On Monday, the governor of Idleb, Thaer Salhab, denied what was promoted that the governorate council would offer agricultural land belonging to the displaced people returning to the state-controlled areas in Idleb for agricultural investment. He stressed that what will be put forward are lands “of the disappeared.” Every displaced person who returns and settles his situation can invest his land. Whoever invests in his land and then returns and settles his status can cultivate it.
In a statement to Al-Watan, Salhab said: “The lands that are offered for investment are the lands of those who are disappeared in the north,” that is, in the areas controlled by terrorist organizations.
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He explained that “the lands whose owners do not exist will be put up for investment to cultivate them, especially with wheat. However, every citizen who is in the areas controlled by the state is the one who invests his land and cultivates it. This land is not exposed to investment.” He added, “even the citizen who has an agency with land or ownership bought from a person in the north (areas controlled by terrorist organizations) and is located in the areas controlled by the state, is the one who invests this land and cultivates it.”
Regarding the area of land that will be put up for investment, Salhab explained that “there are areas for those who have disappeared, and they are practically empty lands that no one manages. Therefore, through the Ministry of Agriculture and Idleb governorate, they are put up for investment to grow them with wheat only».
In response to a question, Salhab stressed that the displaced person who returns and settles his status “will take his land” if it is among the lands that have been put up for investment.
On Monday, an opposition website promoted in a report that the Idleb Governorate Council announced public auctions through which the lands of the displaced will be offered for agricultural investment in the areas under the control of the state, the most important of which are the countryside of the areas of Maarat al-Numan, Saraqeb, Abu al-Zuhur and Khan Sheikhoun.
The site claimed that the lands of internally displaced persons in state-controlled areas who recently returned from the areas controlled by terrorist organizations in the north to their villages in the countryside of Khan Sheikhoun and Abu al-Zuhur areas in rural Idleb will be included in auctions and will not be retaken until the end of the current agricultural season, that is, until mid-2023.
The site claimed that “huge areas of agricultural land owned by more than ten displaced families who returned to the countryside of Khan Sheikhoun recently will be put up for auction, announced by the governorate, to be invested.”
This article was edited and translated by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
