Poweful Kurdish PYD militia has launched a new arrest campaign in the villages of the al-Malikiya area in the countryside of Hasaka targeting young men among the internally displaced to conscript them to serve in the PYD militias.
The internally displaced young men and the young men of the Arab al-Ghamer Villages have until now been exempt from the mandatory service.
According to the activist Abdul Malik al-Ali, members of the Military Disciplinary Units and the Asayish forces, subordinate to the Democratic Union Party, arrested dozens of young men in the villages of Mazrat al-Jamous, al-Ghamer Villages, Tel al-Sadak al-Ghamer, al-Sahiyet al-Ghamer, and Ayn al-Khadra al-Ghamer in the al-Malikya area. The young men were arrested and are expected to be transferred to the training camps run by the Party. Al-Ali added that the arrest campaign was expanded the following day to include young men in the village of Tel Tishreen in al-Darbasiya, and internally displaced men from Safira in eastern Aleppo living in al-Dawrah Village south of Ras al-Ayn.
Speaking to Ammar Johmani, al-Ali said that some of the men arrested were released after they signed a pledge that they would return to the conscription office to receive their “Self-Defense Service” booklets. Al-Ali indicated that these arrests extended to the residents of the al-Ghamer villages. The residents are Arabs whom the Syrian state awarded lands in al-Hasakah after water from the Euphrates Lake flooded their lands in al-Raqqah’s western countryside and Aleppo’s eastern countryside. The men of al-Ghamer villages have so far been exempt from serving in the PYD forces.
In March 2017, Democratic Union Party fighters arrested 25 young men after a meeting of the people of Dheila (al-Qirowan), subordinate to al-Darbasiya, with the aim of conscripting the men to fight in the battle for al-Raqqah.
The PYD militia launched the largest arrest campaign in Syria in October 2014 to conscript thousands of civilian young men to fight in the PYD’s ranks against the Islamic State forces. Several similar arrest campaigns have been launched since then.
At the beginning of 2014, the PYD announced the establishment of the Autonomous Administration with its own security and military apparatuses, courts and institutions similar to state institutions in three provinces: Afrin, Ain al-Arab and al-Jazeera (northern al-Hasakah). Areas in northern al-Raqqah province, Aleppo and south of al-Hasakah were later included under the Autonomous Administration. The areas under the Autonomous Administration have faced minimal regime air force and helicopter attacks.
