The Life of Turki Bayas of Kaftin in Jabal al-Summaq

Only three weeks or so after the murder of Hikmat Haddad who was from the village of Kukku in the originally Druze area of Jabal al-Summaq, another murder has taken place in the same region, this time in the village of Kaftin (which lies on the plain of Jabal al-Summaq). The murder victims were an individual called Turki Bayas (Abu Markaz) and his wife (Huda Dhibar). Here I will present some details on Turki’s life.

Turki did not have a university education. He was aged 65 at the time of his death, was not well-off materially and was not among the notables of the village, but rather he was simply an ordinary inhabitant. He did not involve himself in any sensitive affairs. He has two male children who have been residing in Damascus from the time before the war. He himself however stayed in Kaftin and he owned a grocery store in the eastern part of the village, though his house is located in the western part of the village. As is the case with Hikmat Haddad, those who interacted with him regularly did not know of any personal problems he had with anyone else in the village, and he had no known enemies in the village. He would simply go to work every day and then return.

He and his wife were murdered by a masked man on a motorbike as they were returning home. The perpetrator apparently took Turki’s mobile, but there is doubt that the killing could have been for such a trivial material reason. There are of course other possibilities: perhaps the killer is among the people who still declare takfir on the original inhabitants of Jabal al-Summaq.