transferring the fighting methods that they learned during the war years in Syria.

The factions loyal to “Ankara” practiced successive violations against the Syrians, the most prominent of which was the seizure of the homes of civilians, the theft of their belongings, and the acquisition of them after they left their homes, so the elements of “Sham Falcons” in early November 2019 stole the homes of civilians in the village of Umm Ashba in Ras al-Ain, in addition to the fact that on December 13 of the same year, they tortured Kurdish citizens from the village of Bulbul, located in the city of Afrin, because of his refusal to pay bribes and royalties imposed by the brigade on civilians by force.

Sham Falcons imposed huge sums of money on civilians in exchange for entry and exit to and from the city of Ras Al-Ain, as nearly 10 thousand Syrian pounds were imposed on one person, in exchange for entry and exit via the Umm Herbah checkpoint in the eastern Ras al-Ain countryside.

Sham Falcons & Mu’tasim Divisions emerged from the womb of what is known as the “Free Syrian Army”, where “Al-Mu’tasim” was established on August 14, 2015, and it worked in the north of the Syrian province of Aleppo. Falcons of the North ”in September 2012 in Jabal Al-Zawiya, Idlib, with the aim of fighting the Syrian Arab Army under the pretext of confronting and combating the terrorist“ ISIS ”organization, in the service of Turkish ambitions in Syria.