The SDF, the PKK, and the Syrian régime

 

 'Mohamed Ismail [member of the presidium of the Kurdish National Council (KNC) in Syria and head of the KNC delegation to the intra-Syrian-Kurdish talks]:

 "The SDF cannot do anything without the Americans. It can take some movement on the side. The Americans could allow this: “see the régime, see the Russians,” Ismail says. There are relations between the SDF and the Russians, logistical in certain points, and the US gives a bit of space, but as a result, it doesn’t do anything without US consent, likewise for the régime

 The SDF tries to hand over areas to the régime, and this is leaked news from their circles, and they also announce it before the Turks come, to hand over areas to the régime. The régime is preferable for the SDF in comparison to Turkey. I do not know to what degree the Americans agreed or not

 The relations with the régime are of two types. Relations between the PKK and the régime are ongoing and have not stopped for a single day, and they exist at all levels. The SDF’s relations with the régime, as well as their tactics with the régime, are what the US allows them to do on the sidelines. So, they will not bother the Americans.

 Sabri Ok, visited Damascus recently. He is a Turkish PKK. He lives inside inside Syria, of course, how can one go to Damascus and go back?"

 Abdallah al-Hafi [the Kurdish-Arab Syrian Local Councils Unit Director in Azaz]:

 "In the Western part of Northern Syria, the YPG coordinates with the Russians, while in the east with the American. There was a before Ayn Daqna, and there was an after Ayn Daqna. There was no intention of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) to enter Afrin. There were no problems at all. Not between the Assad -opposed Kurds and the Assad -opposed rebels. Firstly, the YPG made a Russian base in Afrin, in Kafr Janna, and Russia entered. Secondly, when the régime was besieged in Nubul and Zahraa, they let them escape. Thirdly, there was Ayn Daqna. It became a war. One sees his brother’s corpse, or his cousin’s, or his friend’s, and the YPG militants put the corpses on a loader and parade them. After that, it was over. The peace ended. They tried to take Azaz, if they could.

 The battle for Tel Rif’at was with Russian and régime airplanes bombing Tel Rif’at, and on the ground, the Kurdish YPG took it. There was coordination between Russia, the régime, and the YPG. The bombing caused the people to flee, and there was a total war in the area. They organized it completely. Furthermore, the Russians have a military base in Tel Rif’at, and régime soldiers entered Tel Rif’at. The same happened in Afrin. This is proof that they are coordinating among each other."



 The defected security director of Qamishli:

 "I got orders to hand over all police departments to the PYD/YPG. We even handed them the new weapons and equipment we received months ago."



 Koran Ahmad [the Kurdish chairman of the board of Bahar, an NGO working in opposition-held and SDF-held parts of northern Syria]:

 "It was in June or July 2012, the PYD announced a curfew, so the people wouldn’t leave the house. We heard a few shots. I was standing on the balcony, there was nothing on the ground. Two hours later, they said we had the victory over the régime and we took the areas. Now, there is no Syrian régime here anymore. And really, the next day, when we went out on the street, the régime wasn’t there anymore. So, this happened within one day? Within three or four hours, not a day. They said we won from the régime with the fact that the régime elements stayed but changed their clothes from military to civil and stayed among the people. Afrin was special in all of northern Syria. There were seven security branches. Even military security was present in Afrin. State security, criminal and political security, etc., were all present in Afrin."



 Rena Netjes:

 "From the early 1980s until 1988, Hafez al-Assad’s régime hosted the PKK in Yafour, Zabadani, and Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. Assad’s objective in supporting the PKK was to gain leverage over its much larger northern neighbor, so as to influence various territorial and water disputes. The PKK’s long-standing presence highlights the contrast between the Syrian régime’s treatment of domestic Kurdish political and militant activity and its treatment of externally-oriented Kurdish political and militant activity on Syrian soil. The former was harshly suppressed in most cases; the latter was supported. Such support was naturally conditioned on the PKK staying out of Syria’s domestic politics. Instead of mobilizing Syria’s Kurdish community against Damascus, the PKK harnessed it for its war against Turkey. From the PKK’s point of view, the Syrian Kurdish community became a recruitment pool for its war in Turkey." '

 Taken from "The SDF, the PKK, and the Syrian regime" by Rena Netjes in MENA Affairs.

Displaced await day YPG occupation of Manbij ends

 

 'Locals displaced from Manbij, northern Syria by the PKK terror group's offshoot in the country, the YPG, are now waiting for their homeland to be cleared of terrorists so they can return.

 YPG terrorists forced tens of thousands of civilians to flee to areas close to the Turkish border from the Manbij district of Aleppo, which they occupied six years ago with the help of the United States under the guise of fighting Daesh.

 Residents have been forced to migrate from Manbij, where more than 90% of the population is Arab, due to the YPG's practices, including forcibly recruiting young people into its armed ranks under the pretext of "compulsory military service."

 Displaced people from Manbij have been living away from their homes for about six years in makeshift tents they set up with their own means around the al-Bab and Jarablus districts on the Turkish border.

 Abdullah Shilash, the leader of the Beni Sait tribe in Manbij, said that they are ready to do their part to rid their district of terrorists.



 "We want the city to be liberated as soon as possible. We have been displaced for many years. We support the statements of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan," he said, referring to the president's recent announcement that Turkey plans to rid Manbij and Tal Rifaat of YPG/PKK terrorists.

 Emphasizing that the YPG is detaining Arab youth with practices such as "compulsory military service," he said: "Everyone is ready (for the operation). Those in the district and the displaced are ready."

 Turkey is ready to rid northern Syria's Tal Rifaat and Manbij areas near the Turkish border of terrorist elements in a bid to eliminate the terror threat from the region, Erdoğan said last week.

 "We are taking another step in establishing a 30-kilometer security zone along our southern border. We will clean up Tal Rifaat and Manbij," he said, adding that the planned military operations will gradually continue in other parts of northern Syria.

 Erdoğan has said that since the U.S. and Russia have failed to live up to their commitments to provide a safe zone along the border region, Turkey is ready to mount an operation to protect the nation and locals in northern Syria from the YPG/PKK terrorist threat.

 In October 2019, Russia committed to removing the terrorist group from Tal Rifaat and Manbij after reaching an agreement with Turkey during Operation Peace Spring. Moscow also promised that the terrorists would be pulled back 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) from the border on the M4 road and in the area outside the Operation Peace Spring zone.

 Likewise, then-U.S. Vice President Mike Pence pledged to Turkey that the YPG/PKK terrorist group would withdraw from the Operation Peace Spring region.

 Ali Suleiman from Manbij said that thousands of young people were forced to migrate because of the so-called compulsory military service.

 Waiting for the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) and the Syrian National Army (SNA) to take action so he can return to his district, he said: "We are counting the days to regain our lands."

 Another displaced person, Cuma Hatib, said that he supports any military operation that will allow displaced civilians to return to their homes and stop fleeing the persecution of the YPG.

 "I haven't seen Manbij for years because of the terrorist organization YPG/PKK. I hope that a military operation will begin as soon as possible to clear the district from terrorists."

 The YPG terrorist organization harasses the predominantly Arab population of Manbij with its impositions, prompting the people of Manbij to organize demonstrations from time to time against the terrorist group's practices such as conscription.

 Pressuring the people of Manbij to accept their demands, the terrorist organization monopolizes the fuel in the district, which had a prewar population of 1 million, depriving residents of the resource.

 Most recently, locals living in Syria’s Azaz district held a demonstration against the Bashar Assad regime and the YPG terrorist group on Sunday.

 Having been forcibly displaced from their lands by the YPG in northern Syria, the people of Tal Rifaat gathered in the district center of Azaz and asked the TSK and SNA to clear their lands of the terrorists.

 The Syrian opposition forces have also said that they are ready to join the Turkish military in a potential new cross-border counterterrorism operation against the YPG in the north to liberate largely Arab populated towns and villages from the terrorists.

 The YPG/PKK mostly carries out terrorist attacks in Manbij, Ain al-Arab and the Tal Rifaat district of Aleppo. The terrorist group even uses these regions as bases for its attacks. The YPG, which occupies roughly a third of Syria's territory with the support of the United States, frequently targets Azaz, Marea, al-Bab, Jarablus, Afrin, Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ain in the north of the country with heavy weapons.

 In their attacks, the terrorists use advanced heavy weapons such as TOW missiles, multi-barrel rocket launchers, Katyusha and Grad missiles as well as U.S. and Russian-made rocket launchers and mortars.

 

 The YPG has controlled much of northeastern Syria since the forces of Syrian regime leader Bashar Assad withdrew in 2012. The PKK is a designated terrorist organization in the U.S., Turkey and the European Union, and Washington's support for its Syrian affiliate has been a major strain on bilateral relations with Ankara. The U.S. primarily partnered with the YPG in northeastern Syria to fight the Daesh terrorist group. On the other hand, Turkey strongly opposed the YPG's presence in northern Syria. Ankara has long objected to the U.S.' support for the YPG, a group that poses a threat to Turkey and that terrorizes local people, destroying their homes and forcing them to flee.

 While acknowledging Turkey’s security concerns, U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price has voiced concerns about Turkey’s plans, saying a new operation could undermine regional stability and put American forces at risk.'

Mass graves are still being dug in Syria

 'Mass graves are still being dug in Syria today, filled with victims of the ongoing conflict and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's régime, an anonymous whistleblower known as "the gravedigger" told US senators during a congressional hearing about the conflict on Wednesday.

 Dressed fully in black from head to toe with his face and head completely covered by black cloth, the gravedigger spoke of the horrors he witnessed working as one of the civilian workers at a mass grave site in Syria from 2011 to 2018. While the gravedigger left Syria in 2018, he said he has spoken with others who fled the country more recently, and said they told him the mass graves are still being dug. The gravedigger gave a prepared statement through a translator.

 Before the war, the gravedigger worked as an "administrative employee at the Damascus municipality," but, in 2011, the "régime intelligence officials" visited his office and ordered him to work for them.

 "When the régime asks for something, you don't say no. I was not prepared for the horrors of my duties," the gravedigger said through a translator.

 "Every week, twice a week, three trailer trucks arrived packed with 300 to 600 bodies of victims of torture, bombardment and slaughter. Twice a week, three to four pickup trucks with 30 to 40 bodies of civilians that had been executed in Sednaya prison also arrived for disposal in the most inhumane way," the gravedigger said.

 The gravedigger was able to escape Syria in 2018 and "follow his family to Europe." He testified before a German court in Koblenz about the horrors he witnessed. Because of other people he worked with who have recently escaped, he knows there are still mass graves being dug today, he said.

 "My heart is heavy with the knowledge that many at this very moment are experiencing inhumane torture at the hands of the Assad régime," the gravedigger said via the translator. "In some, I know exactly where they are piled up into mass graves that are still being dug today. I know this because others who have worked with me on the mass graves have recently escaped and confirmed what we have been hearing."

 The gravedigger said the longer the war goes on and Assad is in power, the more it also enables Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"Enabling Assad enables Putin, in stopping Assad hurts the Russian dictator. We must finally learn from the past and not let this never again moment happen yet again," he said.

The gravedigger recounted horrors of his time working at the mass grave sites. In one instance, a man who was dumped from a trailer truck with other dead bodies made a movement, signaling he was still alive.

"One of the civilian workers said, started crying, said that we had to do something," the gravedigger said. "The intelligence officer supervising us ordered the bulldozer driver to run him over, the driver could not hesitate or else he would have been next. He ran over the man in the trenches, killing him. As for the young man in our workshop who dared to shed tears over the victim of Assad's régime, we never saw him again."

 The gravedigger called on the senators to "take action."

 "Although hundreds of thousands have already been murdered and disappeared and millions displaced, the worst is still yet to come. It can be prevented. But I beg of you do not wait a second longer. I beg of you to take action," the gravedigger said.

 "These massacres are still happening. The Syrian people have suffered enough. Men and women, children and elderly, innocent people slowly tortured to death, screaming in the darkness, while the world looks the other way." '

Syria’s eastern factions unite

 

 'Following a series of reshuffles within the Syrian National Army (SNA), a Turkey-supported alliance of armed opposition groups in northern Syria, four armed groups with roots in Syria’s eastern provinces, Ahrar al-Sharqiya, Jaish al-Sharqiya, the 20th Division, and Suqur al-Sham’s eastern affiliate, announced the formation of the Liberation and Construction Movement (LCM) on Feb. 15, 2022.



 Saad al-Sharae:

 "Some factions in the LCM joined the Azm Operations Room initially. However, they soon realized that the eventual outcome of the formation of Azm would be to reduce the professional hierarchy of the SNA and to erode the corps’ hierarchy. The groups that constitute the LCM do not support this because we wanted to move away from factionalism toward something institutional. As a result of the creation of Azm, there was the creation of the Thaeroon coalition, which led to further polarization within the SNA. Therefore, it made sense for the eastern groups to respond to that situation by creating the LCM in order to create a balance within the SNA and to steer the SNA back to the established corps system.

The creation of the LCM came after several weeks of meetings between the different leaderships. The LCM is a unique experiment. There have been many operation rooms in the past, but there has not been a full merger of several factions. In terms of the gradual approach toward a full merger, we are at 40-50% already."



 Abu Barzan:

 "First let me provide a bit of background on how we see the concept of unification. At the moment, there are roughly 1 million people from eastern Syria either in northern Syria or Turkey. These people have strong bonds of blood and tribal connection that keep them together. The eastern region of Syria is split into territories under control of the YPG [People’s Protection Units] and Iranian-led militias. Our goal in the LCM is to unite the eastern armed groups as well as the society of eastern people that has been displaced. We therefore understand this not only as a military merger, but also as a social merger. So the merger of the military factions is only one step toward a wider project, which has a political, administrative, and civilian nature.

 The LCM is not just about representing Arabs from the eastern provinces. We have taken steps to reach out to different groups with the aim of enabling participation or letting them become part of the LCM. The eastern provinces include people who are not Arabs or Muslims. Among others, there are Christians, Kurds, and Chechens. The LCM has been engaging with these groups in Ras al-Ayn and Afrin. For example, Abu Hatem recently hosted a celebration of Nowruz with fellow Kurds. Myself and Saad recently held meetings with Christian leaders in Ras al-Ayn. We also have meetings with the SOC’s Abdulahad Astepho, who is of Assyrian origin, and with other actors with the goal of achieving dialogue. One practical example for these efforts is a workshop that the LCM will hold soon to reach out to ethnic and religious minorities."

 Abu Hatem: 

 "Yes, the Arab identity is prevalent on account of the armed groups themselves being Arab, therefore it is natural that the identity of the Syrian revolution is an Arab one. However, we have pluralism in terms of the constitution. The LCM includes Arabs not only from the eastern regions but also from other provinces such as Homs and Damascus."



 Abu Barzan:

 "We have to diagnose this situation very carefully because we don’t want to create a narrative similar to the one the PKK [Kurdistan Workers’ Party] helped to create, suggesting that there is an Arab-Kurdish struggle. We don’t want to see this repeated in northern Syria, where there is now talk about an Arab-Turkmen conflict. I wholeheartedly reject this idea. Turkmens are part of the Syrian people. The relationship of certain Turkmen individuals with Turkey might be very good because of linguistic and cultural factors, but overall and with regards to the SNA, there is no preference for Turkmens over Arab."

 "We can see that the popular base is putting pressure on armed groups to be more in tune with the needs of civilians. Of course, the LCM is part of the SNA but the battles will not continue forever. We carried weapons not as a goal but as a means to an end and we are ready to carry the pen and enter parliament. So, yes, generally speaking we are ready to move to a more overtly political stage."

 Abu Hatem:

 "At the same time, the LCM is a military actor, which means that a fully-fledged transition to a political party is unlikely. However, there is a possibility that the LCM will work with other political actors to form a common political platform."



 Abu Barzan:

 "The beauty of Syria is in its diversity. We want a democratic Syria. This is not just a political slogan, I genuinely mean that. To achieve this, one aspect is important to consider: 65% of Syrian society is tribal. Yes, there are urban centers such as Damascus, Homs, or Aleppo. But everywhere else, society is organized along the lines of clans and tribes. Syria doesn’t have political parties in the true sense; it doesn’t have labor unions or any other kind of social organization structures. We only have the clans and tribes as a way of mass mobilization. If we are able to provide the necessary support for these institutions, I think a lot can be achieved in terms of democratic change of Syria.

 You need to engage the tribal society more proactively. We are not talking exclusively about Arabs here. The Druze are organized in clans and tribes as well, same for Kurds and, for example, Chechens in Ras al-Ayn.

Many of the Gulf countries would not have become states if the clans and tribes of these areas did not unite behind a political project. In Iraq, the parliamentary system was established by the support of the tribal leaders in 1920. History has some precedents for this kind of approach."



 Saad al-Sharae:

 "With regards to increasing the number of certain groups within the SNA, this is a decision taken in consultation between the leadership of the SNA and the Turkish military. We are proud of our alliance with Turkey because the Turkish army stood side by side with Syrians, and Turkish soldiers were killed side by side with our fighters. If Turkey gives the green light to expand, that is due to Turkey’s appreciation for the strong nature of groups from Syria's east because of the military experience they have gained in the last years in their fight against the régime and ISIS as well as the Iranian militias.

 The political wing of the LCM just concluded a visit to the SOC in Istanbul, where meetings were held with the SOC leadership. There will be a meeting of the LCM leadership soon where the options for representation in the SOC will be discussed. If the leadership council agrees that this will be a positive step, the LCM aims to get an additional seat in addition to the existing representation that we have, which is Abdelbaset Abdullatif, who was previously secretary-general of the SOC."



 Abu Hatem:

 "ISIS has kicked us out of our land. Of course we dream about going back day and night — this is our goal and our ambition. But the question is how. This will be decided by events and how they will unfold. We see that there are racist policies adopted by the SDF. We see how they are stealing natural resources and implementing discrimination against Arabs, in addition to the bad security situation. ISIS is very active in Deir ez-Zor, as is the distribution of drugs and drug abuse in the eastern region. We are not against Kurds in general, but against the PKK as a terrorist organization. In my own family they have married into Kurdish families since the 1960s."

 Abu Barzan:

 "We need to differentiate between Kurds as civilians and the PKK and its affiliates as an organization. Kurds are an ancient people; they are Syrian and we recognize them as such. We have been living together with Kurds for decades. The LCM has sought very hard to include the Kurds and to make them feel welcome and not enemies of the LCM. But just as Sunni Arabs have been blighted by ISIS, the Kurds have been blighted by the PKK. If there is a political solution to administer eastern Syria that the Kurds can be part of, we would obviously welcome that. But let us get rid of terrorists, whether it is ISIS or PKK.

 The problem I see in terms of the foreseeable future is that Kurds as a society are unable to get rid of the control of the PKK, even though they suffer from it. For instance, the PKK sends IEDs [improvised explosive devices] and car bombs to the Peace Spring area, and I don’t think the average Kurd would approve of such actions. Having said this, if there were international will to resolve the question of eastern Syria according to the Syrians who live there, we would be open to dialogue. But we don’t accept the idea of sitting around the negotiation table with a Kurd who comes from the [PKK headquarters in the] Qandil Mountains. That is to be rejected, just as any negotiation over the future of our country with foreigners.

 A lot of injustices have befallen the Peace Spring area because of the EU and U.S., as they have been blocking any humanitarian and stabilization assistance to this area for the last three years, including SRTF [Syrian Recovery Trust Fund] projects. In all the regional and international formats we are involved in, including the Astana platform, we have called for the lifting of this embargo.

 The Peace Spring area relies on agriculture; most people make their living from rearing livestock or growing crops. We haven’t had heavy rainfall since 2018, which has led to poor harvests. This, in turn, means that there is insufficient animal feed, causing a reduction in livestock. Under these circumstances, a large project to resettle Syrians seems unlikely.

 But if there were concerted efforts to resettle and rehouse Syrians, we would be the first to support them and we are ready to take action. Our leadership has decided to support local councils in any way that we can. At the same time, we don’t interfere in the affairs of the local councils or civilians. Abu Hatem is personally responsible for the implementation of this decision.

 After the last Astana round, I met with Salem al-Muslet, the SOC’s president, and he told me that an amount of money was assigned to be spent in the Peace Spring area, but that it was vetoed by the U.S. I heard rumors in the last weeks that this position has changed, but I haven’t seen anything concrete so far.

 Because of this embargo, the LCM has taken things into its own hands. It has established a clinic in Nusf Tal that serves 37 villages, especially to treat Leishmania, an infectious disease. We also implemented a number of further projects, such as setting up a bakery and constructing homes for IDPs in the areas of Adwaniya and Hurubi. The LCM is perhaps the only armed group that is doing such projects out of its own pocket.

 What crime have the local civilians committed that they should pay the price for Western estimation of local governance and whether it is legitimate? Why should they go hungry and not receive services like in other places because of the political estimation of local governance? You can see in other areas that the U.N. can implement projects without empowering local governance structures deemed illegitimate. This is an issue of justice."



 Abu Hatem: 

 "In addition, I want to stress that it may be true that the international community views the local governance structures in the Peace Spring area as insufficiently legitimate, but the people on the ground believe they are. Who decides what is right and wrong in that case?



 Abu Barzan: 

 "Most crucial are medicine, food aid for people and livestock, and education. Thousands of children are not getting the education they deserve. Many school buildings were being used as headquarters by the PKK and got blown up hours before the PKK withdrew. The infrastructure has been badly eroded. The LCM has tried to convert homes into schools but this is inadequate.

 Around 300,000 people live in the Peace Spring area, but this number is increasing because there is a movement of people fleeing from régime areas, often through SDF territory and from there to the Peace Spring area. Some of them settle, others use it as a transit point to try to get to Turkey. The issue of migration is becoming more and more relevant. If the EU and the West were serious about solving the migration issue, they would turn their attention to this area. It is becoming a transit route."



 Abu Hatem: 

 "Sanctions were imposed way before the LCM was founded. However, we see this as an act of injustice and it has been detrimental to us and hurt us in several ways. Not just financially, but also with regards to the willingness of external parties to engage with us in recent years. We are pursuing legal channels to overturn the sanctions. There is a law firm in the U.S. that is following up on the matter and we are refuting the allegations through legal means. I cannot disclose more than this because we have an agreement with the law firm to maintain discretion given that there is an ongoing legal process."

 Abu Barzan: 

 "What we count upon is to seek a de facto lifting of the sanctions. And this can only happen through a reform process of the SNA and the avoidance of past mistakes that happened especially in areas that had been newly conquered."



 Saad al-Sharae: 

 "All the factions that formed the LCM were the first to fight ISIS, even before the international coalition was formed to fight terrorism. All elements of the LCM, without exception, have official records certified by the National Army. These records include fingerprints, personal photos, and complete profiles." '

An archive of Assad's war crimes in Syria

 

 'A young Syrian man fled the war and devoted his life to collecting digital evidence of crimes committed by the Syrian régime from 2011 to now.

 Tamer Turkmani stares at his laptop screen for hours every day. A Syrian national, Turkmani's goal is to maintain a digital archive of the victims who have been shot dead by the troops loyal to Bashar al Assad.

 "I knew that these martyrs needed to have their names documented so the coming generations could honour and remember them," 32-year-old Tamer said.

 It started off with Turkmani writing a Facebook post in 2014, urging people on his friends list to send the photos of their loved ones who have been gunned down mercilessly by the Assad régime.

 In less than 24 hours, Tamer received at least 2,000 photos.



 From that day, Turkmani worked toward designing a 170-meter-long mural containing 50,000 pictures of victims. He planned to put up the mural on the sidewalk right across the White House in Washington DC. Unable to travel to the US, his friends helped him display it at the same spot in August 2015.

 "I worked on several other portraits that were displayed in European countries such as Austria, Romania, Canada and Switzerland," Tamer says.

 In 2020, Turkmani held an exhibition in Türkiye's Istanbul city. Titled "People of Memory," the exhibition featured photos of 600 children along with the stories of how they were killed by the Syrian régime between 2011-2012.

 In 2012, a year after the Syrian revolution shook the Assad régime, Turkmani was hit by a bullet, which left him injured. Two years later, he left his hometown Homs and crossed over to Jordan.



 Away from the war, Turkmani began collecting two million YouTube videos of demonstrations, street battles, and speeches of various politicians.

 "Everything related to the lives of Syrians since the beginning of the war, I am working on gathering them to be a witness in history one day," he added.

 The idea of downloading videos from YouTube en masse came to him after he noticed that the video-sharing platform had pulled down dozens of videos showing killings and massacres of Syrians. Upon inquiry, he learned that YouTube removed that content under the pretext of its community guidelines.

 Downloading such a large number of videos needed more and more hard drives. That's where his friends and family members are proving helpful. He's over forty thousand gigabytes of data stored on dozens of hard drives.



 For his commitment to preserving the history of the Syrian war, many of his friends and fellow activists call him: "the memory of the Syrian Revolution.”

 Turkmani also collects books about the Syrian revolution. He has a digital archive of 650 books. He sends them to people if they ask for one.

 He has also maintained a database of 260,000 news articles from about 190 news websites. The articles are about the major events of the first wave of Arab Spring protests that hit the Assad régime in 2011. They also chronicle isolated incidents of torture, extrajudicial killings and other human rights abuse.

 "I managed them all on Excel and I can search about anything I need to know by typing the date. It shows us all the articles published in newspapers and websites that day," he said.

 "All these files that I collected years ago will help us in the future to write history based on pieces of evidence in front of us. We will tell our children what happened in Syria with audio and video, and we will expose the reasons for our departure from Syria and describe the worst tragedy that happened to us."



 Turkmani has another goal to achieve — which is to provide all the necessary evidence that would lead to the prosecution of Bashar al Assad and members of his armed forces who have committed war crimes in the past 11 years of the Syrian civil war.

 "The documentation will ensure that the truth is not falsified. This will bust all the misleading reports and false allegations broadcast by the Syrian media," he said.

 Turkmani now wants to develop an online library where he could upload his archives so people could access them freely.

 "This library will help any student, researcher or journalist to obtain the necessary information — photos, videos, reports and articles that expose the Syrian régime's crimes against Syrians for years." '

Release of ex-soldier triggers protests in al-Bab

 

 'Syrian protesters ended a week of tense anti-corruption rallies on Monday in opposition-held areas, after reaching an agreement with local authorities.

 Residents of the northwestern city of al-Bab had taken to the streets last week, denouncing the release of a former soldier with Bashar al-Assad's army from custody.

 The soldier, who they accuse of committing various war crimes, was released by the military police of the Turkish-backed rebel Syrian National Army (SNA).

 The soldier was arrested about five months ago after he moved to al-Bab following the end of his compulsory service with the Syrian régime army.



 For the past 10 years, he served in the Fourth Division, an elite military unit led by Maher al-Assad, the brother of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The period of compulsory service is between 18 to 21 months, but can be extended in an emergency and those whose service has ended can be called back into service again in case of war.

 The Fourth Division is under western sanctions for its alleged role in human rights abuses against peaceful protesters.

 The soldier was released by the SNA's military police chief within 24 hours of his arrest after a $1,500 bail was paid by a relative rebel leader.

 The police re-arrested the soldier on Wednesday in response to the protests that erupted after documents were shared online, dated 10 May, containing the soldier's confessions.

 "Our demands were really clear which are re-arresting the criminal, holding those involved accountable for his release, and dismissing the military police chief," Ahmed Nassar, an organiser of the protest, saif.

 "In the beginning, they did not pay attention to the demands, and after the protests began, they formed a committee to follow up on the issue and promised us to refer the demands to the minister of defence in the [opposition] interim government and resolve it within 72 hours," he added.



 The protests in al-Bab reached their peak on Sunday when an ultimatum set by demonstrators was ignored.

 Activists had asked for those involved in the soldier's release to be held accountable, including the chief of military police Colonel Abdul Latif Khalid al-Ahmad.

 In a meeting with protesters, the minister of defence of the Turkish-backed interim government, Hassan Hamada, said he was not obliged to meet the demands of every protest that erupts in the city, which fuelled anger.

 On Sunday afternoon, protesters surrounded and stormed the military police headquarters, while officers were inside, including Hamada.

 They also set tyres ablaze to block off the entrances to the city.



 The escalation prompted another meeting between authorities and protesters around midnight, where an agreement was reached that demonstrations satisfied their demands.

 Shortly after, the interim government issued a statement dismissing the military police chief Colonel al-Ahmad and "referring all those involved in the case to justice".

 On Monday morning, the SNA's Sultan Murad Division issued a statement saying it referred one of its leaders involved in the case to a military court.

 "We have conveyed the message that we can confront corruption, and we have received support from the rest of the areas who have protested in front of the Ministry of Defence headquarters in Azaz city," Nassar said.



 The SNA is a coalition of rebel groups, some of which were founded by officers who defected from the Syrian army following the 2011 mass protests in which security forces killed, detained and tortured thousands of peaceful protesters.

 With Turkish support, the military police - made up of members from each faction within the SNA - were formed in mid-2018.

 One of the main purposes of the force was to stop crime such as the smuggling of goods, drugs and other unauthorised crossings between régime and opposition-held areas.

 However, residents have been growing frustrated with it over allegations of arbitrary detentions and abuse against civilians, local police and charities.

 In early May, the military police detained an activist for a week after he published information claiming that one of the rebel factions that make up the SNA was facilitating the entry into al-Bab of former régime soldiers.



 "The people consider the military police to be a revolutionary institution, but unfortunately some of its members are acting in accordance with their supporters' interest not the interest of the region," an internally displaced Syrian from the city of Hama said.

 "It can be reformed as an institution that serves the region by employing honest people," he added.

 Turkey has controlled al-Bab city since it launched operation Euphrates Shield in late 2016 to drive out the Islamic State from its southern border.

 The city is a stronghold of activists displaced from prominent opposition towns such as Aleppo, Daraa and Maarat al-Numan - which are now controlled by régime forces.'

Syrians in Idlib fear history is repeating itself

 

 'Ahmed Abu Hajar, President, Idlib University:

 "Of course there is one criminal, whether in Russia, Ukraine or Syria, and that is Putin. It was Putin himself that targeted hospitals and schools, infrastructure and educational buildings in Syria and in Ukraine."



 Abdel Kafi Al-Hamdo, English Teacher:

"The world was ignoring what's happening in Syria, and this is repeated in Ukraine. And this will be repeated everywhere."



 Ahmed Al-Khalif, Internally Displaced Person:

 "To this day we live in camps because of the bombings by the Russian planes. This is our reality now, snow, bitter cold. We just want to go home."



 Abdul Salam Yusuf, Internally Displaced Person:

 "We wish to stand in solidarity with the Ukrainian people, who share the same sad fate as us because of this criminal.

 But at the beginning of the Russian war against Ukraine, we got a sense of some of the attitudes of world leaders. They call Ukrainians Ukrainian citizens, while Syrian migrants are called beggars and refugees."



 Aziz Al-Azmar, Artist:

 "With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we have felt that this scene is very similar to what happened to us in Syria. We also saw Ukrainian children and Ukrainian citizens fleeing from their villages and homes, just like what happened in Syria.

 If we don't put a stop to this, Russia will go further and invade all the weaker states it can. This is why we have come to paint on the walls of our destroyed homes pictures of Russian jets, a Russian bear invading Ukraine, to send a message to the world that this killer is uniting us in Syria and now in Ukraine." '

Putting paintbrush to ruins

 

 'Bombed homes, schools and buildings take up most of internationally renowned artist Aziz Al-Asmar’s view, no matter what direction he is looking in. So, he decided to make them his canvas, on which he continues to touch the world with his creative statements, as he depicts the sorrows of Syria’s war, and stands in solidarity with the world’s deepest devastations.

 The 50-year-old Syrian artist was living in Beirut, Lebanon when the ongoing Syrian uprising began in 2011, and President Bashar al-Assad’s régime violently cracked down on peaceful pro-democracy protesters.

 Yet at a time when most people inside Syria were trying to flee for their safety, the creative father of three made the difficult decision to return to his country in 2015, to serve it with his talent.

 “The decision to return to Syria was fraught with risks, but life is about principles and I considered that what I am doing is a human and moral duty,” Aziz said.



 He said his goal was to “tell stories of the revolution and Assad’s crimes” from inside Syria, including the régime's unlawful arrests, torturing and killing of civilians. The first mural he painted was 30-metres long and bared the names of 600 martyrs who were killed in bombings in his village of Binnish. His most recent was a mural marking the 11th anniversary of the Syrian revolution, which citizens across Idlib commemorated in March.

Aziz says his creative process includes meeting with a group of painters, doctors, journalists, teachers and language specialists in a studio almost every day to discuss the situation in Syria and exchange ideas for paintings. The artist also participates in discussions on global events to inspire his artwork, as he produces murals in solidarity with various social justice cases around the globe.

These include his famous murals of George Floyd – a Black American man killed in 2020 by a US police officer – and of former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who he thanked, following her resignation from politics, for welcoming Syrian refugees into her homeland with open arms. The artist has also painted in solidarity with Ukraine during Russia's brutal invasion of the country which began on 24 February.

“Painting possesses a humanity that makes us search amid the rubble of our broken hearts and burning dreams for a space of feeling and solidarity, with all the grievances of people of different races, languages and religions,” Aziz said. For it is an unfortunate and deep understanding of pain – gathered through “horrendous scenes” the artist has witnessed in Syria – that allow him to relate to the suffering of others’ so fervently.



 For Aziz, connecting with humanity through art has extended to providing local Syrian children with a momentary escape “out of war and sadness, by allowing them to draw and colour their wishes and dreams” with him. The artist says this has been his greatest reward throughout the conflict, as he has painted with children in schools, displacement camps and other areas bombed by the Syrian régime and Russia, with an aim to boost morale and provide hope.

 However, Aziz's contribution to his community doesn’t stop at art. The artist told of many occasions where he has volunteered with the Syrian Civil Defence – otherwise known as the White Helmets – who provide humanitarian assistance to civilians across the war-torn country.

“A human heart doesn’t let you sit still, you want to see who’s hurt, who has been killed, and try to help,” he says.

 “I have wiped away the tears of many orphaned children who lost their fathers and mothers… you would never be able to imagine the extent of the atrocities we have lived. I witnessed many massacres and I helped to collect civilian body parts laying around to bury, out of respect for the dead,” he reveals, explaining that bombs would physically tear their victims apart.



 Despite Aziz living out what he believes to be his duty, his decision comes at the troubling cost of knowing tragedy could strike at any second. “Sometimes when my children would sleep, I would sit next to their mattress and ask them to forgive me for bringing them to a place that has war, bombing and displacement… but I didn’t have a choice, my heart and conscience could only be at ease on the side of the vulnerable civilians,” he says, sharing that he regularly prays for the safety and future of his children.

 However, Aziz believes his “pure intention to do good” is what opened more doors for his talent to be seen than ever before. This extends to his children – who he describes as “geniuses whom God has endowed with many talents.” This includes his 13-year-old second-born son Muhammed, who was nominated for an International Child Peace Prize award for delivering messages of Syrian children’s suffering to the world.

“In Beirut, our talents weren’t shown, in Syria despite everything, our talents have a voice globally… and that’s thanks to God because we’re doing our duty,” Aziz says.

 The artist vowed to continue to draw attention to humanitarian cases and "share the world's joys and sorrows" using his colours, with a strong conviction that “painting is a universal language understood by all".

 However, he says his hopes for a peaceful Syria require international help to be actualised. "International communities must work to help stop the war in Syria and wars everywhere," Aziz says, demanding that they "put an end to the crimes of tyrants, and turn their prisons into schools, hospitals, and institutions that serve humanity." '

March in Idlib to mark revolution's 11th anniversary

 

  'Syrians filled the streets of Idlib as they marched to commemorate the 11th anniversary of the Syrian revolution on Tuesday.

 Syrians reflected on the "very difficult" times they've lived through over the past decade but joined forces in a display of hope demanding an end to régime rule.

 "The demonstration today was one of the most beautiful demonstrations because thousands of people gathered yet shared one heart, all calling for the overthrow of the Syrian régime and demanding to return to their homes," Idlib-based journalist Izzedin Kasim said.

 "Personally, I lost my country and my house was destroyed, and I live in a rented place and the humanitarian conditions are very difficult," Kassim added.

 He insists that despite the effects of the war on him, his work as a journalist has given him a strong sense of duty and purpose.



 Many still hold that the years of struggle were necessary, including Idlib-based photojournalist Yousef Gharibi.

 "The past 11 years were difficult and brought many tragedies, but they were necessary in the path of reaching the Syria we dream of... a free Syria without a tyrannical régime without corruption and criminality," Gharibi said.

 Idlib and parts of Aleppo province remain the only areas in Syria to be held by the Syrian opposition.

 Fadel Abdul Ghany, the chairman of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, believes there will be more developments in the revolution in the years to come and despite the military failures of the rebels, the uprising has achieved success in other ways.

 "I don't think the revolution has been defeated... there will be other waves... we succeeded in other aspects like in the human rights and media aspect like [achieving] international condemnation of the régime," he said.'

The West must first change its views on Turkey

 

Jamil al-Omar:

 'Frightened faces, corpses on the streets and fireballs equating to an inferno. The masses of refugee waves do not break off. Images to which one should have become accustomed. At least when it comes to Syria.

 This time however, the threat of Russia has arrived at Europe’s doorstep: Ukraine. Many believe that if they succeed in their invasion of Ukraine, the Baltic states and Scandinavian region could be their next target. Russia’s will to expand over the past decade, both militarily and politically, cannot be denied anymore. After their military campaigns in Syria and Libya, their presence in the Middle East has become a fact.

 Through the Hmeimim airbase, on the Syrian coast and the naval port in Tartus, they attained their only real access to the Mediterranean Sea which endangers the southern flank of Europe. Furthermore, it “poses a serious threat to Lebanon, Turkey and Israel in the long term,” warns Levent Kamal, a Turkey-based Middle East researcher. A deal was signed in 2019 which allows Russia to use the naval facility free of charge for 49 years and gives the Kremlin sovereign jurisdiction over the base. The agreement also allows Russia to keep a dozen warships — including nuclear-powered vessels — at Tartus, the only navy facility the Kremlin possesses outside the former Soviet Union.

 Additionally, “the presence of Iran-backed Shiite terrorist organizations, which Russia uses as a ground force in Syria, is a regional risk,” he adds. “The Russian Airbase in Kheimimim is used as a platform for Russian ops abroad, especially in Africa. They are already replacing Western support in several countries like Libya (done) or Mali (ongoing)”, notes the Twitter account Qaalat Madiq, a military analyst specializing in Syria.



 The question arises as to how this could have happened and why no one has already tried to stop Putin’s quest for power in Syria. “It should be noted that the Syrian issue was not seen as a NATO issue”, states Levent Kemal. The final nail in the coffin was when the “NATO withdrew the Patriot systems in Turkey when the Turkish army shot down the Russian warplane. Thus, the most favorable environment for Russia was created.” This attitude was, nevertheless, not without consequences. “Russia took advantage of the power vacuum that was created when the US openly signaled its lack of interest in playing a more assertive role in Syria,” explains Dareen Khalifa, a Senior Syria Analyst at the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.

 Analysts claim that the only real obstacle for further expansion for Russia in the ME is Turkey and its allies in Syria. They add that Turkey has proved that they are the only one who can be a game changer on the ground in the long term. “So far Turkey has been quite successful in deterring further régime advance in Idlib post 2020”, according to Dareen Khalifa.

 To bring about real change, it takes more. Because although Turkey “does not hesitate to take a practical-military stance actively against Russia and Iran”, it seems that “the Western world continues to act as a Christian club as the Ukraine crisis has shown”, claims Levent Kamal. “The West must first change its views on the Turkish government.” As long as this attitude does not change there seems to be little hope of change either.”I do not think that support for Turkey will come true, even if it is against Russia and Iran” is Mr Kamal’s pessimistic assessment.

 It seems that this assessment is not a groundless one. The war in Ukraine gave the lie to NATO’s supposed incompetence. The West hasn’t spared any effort towards supporting the Ukrainians in defending themselves by funding and supplying them mainly with weapons, including anti-tank and anti-air missiles.



 Consequently, according to many, the right time for the West to support Turkey and its allies in Syria politically, economically and militarily is now. The Syrian Interim Government already released an official statement requesting the West to support them militarily to counter Russia in Syria. They reiterated that they stand in solidarity with the Ukrainians and that they are the most aware of the crimes and brutality that the Russians are capable of causing. The statement added that the international powers must rectify their mistake of neglecting Russia’s expansion in Syria and that their revolution is inseparable from humanitarian values ​​and interests.

 What could such support look like? “This should be support that includes military, political and economic elements.” Else “it would be unreasonable for Turkey to enter such a risky process without receiving economic, political and military guarantees,” clarifies the Middle East researcher Levent Kamal. Dareen Khalifa can only agree: “Ankara could benefit from its allies’ military and diplomatic support to push against Russian ongoing pressures that are straining the truce.” Because one thing is certain. NATO’s refusal to stand by its partner Turkey against Russia is already being paid for in Ukraine. And the conflict could have even more far-reaching consequences if there is no early awakening: “New waves of conflict in Syria will come at a grave human cost and will have implications that go far beyond Turkey. It’s unfortunate that other NATO members are yet to take these threats seriously,” warns the analyst.'

Rebels seek passage to Europe for revenge against Putin

 

 'Foreign fighters from various countries have begun making their way to Ukraine in response to Kyiv’s call for help fighting the Russian invasion – but for Syrian rebels seeking passage to eastern Europe, the battle is intensely personal.

 Several Syrian fighters in northern Syria and Turkey said they were trying to travel and take up arms against Russia.



 Since 2015, Moscow has been waging war in Syria on behalf of President Bashar al-Assad, and while Russian warplanes stage occasional air strikes, the front between opposition-held and Damascus-controlled territory has cooled in recent years.

 The opportunity to take revenge on Russia elsewhere has been too good to miss for some rebels. Particularly, some say, as foreign-brokered ceasefire agreements have restricted them from launching attacks on Russian forces in Syria.

 So far, the most prominent rebel to announce his intention to fight for Ukraine is Suheil Hammoud, a man commonly known by his honorific nickname Abu TOW, a nod to his prolific record using anti-tank missiles.

 Hammoud has reportedly destroyed 145 targets using TOW missiles, including modern Russian tanks. But his biggest scalps were two Russian MiG-23 fighter jets, which he says he hit at Aleppo military airport.

 “I am in touch with several sides to get out of Syria and reach Ukraine, to confront Russian forces along with my Ukrainian brothers,” Hammoud said from Syria’s northwestern opposition enclave of Idlib.

 “I am trying to go in person in any way. I don't plan on going with my entire team, for their safety.”



 Russia massed nearly 200,000 troops on Ukraine’s border before beginning its attack on Thursday. It is believed more than a third of those forces are now in Ukraine.

 The Ukrainians have defended well so far. During the first 24 hours of the invasion, the Russian army incurred more losses than during the eight years in the Syrian war, according to the Economist. But already Russian bombing is become fiercer and more indiscriminate.

 “It's definitely a tough and fierce battle, yet I'm ready to fight until the last Russian soldier in Ukraine, or until the fighting returns in Syria,” Hammoud said.

 “The fronts are inactive here in Idlib. Russia is unable to launch an attack in Syria in parallel with the Ukraine attack and Syrian forces are not capable of launching an attack on their own.”



 Now five days into the Ukraine war, observers are looking to Syria to draw conclusions about what might happen next. The portents are not good.

 Russian forces have been involved in killing about 7,000 civilians in Syria, according to the Paris-based Syrian Network for Human Rights. They also targeted around 1,300 vital facilities in rebel-controlled areas, including several hospitals.

 Moscow’s intervention decisively swung the conflict Assad’s way, after initially facing difficulties. Already, banned cluster weapons used by Russia in Syria have been seen deployed in Ukraine.



 Alaa Qatarmez was a sergeant in the Syrian army until 2012, when he defected to the opposition. He said that he too plans to go to Ukraine.

 “I left the rebels two years ago and now work as a vendor in Idlib because of the lack of battles,” said Qatarmez, using a pseudonym for security reasons.

 “We have innocent civilians, including children, who were killed by the attacks of Russian forces, so Russia must be fought anywhere in the world.”

 Like many other rebels and former fighters, Qatarmez has sought help travelling to Ukraine on Facebook groups.

 “I'm trying to get in touch with a Ukrainian embassy to go, or at least fighters there. I'd like to give them some of the experience we got during the war,” he said.

 “We have old vengeance against Russia, which history cannot erase. I eagerly await the day when Russia will collapse.”



 Any expectations that Syrian rebel forces might use Russia’s distraction in Ukraine as a chance to launch an offensive and regain some of the territory it lost after Moscow’s intervention should be dampened.

 Though on opposing sides in both Syria and Ukraine, rebel-backer Turkey and Russia have a pragmatic relationship that has held Syria’s northwest in a quasi-stalemate. Ankara, a member of Nato and ally of Kyiv, is proving a forceful critic of Russia and has provided material support – most notably Bayraktar TB2 combat drones.

 But it is also treading a careful line, unwilling to provoke major escalation. There is little chance it would allow Syrian rebel groups it backs to attack Russian forces, or even Assad’s.

 That hasn’t stopped some of the nearly four million Syrian refugees in Turkey from hoping for a fightback.

 “We are tired of our status as refugees. I have relatives held in Assad's prisons, and others who have been killed by Russian attacks must be avenged,” one said, speaking anonymously due to security concerns.

 “I hope that an organised attack against Russia will begin in Syria, to fight in my country,” he added.

 “But we have no leaders or an organised army, it is just sporadic factions, some of which are Islamist, which raises the concerns of the local population and western supporters.”



 The contrast between Ukraine’s potent resistance over the past few days and the collapse of the Syrian opposition cause in recent years has been galling for the refugee.

 “Ukraine has an organised army that wants to fight. Even Ukrainian politicians have taken up arms to fight the Russians, while our ineffective politicians were the first to flee Syria, 11 years ago,” they said.

 Though the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) rebel grouping on Tuesday denied it was unable to attack pro-Assad forces because of the ceasefire, fighters who have broken the truce previously have been punished.

 Last month, the release of one rebel leader, who had been expelled from the SNA and imprisoned for nearly two years for violating the truce and launching an attack on a government-controlled area, was met with celebrations by many rebels.



 The lack of room to fight in Syria likely only increases the will to wage war in Ukraine.

 “There are hundreds of fighters who would like to go to Ukraine, but it is up to our Turkish ally. Will it open the borders?” said Abu Amin, who monitors Russian and Syrian warplanes under the name Observatory 80.

 “There are young men who may go as volunteers because it is a great opportunity to take revenge on the Russian forces when they cannot launch an attack here.”

 Perhaps, he suggests wishfully, a Russian defeat in Ukraine could also turn the tables in Syria.

 “If the Russian forces in Ukraine are defeated, they will withdraw from Syria, and this means that the rebels will reach Assad's palace within weeks, ending the suffering of the Syrians forever,” Abu Amin said.'

Assad's rehabilitation at the expense of the Syrian people

 

 Bente Scheller:

 'The circumstances that caused Syria's membership in the Arab League to be suspended in 2011 have not changed. At that time, the régime was urged to release all prisoners, withdraw its tanks from the cities and launch negotiations with the opposition. Assad agreed to these requirements, but did not even pretend to go about meeting them.

 In the intervening years, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in Syrian and Russian air raids and over half of the country's population has been displaced. Tens of thousands of additional citizens have "vanished" over the years, many of them presumed killed, in most cases by the Syrian régime. The massive human rights violations have led to a series of for the most part targeted sanctions by EU member states. Two years ago, the USA expanded its range of instruments through the Caesar Act (Caesar Syria Civilian Protection), which also imposes indirect sanctions on third countries if they maintain relations with the régime or support reconstruction in Syria.

 Instead of punishing the régime's transgressions, however, some Arab League member states reason that normalisation will serve to create "step by step" incentives for the régime to change its ways. While this may well work in other contexts, the assumption runs counter to everything that past experience in Syria has taught us.



 First of all, it is not as though the régime has been running on empty for the last few years. Despite targeted European sanctions against the highest-ranking government representatives in Damascus, they have always found ways to enrich themselves. Syrian passports are among the most expensive in the world. And thanks to predetermined exchange rates, more than half of every dollar in humanitarian aid goes straight into the pockets of the Assad clan. Relatives of those who have been arrested or disappeared are extorted at all levels of the judicial and security apparatus. Many of them have paid exorbitant sums to learn about the fate of their loved ones.

 But even in this cynical business, the régime has never felt obligated to provide any real quid pro quo. Most of those affected have been fobbed off with lies and contradictory information. And hardly any prisoners have been released; instead, prison conditions are becoming increasingly desolate.

 The régime has shown interest only in its own political survival – under conditions that should be as comfortable as possible. The plight of the general population appears on the other hand to be a matter of no concern, with any improvement even deemed undesirable. The more difficult it is for people to go about their daily lives, the more dependent they are on reconciling themselves to the present régime and the less freedom they have for political engagement. The economy and commerce are controlled by a tiny elite close to the régime – the same people who stand to benefit from normalisation.



 The idea of incentives is not new. The humanitarian aid organisations have made repeated attempts to apply the "more for more" formula, but with little success. While the régime laid siege to millions of its own people between 2012 and 2018, it could not be swayed even by offers of more aid in territories under its control to grant better supplies for opposition regions.

 The Chatham House think tank estimates that a resumption of Syria's trade relations with Arab states would bring $2.41 billion into the country over the next four years, $2.17 billion of which would go to pro-régime forces. And British experts predict that, even of the remaining $240 million, a quarter would remain in government coffers in the form of taxes, fees and bribes, while living conditions for the general population would continue to deteriorate.

 Stability is in fact the key requirement if the standard of living is to improve – but that is exactly what the régime wants to avoid, seeing as it thrives on sowing fear and insecurity. In the meantime, it is questionable whether the present régime would even be able to create a sense of security again, because many army units and militias have long since gone rogue and divided up spheres of influence and business sectors amongst themselves. And without security, no outside investments will be forthcoming that might revive the labour market. Not to mention that those governments that now desire "normalisation" are certainly not acting out of altruistic motives. The social realities in Syria were not an issue in any of the pronouncements made by the United Arab Emirates or Bahrain on the steps to be taken toward normalisation.

 This kind of "step by step" normalisation would in fact only fuel social tensions in Syria further, serving as even more of an incentive for the régime to continue its repressive policies in order to benefit from the large profit margins in trade. According to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, 90 percent of the Syrian population was already living below the poverty line by March 2021.

 The states in the region should know better than to hope that their offers will change anything. The last time they launched advances for normalisation, before the Arab League summit in Tunis in 2017, Assad showed neither remorse nor gratitude for their cautiously extended hand. He was still waiting for an apology from the organisation, diplomats from the region said at the time.



 The Syrian régime's policies were the only reason why the so-called Islamic State could become so strong, and Assad simply let it have its way. For neighbouring states, this was and is still a menacing, destabilising situation, even after the formal end of the caliphate in 2019.

 Before the war, Syria was known as a producer of generic drugs, and now it is synthetic drugs that are being smuggled out of Syria. But Assad's policies also pose less obvious risks to the region. Polio, officially eradicated in Syria in 1999, reappeared more frequently there after 2011 and spread to neighbouring states – because Assad refused to fight the disease, supported by the World Health Organization (WHO), which has always shown itself to be pro-régime.

 With targeted bombing, the Syrian and Russian air forces have destroyed around 40 percent of Syria's hospitals, and others have sustained serious damage. Only one-third of the physicians and nurses in the country before the war are still there. The intelligence services have set up separate departments to deal with employees in the health-care sector and have criminalised the provision of care to those deemed disloyal to the régime. This policy, designed to target the most vulnerable, violates all international norms and ethical standards. And it obviously also prevents the coronavirus pandemic from being contained, which in turn affects neighbouring countries.



 Whatever the expectations harboured by advocates of normalisation in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, they will not be met, even if Assad were to make commitments as he did in 2013, which is unlikely. At that time, the Syrian régime narrowly escaped US intervention after using chemical weapons to kill about 1,000 people. It joined the international chemical weapons convention and declared its arsenal destroyed in 2014. But even today, eight years later, it has still not answered 20 of the 24 questions that were still open at the time. Experts at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) believe that Syria's sarin stockpile was never completely destroyed. If anything, attacks with chlorine gas increased. When Assad absolutely has to, he delivers, but only half-heartedly and incompletely.

 A key goal of the countries surrounding Syria as well as some of the European states hosting refugees is that those who have fled should be able to return to Syria. But this will never happen under Assad's régime. There is no lack of lip service from Damascus about "welcoming" them back. However, even the Lebanese government, which maintains good relations with Damascus, confirms in its statistics that Syria's security apparatus has accepted only 20 percent of those willing to return from Lebanon. The recurring fighting in Daraa on the border with Jordan and the ongoing threat to Idlib in north-western Syria are likely to lead to even more Syrians trying to leave the country rather than to anyone returning in the long term.

 Frustration in the neighbouring states that have taken in many Syrian refugees could result in violence against refugees or even forceful attempts at repatriation. Outside the region as well, anti-asylum governments like Denmark's will surely also cite a desire for normalisation as evidence that the situation in Syria has improved. But with this form of normalisation, the Syrian population only stands to lose.'

Survivor of Assad's Chemical Attack on Ghouta

 Ali Zawawi:

 'Before the revolution, I was an English teacher. I was continuing my studies at the University of Damascus. I was married, and lived in Damascus. During my time in Damascus, I always dreamed of leaving Syria, and travel abroad somewhere where I could be more free, and have more freedom. Because in our country, people are not treated like a human. They are treated like anything but a human. You can't talk about politics, you can't talk about religion, you can't talk about the economy. You can't talk about anything related to the régime.

 It was a taboo to talk about these subjects. People didn't feel comfortable living in Damascus, or in Syria in general. You are always under threat of being taken if you talk about any of these topics, or if you touch anything that's related to the régime. I felt that I have to move, but I had to finish my studies first, and in Syria, military service is obligatory, so I had to go to it. I didn't know how to run away from it.

 As long as you are studying, you can avoid it, until a certain age, which was 26 or 27, my age at the time, when it's mandatory, you have to go through this service. It doesn't go through anyone's mind that you're serving the country; actually you're serving the officers, you're serving this sectarian  régime that's controlling Syria.

                                *****************************************************

 The revolution was at its very beginning as I was due to go for military service. At that moment, I decided to go to Ghouta, which was seemingly liberated. I wanted to join people who were resisting the régime at that time. I wanted to help them in any means. So I took my family and moved to Ghouta.

 There were so many who wanted to go from the régime to the liberated areas, but they didn't know how. Alhamdulillah I had some friends in Ghouta, who told me how to get inside, because the routes almost all had checkpoints or were blocked, so I had to go through different routes. So I took my family. It was very dangerous to go inside Ghouta, because there was so much bombing, airstrikes. I had never been in this situation, my family with me, my wife and my child at that time. I had only one child at that time.

 Prisons in Syria were already full before the revolution. There are taboos you can't talk about. So whenever someone talks about Islam, you practice it in the correct way, they don't like it. So you are taken to prison, where you might spend years and years. If you talk about the economy of the country, if you talk about the politics of the country, if you talk about the régime, they might take you to jail and spend years and years there, or you might be killed inside the prison. It's the main reason, not just for me, but for many people, and for the guys who got involved in the revolution.

 

                                *****************************************************

 In the beginning, Ghouta was half way besieged. There were two roads open with checkpoints. Nothing large could enter, for example big amounts of food or fuel couldn't go inside unless they were smuggled, inside cars or under the cars. After two years there was a complete siege, and they blocked all the roads, and it became a military area. 

 There were 400,000 people inside Ghouta, and all of them were besieged. You can imagine how difficult it was. Life became so primitive. There was no electricity. There was no fuel to run cars, to run generators. We didn't have any access to food supplies, even to clean water.

 So life was very difficult for everybody. Three or four months after the siege started, you could look at people in the street as if they had gone through a severe diet. They became very skinny and pale. 

 Some of my friends lost their lives trying to get some plastic. Plastic had a very high price in there, because they would melt it down in a special way, and turn it into gas, diesel and gasoline. So at the end, Ghouta became free of plastic. You could see no plastic at all. So the guys had to go between us and the army, in places where the army could see you sometimes, to take a plastic tank or something like that. One of my friends lost his hand, he got a sniper shot in his hand under the shoulder, and other people died, just trying to get some plastic.

                                *****************************************************

 At the beginning, it was only the Syrian army, but as soon as the Syrian army got very weak, because some of the soldiers started to run away from the army coming inside Ghouta, or to go to other towns to join the revolution, Hezbollah came in from Lebanon, and started fighting for the régime. Also, just after a few months, we heard people coming from Pakistan. Shia people coming from Pakistan and other areas. After that, Russia started coming in and helping the régime with airstrikes. 

 Damascus is the heart of Syria, and it really threatened the régime if it was taken, the régime would fall right away. We were just two kilometres away from the heart of Damascus. So if they couldn't get rid of the rebels inside Ghouta, it would have been a big problem for them.

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 The chemical attack in 2013 was the biggest one, and I was in the area where we received this chemical attack first. I was in Zamalka city, and I can remember it was a very awful day. It was 2 o'clock in the morning, and I was sleeping, and it was very quiet at the beginning. Suddenly I heard someone running in the alley, and he was shouting, and I could hear that he couldn't breathe very well. I was shouting that there was a chemical attack. Until that moment, I was waking up, and I couldn't comprehend what he was saying exactly, I couldn't comprehend what was going on.

 Just a few seconds later, I felt that I was out of breath; and my wife next to me woke up, and she had the same symptoms, she couldn't breathe well. So I understood there was a real chemical attack. I asked to run away upstairs to the roof. She didn't know why, but suddenly they started throwing more missiles, these are chemical missiles. So I told her to go upstairs right away, and I carried my son upstairs to the roof. She shouted at me to go downstairs, because this is what usually happens when there is a bombing. I shouted at her, look this is a chemical attack, and we have to go upstairs. This is the first measure we were told if we were hit by a chemical attack, because the gas usually goes down.

 It's true to some extent, as when we went upstairs, after just five minutes, I felt I was going to faint. I couldn't breathe well. My two children also couldn't breathe well. I had a very small child, just one year old at that time. I tried to put a mask on him, but he couldn't take it, he doesn't know how to deal with it.

 So I decided to leave the neighbourhood, alhamdulillah I had a car at that time. It was destroyed later by an airstrike.So I took my family and some of my friends in my car. We went north to a town seven kilometres away from Zamalka city. We stayed there for eleven hours. I couldn't breathe well at that time. I had very strange symptoms. My pupils were very, very small. All the people who were around you had small pupils. We had problem breathing, our bodies were very weak.

 The first thing I went to a far area just to get rid of the gas that was around us. I went to a clinic there, but the clinic was full of people, and the symptoms like the ones that I had were mild in comparison, and they didn't treat me. Usually they give you an injection that helps you to breathe better. So I didn't get an injection, I just went back to my friends house. Subhanallah the symptoms we had very very mild, but when we came back home after twelve or thirteen hours, it was a disaster.

 The next alley in the neighbourhood where I used to live, the families all were dead. Some of them were dead in bed, some were dead out in the street trying to get help. Some of the medics were also out in the street dead, they were trying to help other people. Some families were dead, and they couldn't find them after three or four days, because they didn't know how to react, so they went inside the bathroom and closed the doors to keep the gas outside, but sarin got inside and killed all the families.

 There are some very sad stories. I have one of my friend. He was was newly married. He died with his wife and his mother-in-law, in the same house, very close to my house.


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 I think it is a much bigger number of dead than the UN confirmed. Medics would say there were about two thousand people who died at that time, and really you could see the hospitals, the clinics; they were full of children, of women, of different ages; they were dead. They choked, they couldn't breathe.

 We had some remarkable stories of people who were considered to be dead, this sarin gas stops their heart, and after two hours the heart is beating, but very faintly, so the doctors think the person was dead. So they said that some people were buried alive. I'm not sure of this story, but it's what I heard, and we saw some people who were between the dead people, ready to be taken to the graveyard to be buried, but somehow they made a movement, and some people realised they were moving, and picked them up from among the dead people.


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 From the very beginning, the Assad régime started to be very weak. They tried to get help from Shia groups and militias from Lebanon, from Pakistan, from other countries, but it was useless. Even though the fighters who were fighting the régime didn't have big experience in fighting, but they had a cause.


Subhanallah we had a cause to defend. And at the same time, the feeling that we had after moving from the authority of the régime to a different authority of Allah, even though we were bombed with airstrikes with tainted barrels, with all these types of weapons that we never thought we would be bombarded with, we felt happy. We felt free. We wanted to defend that feeling. We wanted to have our freedom.


They used chemical weapons because they wanted to take Ghouta on that day. They were planning to take Ghouta, and they thought by throwing these chemical weapons, and killing massive numbers of people, we would be weak. And this is exactly what happened. When they bombed us with the chemical weapons, after three hours they began a huge military offensive on Jobar, Zamalka and Ein Tarma. These are three big frontlines, but subhanallah they were not successful, and many tanks of the régime were hit, and some the soldiers left the tanks working and ran away. Hundreds of soldiers were killed at that time. So basically they wanted to take Ghouta, they wanted to finish this issue.

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 The main attack was this one in Zamalka and Ein Terma where two thousand people died, but the régime continued using chemical weapons, more than a hundred or two hundred times. We didn't have ISIS inside Ghouta, so it was all coming from the Assad régime. They used different types of gases, but the worst one was sarin. They used chlorine gases too, too much actually. They used it on a daily basis when there was a military offensive. 

 Of course, there is no accountability, and this is what we were shocked by. How the international world is not reacting to these kind of attacks. And not only that, the reaction that they gave and showed wasn't up to the level. Killing two thousand people in one day, this is horrible. It's a horrible thing.

 The other thing that shocked us is they only talked about the chemical attack. They didn't talk about other things. There were about twenty people death toll every day from different kinds of weapons. What about these people? Is it permissible to kill people with tainted barrels? Is it permissible to kill people with airstrikes? So we don't understand how the international world acts.

 People here on the ground, Syrian rebels and civilians, they actually know what's happening, and they understand how the international community is acting, and why they are acting like that.

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 One day, there's a highway between us and the régime. We had ribaat over there, and some of the guys had ribaat on the frontline. So the régime, suddenly sends a woman, and she was naked. They sent her to cut the highway, to come to the liberated area. The guys are looking at her, and are shocked at how she is coming in. There are régime snipers, and suddenly they shot her in the leg or somewhere, and she passed away. The guys tried to reach out to her, with ropes, with metals, to grab her, but it was very difficult. So they decided to send one of the brothers there. He ran very quickly to her, but he received another bullet, and he died just next to her.

 Then another brother ran to her to cover her body, but he also got killed. Then they sent a brother with a rope around his waist, and he ran over there to grab the woman. The brothers told me that he died later on, but they could drag the woman inside our area, and they buried her. It turned out she was one of the sisters in prison, and they wanted to humiliate us with her, by sending her naked to our areas.

 During this revolution, the régime killed about 1.5 million people, and displaced more than 14 million others inside and outside Syria. This is not new, this régime did the same thing in 1982. They killed more than 40,000 people in Hama. There was an uprising that year, and they killed them in only seven days. So this régime has been like that, not just recently, but for a very long time. 

 It's true that Assad has taken these areas, and they are not in the grip of the rebels any more, but the situation is not very clear in the media. They say it has settled down for the régime in these areas, for example, in Ghouta, in Homs, Hama, different parts of Syria especially Daraa, but the situation is different. Every now and then there are assassinations of high-ranking officers. Soldiers are very afraid to go inside Ghouta. Every now and then you hear there is a checkpoint attacked by rebels who were left behind.

 So it's not settled any more, and even people who are inside are fed up with this régime. They thought that maybe the people who were left behind there, they thought at the beginning they might have a better lifestyle when the régime comes back after they break the siege, but it turned out to be so much different. Now they are regretting the days of the siege, and want the rebels to come back to their areas, but unfortunately it's not happening now. 


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 We are still working, and here in Idlib people, displaced people and even the people of Idlib, are helping us, and we are working together, inshallah, to go back to Ghouta, to Daraa, to Homs, to Hama, to all these cities that were with us before. Inshallah we will get rid of this régime very soon.'