Source: AH Tribune
With the defeat of ISIS and Nusra, the exposure of the ‘White Helmets’ and the various Chemical Weapons stunts, and with the collapse of ‘Rojava’, Washington is fast running out of options in Syria. Syria is winning, but the big power has not yet given up. Knowing that it is losing, it still acts to prolong the endgame and punish the Syrian people.

We are sitting at a joint military command center in Arima (northern Syria, just west of Manbij) with three Syrian Arab Army (SAA) colonels and two uniformed Kurd SDF ‘koval’ (comrades). There are Russians here too, but they do not enter our conversation. Yet even in the friendly chat, as we wait for permission to travel on to Manbij and Ayn al Arab (Kobane), some tensions are apparent.

Sharing coffee and food, both the SAA officers and the SDF comrades acknowledge they are fighting and dying together against an invading Turkish army and its proxy militias. The frontline is just a few kilometers away.

When I ask what differences there are between DAESH, Nusra and the ‘Free Army’, they all respond derisively. “There is no difference, it is a money game, the fighters go back and forwards depending on the pay rates”. “Any difference between groups in the numbers of foreigners?” I suggest. “No difference”, they repeat. SDF Comrade B passes me a recent video of ‘Free Army’ fighters at Tal Abiad, to the north-east, protesting conditions and demanding their return to HTS/Nusra controlled Idlib.

But we all know they fight for a different cause. The SAA officers are fighting for a liberated and united Syria, while the SDF comrades still dream of an independent ‘Kurdistan’ by cutting out parts of contemporary Turkey, Syria and Iraq.

Separatist Kurds collaborated with US occupation forces in pursuit of their ‘Rojava’ dream (western Kurdistan), even though Washington never really supported the project. Many Syrians see them as traitors. But the SAA is patient, dealing with one enemy at a time, and at the moment the enemy in north Syria is Erdogan.

The ‘Rojava’ dream is effectively dead. As both Afrin (in March 2018) and Manbij (in October 2019) demonstrated, no Kurdish militia can defend itself from Ankara, which correctly sees any ‘Rojava’ statelet as a stepping stone for the bigger game, a large slice of Turkey. Protection by US occupation forces could not last forever. Moreover, Kurdish groups have no exclusive historical claims over any parts of northern Syria. Many others live there. In much of north Syria Kurds are a small minority.

Despite these tensions a close, even affectionate relationship remains in the room. The SAA colonels are all older men, in their 40s and 50s, while the SDF comrades are younger men, around 30 years old. Colonel H offers more coffee to Comrade A while Comrade B tells of Kurdish conquests. “We lost 850 martyrs liberating Manbij”, he says, and “2,000 in Kobane”. And what about all those in your prisons? one of the colonels asks. “They are reformatories”, Comrade B replies.
What Comrade B does not say about the “liberation” of Manbij is that (1) the 2016 battle was effectively a transfer of the city from one US proxy (ISIS/DAESH) to another (SDF), and (2) there were very few Kurds in that mostly Arab city. After the major battles, many from surrounding areas fled to the city, swelling its population. A recent estimate puts its population at 700,000, of which 80% are Arab (Najjar 2019). Of the rest there are other non-Arab minorities, including Assyrians, Circassians and Armenians. There is no real social base for a separatist Kurd regime in Manbij.

Yet even after the departure of US occupation forces from this part of northern Syria, and even though the Syrian and Russian presence constrains Turkish ambitions, the SDF has been allowed to maintain its former administration of both the city and the region.

The bizarre and unsustainable nature of this regime is made apparent when Nihad Roumieh, my Syrian journalist colleague, asks one of the colonels to show us where we are. Colonel A happily rolls out a military map, with friend and enemy troop placements. The first thing apparent is that six Syrian armored units protect Manbij, to the north. Second, although Syrian forces have resumed control of more than 200km of the northern border, it is depressing to see how much of northern Syria remains occupied by Erdogan and his proxies.

The picture seemed even more grim when we later spoke with a Manbij councilor and his lawyer friend. They complained of many held in prison and tortured, under the SDF regime. They said there were only two Kurd villages in Manbij.

Nevertheless, it seems that a transition is taking place. Over November-December both Syrian and Russian flags were raised over previous SDF positions in Hassakah, Ayn al Arab, Jarablus and Tal Jemaa (Syrian Observer 2019; Semenov 2019; SOHR 2019), with suggestions that the SDF was involved in negotiations with Damascus “to reach conclusive solutions”. However, SDF leader Mazloum Abadi said that the group wanted “Syrian unity … [with] decentralized self-administration” including maintenance of the separate SDF militia (Syrian Observer 2019). Damascus is unlikely to accept such terms.

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The claim for a Kurdish homeland in Syria is no indigenous movement, claiming the return of ancestral lands. Nor does the debate over Kurds as historical migrants (in Yildiz 2005) or long-standing inhabitants (Hennerbichler 2012: 77-78) resolve the question. While Kurdish languages are of Iranian origin, and the longer history passes through Mesopotamia (Iraq) and the Ottoman Empire, Kurds are certainly part of the native Syrian population. However at 1.5 million Syria hosts the smallest group in the region, with around 20 million in Turkey (Gürbüz 2016: 31) and another 6-8 million each in Iran and Iraq.

The idea of a ‘Rojava’ statelet in Syria has been compromised in three ways. First, the Kurdish groups in the north and north-east Syria are only one of several groups (amongst Assyrians, Circassians, Armenians and Arabs), and in some areas small minorities. Second, the Kurdish separatist movement in Syria has been over-determined by the politics of and migration from Turkey. ‘Rojava’ was seen as the stepping stone for a larger ‘Kurdistan’ project, driven from the north. Third, intervention by the imperial power raised separatist expectations and has damaged Kurdish relations with other Syrian groups.

In the longer history of Syria, a traditional refuge for minorities, there have been many Kurds, including famous personalities, who did not buy into the separatist dream. Two of them are buried inside the grounds of the Ummayad Mosque in Damascus: the 12th-century ruler Sala’addin and the Quranic scholar Sheikh Mohammad al Bouti (murdered by Jabhat al Nusra in 2013). Many Syrians of Kurdish origin embraced the idea of a wider identity. Before the 2011 conflict Tejel (2009: 39-46) classified Syrian Kurdish identities as comprising Arab nationalist, communist and Kurdish nationalist, with Syrian Kurd leaders Husni Za’im and Adib al-Shishakli campaigning for a non-sectarian ‘Greater Syria’.

The Turkish Kurd influence began early in the 20th century, as Kurdish culture was repressed by the post-Ottoman Turkish state. Turkish Kurds first took refuge in Syria, including in Damascus, after their failed rebellion in 1925. The very idea of a Syrian Kurdish party first came in 1956 from the Turkish refugee Osman Sabri; and another Turkish refugee Nûredîn Zaza, became president of that party (al Kati 2019: 45, 47).

There were multiple splits in subsequent years. The Democratic Union Party (PYD) emerged in the 1980s as a branch of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), loyal to its leader Abdallah Öcalan, who in 1996 acknowledged that “most of the Kurds of Syria were refugees and migrants from Turkey and they would benefit from returning there” (in Allsop 2014: 231). Many of the claims about ‘stateless’ Kurds in Syria have to be read in light of this Turkish influx. However, Öcalan departed in 1998, as part of Syria’s Adana agreement with Turkey (al Kati 2019: 49-52).

The big powers, conscious of the potentially divisive role of separatist Kurds, have used them for decades, to divide and weaken Arab governments. US regional allies Israel and Iran (pre-1979) joined in, with the Shah in 1962 ordering his SAVAK secret police to help finance the Kurdish insurgency in northern Iraq, so as to undermine Baghdad. The Israelis joined in two years later. The CIA offered further help to the Barzani-led Kurds in 1972. One result was that Iraq was unable to join the Arab resistance against Israeli expansion in 1967 and 1973 because a large part of its military was deployed in northern Iraq (Gibson 2019).

The US-led war on Syria in 2011 presented new separatist opportunities. Peoples Protection Units (YPG) were reactivated in 2012, at first with support from Damascus so that Syrians in the north could fight ISIS. However, the US occupation of parts of north and east Syria in late 2015 led to the reorganization of many YPG units into the US-sponsored ‘Syrian Democratic Forces’ (SDF) (Martin 2018: 96). These were sometimes referred to as a ‘Rojava’ force, while at other times the Kurdish component was played down.

According to one US military report in 2017 the SDF in Manbij was only 40% Kurd (Townsend in Humud, Blanchard and Nikitin 2017: 12), addressing the embarrassing reality that Manbij had a very small Kurdish population. In late 2016 US Col. John Dorrian, gave a higher overall Kurd estimate, saying that the SDF “consists of approximately 45,000 fighters, more than 13,000 of which are Arab” (USDOD 2016). Many of the latter came from the fragments of earlier US proxy militia in Syria.

Syrian Colonel Malek from Aleppo confirmed to me that the bulk of SDF members were always Kurdish, including many from Iraq and Turkey. The size of the non-Kurd and foreigner contingents varied according to the money on offer. A report from the London based International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSR) recognized that both the YPG and SDF ground forces remained largely arms of the Turkish PKK (Holland-McCowan 2017: 10).

The failure of the September 2017 separatist referendum in Iraq dealt a serious blow to the regional project. The KDP and PUK put aside their rivalry to hold an independence referendum (having already pushed for and gained federal status) even though it was not authorized by Baghdad. The proposal was said to have gained 92% approval, but was immediately rejected by the Iraqi Government and Army, which drove Peshmerga forces out of Kirkuk in just a few hours (Gabreldar 2018; ICG 2019). For the first time in decades the Iraqi Army took control of the NE region. Baghdad was showing a political will that had been lacking for many years.

In Syria, US forces did nothing to stop the YPG’s ethnic cleansing of non-Kurds in areas to which they laid claim. In October 2015, the western aligned group Amnesty International accused the YPG (just before the US rebranded them as the ‘Syrian Democratic Forces’) of forcibly evicting Arabs and Turkmens from areas they took after displacing ISIS. Amnesty produced evidence to show instances of forced displacement, and the demolition and confiscation of civilian property, which constituted war crimes (AI 2015). Similar accusations had come from Turkish government sources (Pamuk and Bektas 2015) but also from refugees who said that ‘YPG fighters evicted Arabs and Turkmens from their homes and burned their personal documents’ (Sehmer 2015; Al Masri 2015).

However, after the US forces became direct patrons of the SDF in late 2015, a UN commission, co-chaired by US diplomat Karen Koning AbuZayd, continued its quest to place most of the blame for abuses on Syrian Government forces. The Commission accused the YPG/SDF of forcibly displacing communities “[but only] in order to clear areas mined by ISIL”, and of forcible conscription, but “found no evidence to substantiate claims that YPG or SDF forces ever targeted Arab communities on the basis of ethnicity, nor that YPG cantonal authorities systematically sought to change the demographic composition of territories” (IICISAR 2017: 111 and 93).

Nevertheless, in 2018 there were ongoing reports of the ethnic cleansing of Assyrian Christians from US-SDF held areas in NE Syria. Young men in the Qamishli area were reported to have been arrested and forcibly conscripted into Kurdish militia, alongside property theft by those same militias (Abed 2018). In 2019 the SDF were reported to have closed more than 2,000 Arabic-teaching schools in the Hasaka region (Syria Times 2019) and to have shot, killed, wounded and jailed displaced people who were trying to escape from al-Hawl Refugee Camp in South-Eastern Hasaka (FNA 2019). Nevertheless, once US forces created and adopted the Kurdish-led ‘SDF’, Amnesty International and the western media muted their earlier criticisms.

Washington in 2012 had looked favorably on the ISIS plan for a “Salafist principality”, so as to weaken Damascus (DIA 2012). In September 2016 US air power was used to attack and kill more than 120 Syrian soldiers at Mount Tharda behind Deir Ezzor airport, to help the terrorist group’s (failed) efforts to take over and threaten the city (Anderson 2017). But when Russia, Syria and Iraq began wiping out these Saudi clones, USA forces simply rescued their best commanders and replaced ISIS with a Kurdish-led ‘SDF’ (Anderson 2019: Chapters 5 and 7), once again to undermine and weaken Damascus.
But US occupation forces did not wait around to sponsor the ill-fated Rojava project. In October 2019 President Trump gave the order for a partial withdrawal from northern Syria. Former US diplomat Robert Ford had warned in 2017 that the US would abandon the SDF (O’Connor 2017). So, stripped of US military protection and their main source of arms and finance, the SDF was forced to rapidly put together a new alliance with Damascus and Russia, to prevent annihilation by Erdogan’s forces. The Turkish leader saw the Öcalan-led YPG/SDF as a stepping stone to its larger project in Turkey (Demircan 2019).

Western liberals complained the US was ‘betraying’ its Kurdish allies; but they placed too much faith in romantic myths. Ünver (2016), for example, presented separatist Kurds as recipients of unplanned opportunities in Syria’s “civil war” in an “age of shifting borders”, as though the big power were not once again using the ‘Kurdish card’ to divide and weaken both Iraq and Syria. Schmidinger (2018: 13, 16-17) tried to twist Syria’s historic diversity into an argument for the ‘Rojava’ sectarian division – instead of an inclusive unitary state. But, as has been said many times before, imperial powers never have real allies, only interests. Lebanese Resistance leader Hassan Nasrallah told Kurdish separatists in February 2018: “In the end they will work according to their interests, they will abandon you and they will sell you in a slave market.”

Meanwhile, with Washington’s blessing, Erdogan persists with his plan to control large parts of northern Syria, with the aim of settling many of the refugees in Turkey under a Muslim Brotherhood style regime, controlled by sectarian Islamist militia. Retired Syrian Major General Mohammad Abbas Mohammad told me that Turkey’s leader has not given up his ambition of becoming a modern-day ‘Caliph’ of Muslim nations, and is working to colonise Syrian minds with his constant Islamist slogans.

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Nevertheless, with the help of its allies, Syria is winning the war. ISIS/DAESH and Nusra are virtually defeated, the ‘White Helmets’ and the Chemical Weapons stunts have been exposed and the Rojava myth has collapsed. But a Washington-driven economic war now targets all the independent countries of the region, aggravating the occupation and the terrorism.

Director of the Syrian Arab Army’s Political Department Major General Hassan Hassan, tells us that the US “has the power to destroy the world, many times over, but it has not been able to turn that power into capabilities.” That is why US wars are failing across the region.

While we are indeed heading for a multi-polar world, he says, we are not there yet. “Syria still faces the unipolar regime”. Erdogan, ISIS, Israel and the SDF are all “puppets” of this dying world order. Authorized by the US, Erdogan still wants to set up a Muslim Brotherhood region in north and east Syria. This is a dying and a “most dangerous” order, General Hassan says. “The US deep state knows that its unipolarity is failing, but that has not yet been announced. The new world system is born, but is not yet recognized. The US wants to prolong this conflict as long as possible, and to punish the Syrian people”.

In that transitional phase we see collaboration between the SAA and the SDF, the extraordinary anomaly of an SDF-run Manbij and the ongoing experiment of ‘Kobane’, the SDF controlled border town which Syrians call Ayn al Arab.

Traveling from rural Aleppo to rural Raqqa on the M4 highway we cross the Furat (Euphrates) river, a huge, semi-dammed expanse of fresh water which appears particularly sweet between two deserts. Turning north we arrive in Ayn al Arab, at the Turkish border, in less than an hour. Although Erdogan’s gangs are attacking Ayn al Issa, deeper inside Syria on the M4, there is no sign of fighting near Ayn al Arab itself. Major General Abbas says that Erdogan is aiming at narrow incursions, which can later be widened.

This small city of perhaps 45,000 people was evacuated during earlier fighting and still shows signs of great destruction, especially on the eastern and northern sides. Less than a tenth of the size of Manbij it is now said to have a majority of Kurds and the SDF comrades seem well organized. We are taken to their small headquarters, a three-story building, to await further security checks and an escort to one of their schools and one of their hospitals.

At the secondary school, as in the headquarters, they seem wary of a foreigner accompanied by an SAA Colonel and a Syrian journalist. That breaks down a little as I ask about their curriculum and the children, who have clearly gone through substantial trauma. The headmaster says they are developing programs to help students deal with their war experiences. The threat is not over, as Erdogan’s troops, including sectarian Islamist gangs, are only a few kilometers to the north.

The Kurdish nationalist curriculum has made a break with the centralized Arabic-based system set in Damascus. The headmaster explains that their syllabus is carried out 60% in the Kurdish language, 20% in Arabic and 20% in English. For children from Arab families the syllabus is 60% Arabic, 20% Kurdish and 20% English. They speak of four ‘nationalities’ in Kobane: Kurd, Arab, Yazidi and Christian. That is how they see it.

The management of the small hospital is also strongly Kurd nationalist. I ask where they get their support and they mention the Americans and some international NGOs. Of course, there is nothing from Ankara. “What about Damascus?” I ask. “Nothing and we want nothing”, says one of the managers.

That may be true for this hospital. However Syrian colleagues tell that most of the health centers in SDF controlled areas still get finance and supplies from Damascus. So not only is their security guaranteed by the Syrian state, so are most of their social services.
It remains to be seen how much Kurdish autonomy will remain, under a final political settlement. Federation is not part of the discussion, it is clear that Damascus sees that as a path which would dismember and weaken the country. While the SAA and the SDF jointly fight Erdogan’s gangs, Damascus has been calling on Arab leaders in the north and north east, who had collaborated with the US occupation force and the SDF, to return to the Syrian Arab Army. On the other side, SDF Commander General Mazloum Abdi opposes incorporation of the SDF into the SAA (Van Wilgenburg 2019) and wants to hold onto as much local administration as possible (Syrian Observer 2019). The continued US presence and sponsorship of SDF units in Hasaka, Qamishli and Deir Ezzor (Ahval 2019), serves to maintain the illusions of autonomy.

In the Russian media there is some pessimism about an SDF-Damascus reconciliation. One observer suggests that “Russia will eventually force most (if not all) of Turkey’s forces to leave Syria … [but Damascus] and the Syrian Kurds have opposing political and military goals that will not be easily reconciled” (Stein 2019).

However, Damascus has some other cards. The YPG/PKK/SDF grew its influence through US sponsorship and, as that declines, other voices in the north, including Kurdish voices, are likely to re-emerge, especially through the constitutional process in Geneva. Major General Abbas points out that there are now dozens of Kurdish parties in the north east (Syria Times 2018). Given the intransigence of the US-dependent SDF, Russia is said to be recruiting Syrian Kurd youth to a rival group (Duvar 2019), which is likely to be incorporated into the SAA.

In my view, there will likely be some accommodation of Kurdish nationalist demands at the cultural and local administrative levels, but alongside efforts to ensure this does not privilege Kurds above other Syrian groups. That should appear in the amended constitution. The old world order is dying and the new one is still being born. In this transitional world, Washington persists with its losing war, to divide and punish the Syrian people.
==================================

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By Arabi Souri
Source: Syria News
Idlib southern countryside villages are getting cleaned in order to implement Sochi’s agreement between Russian President Putin and the Turkish pariah Erdogan.

After very long stalling by NATO member state Turkey and the main regional sponsor of al-Qaeda FSA terrorists, the Syrian Arab Army SAA with assistance from the Russian allies started a military operation in south and southeast of Idlib province to implement the main points of the Sochi Agreement between Russia and Turkey which is to clean the vital artery M4 between Aleppo and Latakia from NATO terrorists, Erdogan has deliberately failed to implement his part of the agreement and instead increased the support for these terrorists.

The SAA’s military operation that started yesterday swiftly took al-Qaeda terrorists by surprise, their sponsor, the Turkish madman ‘Mama Erdogan’ lost his balance and lashed out at Putin, indirectly, but at a brewing front very far from Syria, in Libya, where Turkey and Qatar are sponsoring the Tripoli government against Benghazi government.

Erdogan’s ‘dirty tongue’ accused Russia of sending paramilitary troops to aid the Benghazi government forces which are working to reunite the country and clean the Libyan capital Tripoli from ISIS and its affiliates.

Back to Syria’s Idlib where the SAA is resorting to the successful tactic by cutting off supply routes for NATO-sponsored al-Qaeda terrorists then surrounding the targeted area and leaving one corridor open for the terrorists to flee towards the direction the SAA wants, always north towards their sponsor.

More in this report by the Lebanese news channel Al-Mayadeen:SAA Military Operation

Transcript of the English translation of the video report:

Um Jalal, Al-Rabia, Al-Khuriba, and Al-Haira are the first villages in the southern and eastern countryside of Idlib which the Syrian Arab Army units enter at the beginning of a major battle that is gradually becoming clear.

The advancement of the incursion units was based on a concentrated fire through airstrikes and artillery and rocket shelling that extended over the axes of the two major cities of Saraqeb and Ma’rat al-Numan.

The shelling destroyed large fortifications and gatherings of the HTS (Nusra Front – Al-Qaeda Levant), ‘The Caucasus Soldiers’ and ‘The National Liberation Front.’

Mahmoud Abdeslam, Military Expert: The Syrian Arab Army advanced after a clean operation by targeting a pre-defined target bank with high-precision quality weapons that led to the completion of the destruction of ground defenses and the main repellent lines of terrorist groups on the entire 70-kilometer front starting from Khan Sheikhoun towards Ma’rat al-Numan and Saraqeb.

The momentum of the fighting continues with a gradual encroachment that the Syrian Arab Army crowned last August to retake Khan Sheikhoun. Army units, in coordination with the Russian ally, are completing a clear route to secure the two vital routes: M5 between Aleppo, Saraqeb and Ma’rat al-Numan to Damascus, and the M4 between Aleppo and Saraqeb to Jisr al-Shughour, Latakia.

Two tracks correspond to the current fighting from Sinjar-Abu Al-Dhohour towards Ma’rat al-Numan and from Abu Al-Dhohour to Jaziraaya in the southern Aleppo countryside to Saraqeb, east of Idlib, and the M4-M5 link.

Mahmoud Abdul Salam, Military Expert: The main objective of this operation is to enforce the Sochi Convention by force and to reopen the main roads of the M4 and M5, especially since the main road known as the M4 has been opened to passengers from the far north-east of Syria.

The Idlib front is designed to implement one of the most important provisions of the Russian-Turkish Sochi agreement, namely the restoration of the two highways from Aleppo to Damascus and from Aleppo to Latakia, and the two roads passing through Saraqeb.

(Agreement) articles blocked by the militants since the end of last year.

The implementation of the Sochi clauses confirms the success of the strategy of the gradual encroachment of territorial geography, which the terrorists were controlling for years. The completion of the mission is linked to Russian arrangements with Turkey to handle the file of 3 Turkish checkpoints that are at the center of combat operations.

Mohammed al-Khader, Damascus, Al-Mayadeen.

End of the transcript of the English translation.

Anticipating the SAA’s military operation, the terrorist groups operating in Idlib started moving their families northwest towards Idlib City and to the borders with Turkey where protests erupted against the Turkish rejection of receiving the rest of the families of its own terrorists. Turkey might have allowed up to 50,000 family members of the terrorists, they’re part of the Erodgan’s ‘Safe Zone’ arrangement to Israelize territories in the north of Syria by replacing the people there with terrorists and their families loyal to the Turkish madman.

By Janice Kortkamp & Mark Taliano
Source: Global Research
Rania “if death will come in 5 years or 7 or 10 I would urge it to come now because they have ripped us up of all hopes for any foreseen future… they have killed us while we are still breathing, they have taken any shred of dignity pushing us to strive for our daily bread … I wonder what else they may ask for if we keep compromising ….”

[the full identity of the testimonies is not available]

1. Ayham  I wonder what does the American Government have against the Syrian people and for what reason we are being punished?!

We’ve never been a threat to anyone, never hated anyone and certainly never been against Americans.

Now about the petrol crisis, we had a harsh winter, but we managed to overcome the cold. Now we face lack of Gasoline and most cars stay in queues for about two days on Gas stations to get about 20 liters a week.

2. I do not understand this American intransigence … Why do they want to kill us? We love our country and we do not want to leave it. My young son lost this 20 year old damned war Why does America support terrorism to earn money at the expense of people? The killing of my son I accused him is the one who helped the terrorists and killed our children and today we are counting on the top of our lives Yes, gasoline is the main source of movement Mechanisms, factories and cars … Also heating Thousands of children have been hurt because of the cold and the children of their sons … The livelihoods of people working on cars and engines Small and electricity …. why not talk The American people as long as they sleep in democracy … Hands for living in dignity in our country We have not attacked you … Let us live in peace … …

Thank you janice…

3. Aiham  The US government imposed economic sanctions on our government to force it to accept the entry of Muslim Brotherhood extremists into our government.

We, as a Syrian people, have’t found fuel for heating for two days during the snowfall on Easter night.. not enough fuel for cars …

Is not it enough that the US government create ISIS terrorist in our country as Hillary Clinton said?

Aiham , Damascus

4. Soumaya :  yes it is a real torture, in Aleppo everybody wants to get out of the country.. its a humanitarian shame.. and everything is more expensive.. they want Syria to die.. pray for the people.. I stay strong like you and we will do our best to help..

5. Adnan  : Economic sanctions are enforced by US, WHY NOW? The prohibition of oil supplies to enter Syria indicates an economic war after 8 years of fierce and bloody war waged by US and its allies by deploying hundreds of thousands of terrorists and mercenaries. It is a punishment to the Syrian people especially the poor, who are clearly badly affected and suffer the rarity and high prices of most necessities to their lives. I think it’s for imposing agendas, opposition names and constitution change. Take it from a Syrian from Aleppo, THOSE WHO WITHSTOOD THE MOST VICIOUS AND BLOODY WAR WILL NEVER GIVE UP TO SANCTIONS

6. Mohammad  : US government claiming that America it’s the country of freedom and it’s the greatest country… Etc
What are you doing for God sake???

You have created ISIS and pretending that you’re fighting them? But in fact you are training and arming and supporting them by all ways possible, for what? For power or oil or helping your child so-called Israel?? Israel are fake country that’s why they named it (is real ) the real country is Palestine…

I lost my young brother in this horrible war that you started in my country, he was fighting YOUR ISIS and me as a soldier i spent 8 years of my life fighting them, my best 8 years of youth, i can’t get married or making a family because i sacrificed of my whole life for my country, for my people, and I WILL KEEP FIGHTING.

Leave us alone we can handle our business, i have a lot of Americans friends, they are good people, but you as a government ARE SHIT.

I have a lot to say, i don’t know where can i start,  We lost a lot because they faking the truth about my country especially in media… I’m not done but i think this enough because they know the truth, they know what exactly happened to my country because they did it.

P.S : I’ve learned English during this war to send this kind of messages to the world, we as Syrians we don’t know what give up means, country who loves all kind of education.. Just take a look of the difference between us and Saudi Arabia, your beloved friend that has a bloody hands in Yemen with your blessings.

I’m not done……

7. Salma  : I already have financial difficulties so imagine now with even higher food prices.. Every end of every month I stay without food for days because I have enough money to either feed myself or my dogs and I choose to feed my dog.. Who is a vegan dog most days of the month BTW.. I am vegan everyday of the year.. And I still can’t make it..

8. Nourhanne :  Well, I will be clear … I am 25 years old. I live in Damascus, the old neighborhoods of Bab Touma. Sanctions significantly affected the car’s long queues on gas stations for long hours Public conductors were weak for staff and students go to work It took a lot of time Export to other areas was also difficult.

These sanctions are certainly a mistake to be decided by the United States which considers itself with human rights

9.  I live in tartus and i have an advice to these sick minds in washington D.C

By punishing us the people of Syria , You are not turning us against our government ..despite the hell we live in everyday we know who is doing this and this made us more united . The only hate is happening here is against you . Why you hate us why….

10. I spent 4 hours to fill my car with only 20 litters and these are my share for 5 days

My father 85 years old in drykish near safita 35 km away from tartus i must go there every day to stay with him because he is sick .

My work in tartus i have no oil to visit him daily i dont know what to do.

11. Ali I remember watching western movies when i was a kid with my siblings… “Once upon a time in the west” exactly… I remember the fly scene at the beginning… At that moment i fell in love with the American lifestyle and mentality. Later i watched more movies and read as many books as i could after learning English just to know more about America… I have always admired and trusted the American people… But i never saw a wider gap between people and their politicians. The sanctions you impose are not harming anyone but people like me, people who can never teach their kids to love America as we did… What am i supposed to tell my 4 years old kid?! America is good but you are not!!! He wouldn’t understand…

Sometimes i really wonder.. Is there really an “American people”?! can they change things like we see on tv?! Or is the “American people” as real as the “Avengers”..?!

I know these words wont change a thing… I wish you arrange a trip for us to meet Americans there and hold meetings to tell them what is really happening here… What has been happening since WW2…

But again… That’s rather impossible… Aliens like me cannot enter the heavens of America… A green card is needed!!! Right?!! Yet your soldiers can come oceans away.. No questions asked…

Democracy might not be at it’s best here in my country… But the world you created can only produce such an ugly truth

12. Hanan : It’s Unbearable , I’m a college student and I need to get out early because of the difficulty of transportation ، I need to stand an hour under the sun after finishing classes to find a means of transport or bus to go home . Most of the time I go and back home on foot. I can’t wait.. Whether it is America’s or others this sanctions are absolute evil. We were talking today about they cut off everything, leaving only oxygen and Pepsi because it made in Damascus

13. Youssef  The economic siege on Syria increases my love for the Syrian national leadership. On the other hand there is great hatred of the United States of America.

14. Labib Syrian people in USA and elsewhere pose no threat to anyone and specially American. Syria has provided the best doctors, engineers etc to the world and it is not fair to treat Syria and Syrians with such barbaric sanctions

15. Heba

I don’t care what exact reason is behind the economic sanctions, I care about my siblings’ future and mine.

Our parents used to narrate stories of them studying on the lights of candles, back to the days when there was no electricity.

Nowadays, we’re doing exactly the same! Studying on low-lit LEDs until our eyes start to hurt and get foggy. We had to save some money to get my sister a pair of glasses.

My previous job, as an online freelancer, was ALWAYS delayed because my laptop’s battery would die and there’s no way to charge it. I got fired because of this!

My brother has asthma and last week he had an attack by night, yet we had no gas nor did our neighbors, so we couldn’t go search for a pharmacy to bring him an inhaler.

Not to mention that our fridge is empty, like literally empty, most of the days. Only thing we can afford is pasta, rice, and bread, which is affecting our diet and now my sister and I are anemic. Vegetables and meats are things we should save some money for, in order to buy them like once or twice a month. Despite the fact that 3 out of 6 members of my family are working. So you may imagine how expensive everything is.

These may sound like silly things to a basic human being, but to us, these are things we live with and struggle with daily. No one deserves to live such a stressful life that affects their lifestyle, health, future, oh and their cortisol levels! Sounds like unimportant ‘third-world’ issues? Well, you can make it better with just a single statement of yours.

– G, Tartous

16. Lilly :  I live in Syria: my family’s business stopped 8 years ago when the war started. We have been living on savings since then, and a few sales we made to survive. He used to buy machines made abroad and import them for sale in Syria. Because of sanctions imposed by US and EU he can not wire transfer money to buy machines from Syria to the company abroad. Additionally, because of US and EU sanctions he can not buy machines from Europe, which is so close to Syria, or from any other country, because any country found selling to anyone in Syria will face fines and sanctions. You might think that he could just buy from China, for example, since it is a friendly country, but they will not accept any wire transfer on money from any person or bank in Syria either, due to the same problem: EU and US sanctions. The goal is to prevent anyone living in Syria from ordering any materials needed for reconstruction of homes in Syria. The US and EU goal is to prevent Syria from recovery, or peace

17. Ammar : Before the war, we used to dream how to develop and be better persons. How to get more degrees and move to a higher level.

Now the best achievement is to make enough money to mantain a decent life.

And the hero of his time who has his car full of gaz.

It’s not only about gaz or money, it’s about settlement and this has been lost long ago.

18. The economic blockade imposed by the United States on Syria is primarily aimed at the Syrian people, which is mainly suffering because of terrorism and the siege to exhaust the remaining elements of his life.

Damn the US government

Damn the Western Alliance

I do not mean the American people. The people have nothing to do with what the government does. I respect and love the American people.

19. From a Syrian American: Asker

The American people need to understand that Syria has provided the world cultures many positive things, and Syria as an original Christian country doesn’t pose any threats to the world, the sanctions are effecting many innocent people specially children and it will not work because the purpose of it to turn the Syrian people against the government that will not work ,they love their president Bashar Assad.as Syrian born American citizen I can tell you that we come to America and we achieve the American dream, we don’t use or abuse the system ,some of us pay more income taxes than many politicians, we respect the American constitution, we love you Mr trump but please get out of Syria and let them rebuild their lives and have peace, I live in the commonwealth of Kentucky near Lexington, originally from California, love this country coast to coast.
20. Adadshams : انقلي هذا الكلام الى السناتور الامريكي والممثلين لايوجد اختلاف عندنا اذا كان حصارن وعقوبات لقد قتلنا ودمرت منازلنا وهجرنا وفقدنا الاخوه والاحبه باسم الحريه فلن نتراجع عن التضحيه للوطن والحب السيد الرئيس بشار الاسد…قولي لهم هم الامريكان وال سعود .هذه خيبة املكم واحلامكم …امه قائدها اسد لن تركع

Translation of statement # 20 by YK:

Please send the following to the American senators and congress: In the name of freedom we suffered death of family and love ones, destruction of our homes, forced to immigrate. Sanctions and blockades on top all that will not discourage us from sacrificing for our homeland, our love for president Bashar Assad…tell them, the Americans, the Saudis that their hopes (schemes) and dreams will fail… A nation led by Assad will not kneel.

21. Faihaa : We Syrians have experienced awful things no one could imagine.. we faced the threat of death and killing thousand times throughout these 8 years. We face the difficulties of everyday lives and needs with hopeful hearts that tomorrow we are going to have our peace back. All neighboring countries have sancted us Syrians of entering their lands with no specific reason. Oils, water, electricity, wheat flour has been limited and we are and everyone knows that we are one of the leading countries to export these materials.

And what do you expect when the war ends? A better future right? For you and your family and friends and all your fellow citizens but what happened was the exact opposite! US have imposed sanctions and embargo on us and guess what who is the most affected one? It is the humble Syrian citizen. Don’t you have any humanity in your blood?

Don’t you see that we are the ones who suffer..

By doing this you put us in a new war; the war of survival…

22. Ghenwa  : As a Syrian, it’s so hard to adapt to life here, it’s like accepting to live in hell for the rest of your life and the sad part is that you can’t do anything about it. I wake up everyday feeling impressed that i survived another day in this place, and i try my hardest to make a difference or to do something that would make me feel good about this place. We’re living under a massive threat.

We face killers, kidnappers, thieves and all kinds of devils.

I’m a 23 year old college girl that needs to work 24/7 while studying to provide food and rent and to pay her duties, my family had to travel to Germany as refugees but i was stuck here because I’m older than 18 so the german refugee law can’t except me there.

You can’t imagine how awful it is living in Syria, and the worst part is that we’re not even allowed or welcomed in other countries

23. Malak  : The economic siege on Syria increases my love for the Syrian national leadership. On the other hand there is great hatred of the United States of America

24.

أنت يا صديقي تتحدث هنا عن متطلبات حياة و بقاء ، إن تناسينا التعليم و الجامعات و الذهاب إلى الوظائف أيضاً.
نتحدث عن شعب يضيّق عليه الخناق عسكرياً بحرب شعواء منذ ثمانية أعوام لا تزال مواكب الشهداء بالآلاف ، آلاف المفقودين و المختطفين ، آلاف المشردين و المهجرين ، الحصار يعني إيقاف لقمة عيش المزارع و العامل و المدني و العسكري ، وإيقاف أي تقدم لأي حلول يمكن لها أن تساهم في معالجة مفرزات الحرب على الأقل .
لا يمكن لنا إلقاء اللوم على الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية وحدها ، كل الأطراف الغربية و العربية مشاركة بكل الوسائل لتضييق الخناق على الشعب السوري ..
الشعب هنا ، لا يمكن لنا أن نخبركم عن قوته ، إنه جبار صامد .
يمتلك القدرة على الصمود من حيث لا يدري أحد .
إنها حرب قذرة حطمت حياة الكثيرين و الحصار اليوم يقضي على ما تبقى من النور… حتى لدى هؤلاء الذين تظنهم كالأطفال بابتساماتهم ، إنهم يتألمون حقاً يا صديقي.
عاشت سوريا و عاش الشعب السوري الصامد .

Translation of statement # 24 by YK:

(Janice, this is a long statement, allow me to simply re-order the sentences in it so that it has more clarity and impact. All I am doing is to start with the last paragraph which has most of the punch. If you like to put it in the original order, just move the first sentence and put it at the end).

This is a dirty war that destroyed the lives of many, the blockade today is extinguishing whatever light is left…even those smiling children are really suffering my friend. You my friend speak of survival and livelihood, you forget education, universities, and going to work. We speak about strangling a nation with a war now in its eighth year, still killing martyrs by the thousands, thousands of missing and kidnapped, thousands of displaced and exiled, the blockade means starving the peasants, the workers, the civilian and the soldier, it stops any progress towards any solution to the root cause of the war. We cannot only blame the USA, western and arab forces are complicit in many ways in tightening the noose on the Syrian people. The people here, you cannot imagine their strength, their resilience, their resistance will be beyond anyone’s imagination.

25.

ان الولايات المتحدة الامريكية والدول الغربية، ومعها بعض الدول العربية والكيان الصهيوني، هم من اسسوا جميع الحركات الراديكالية الارهابية، وهم من دربوهم ومولوهم ودعموهم على كافة الاصعدة، وجميعنا نعرف أن كل ما مر به الشعب السوري منذ عام 2011 ولا زال، هم من يتحملون مسؤليته، وعندما فشلت تلك الدول باسقاط الدولة السورية عسكريا-وذلك طبعا بفضل صمود الشعب السوري وتضحياته ووقوفه مع قيادته – لجؤوا الى الحرب الاقتصادية التي يدفع ثمنها الشعب السوري بكل أطيافه، لانها تؤثر سلبا على مختلف سبل الحياة، وهي تستهدف لقمة عيش المواطنين الأبرياء، حيث انها تمنع وصول المحروقات التي تعد عصب حياة المواطنين، حيث لايقدر الموظفين الوصول الى اماكن عملهم، ولا الطلاب الوصول الى جامعاتهم ومدارسهم، حتى أن المرضى يجدون صعوبة بالغة بالوصول الى المستشفيات لتلقي علاجهم، وهناك بعض الحالات فمثلا، يعاني الكثير من المرضى خصوصا المصابين بالسرطان،،، يعانون مشقة الوصول الى العاصمة ومراكز المدن لأهذ جرعاتهم العلاجية، فهل ياسيد ترامب تيتطيع ان تشرح لنا ماهو الخطر الاستراتيجي الذي يشكله مريض السرطان على السلم العالمي؟! وماهو التهديد الذي يشكله الطالب الذي يريد الوصول الى جامعته؟! وليس ذلك فحسب بل ان منع وصول الوقود يشل الحركة الاقتصاديةة ويؤدي الى غلاء الاسعار وانعدام سلع رئيسة وبالتالي فأن تلك العقوبات تستهدف المواطن البريئ الفقير وليس اي جهة اخرى، وليت الامر يتوقف عند الوقود فحسب، بل ان السيد ترامب ينوي اتهاذ المزيد من الاجراءات العقابية ضمن قانون قيصر، لكن من صمد امام كل تلك الدول وارهابها وظلمها وعدوانها كل تلك السنين، لن يهزم الآن ابدا، ويبدو ان اعداءنا نسوا اننا طائر الفينيق السوري الذي سيبعث من تحت رماد حقدهم ليعود اقوى مما كان….

Translation of statement # 25 by YK: (this can be a headline from this message: “Mr Trump would you please explain to us how a cancer patient can be a threat to world peace?! What is the threat caused by a student who wants to reach is university?)

The USA, western nations, some Arab nations, Israel, are the ones who created all radical terrorist groups, provided funding, training and supported them in all aspects, we know that these countries are responsible for all the suffering of the Syrian people since 2011. After their failure with the military regime change war, they resorted to economic warfare where all segments of the syrian population are victims are paying the price in every aspect of their lives, it targets the livelihood of innocent people, with oil sanctions, it limits employees ability to go to work, students to go to schools and universities, patients from getting to get to hospitals to receive care, for example and especially cancer patients who need to be treated in specialised centres in the cities, so Mr Trump would you explain to us how a cancer patient can be a threat to world peace?! What is the threat caused by a student who wants to reach is university? Economic sanctions only impact innocent citizens, causes huge inflation and deprivation. Those (Syrian people) who resisted the injustice, aggression and terror from all these countries over all these years, will never be defeated, it seems that our enemies have forgotten that we are the syrian phoenix that will rise from the ashes of their plot to become stronger than it was.

26. Mark  : Personally, I’m happy with the less pollution in Aleppo. It’s hard for students to teach the university as they live far away from it. But I go there walking. It takes me 30 minutes to reach it walking, and less than 15 minutes in a microbus. I dont use microbuses unless it’s urgent or tired. I’m an athlete so I’m not affected. On the other side, there are thousands of cars waiting on the line in oil stations. I can take a picture of you want. So people are wasting their time (lives) waiting. Someone in my area died from a clot because of the long hours waiting on the line.

In Aleppo there are many many cars and lot of pollution caused by cars and the huge generators that generate electricity for homes instead of government electricity. Thanks that in these last 2 weeks, the government electricity has been very very good.

Janice  it has no effects to me personally. But it will affect us as people after few months .. there will be no food and the dollar price will raise up to 1700 s.p . That’s a crime.

I’m a mentally tough young person who can handle all kinds ofbad situations. That’s why it doesn’t affect me Personally, because I find solutions and don’t give up in front of small or huge problems. I hope this oil situation wont last too long because it will beat us all sooner or later

27.

سوسن سليمان حويجي بالرغم من الحرب الجائره على..صمدنا 8 سنوات..ذقنا بها الويلات..لم يبق منزل الا وقدم شهيد. او اثنان.دمرو حياتنا فقدنا مؤساساتنا.الحكوميه شردونا سرقو سكينتا…قتلو احلامنا ولكن صمدنا واعتلينا المجد.بانتصارات جيشنا وقائدنا ولكن لكي..نبقى في الظلام والتخلف وبعد ان حققنا انتصارات كبيره على الارض حولو حربهم الى..الى حرب اقتصاديه حاربونا بلقمة عيشنا..ضيقو علينا الخناق..انهارت عملتنا .منعو عنا كل مقومات الحياة..منعو استيراد الادويه والاجهزه الطبيه. منعو استيراد المحروقات.. سيطرو على ابار النفط والغاز..سيطرو على حقول القمح والقطن. والزيتون..ولكن ما زلنا نقاوم والى اخر رمق فينا سنحارب ارهابهم وندحرهم هم المارقون ونحنا الباقون متمسكين بحب الوطن.ومتمسكين بثوابتنا الوطنيه..ووحدة الشعب السوري ووحدة ارضنا. ونقول لهم برا جئتم بحرا جئتم..جوا جئتم ستهزمون ستهزمون..
انت ومشغليكم الامريكان ودول الخليج. سندحركم الى غير رجعه..
اننا مازلنا نعيش على الكفاف ولكن ما زلنا صامدين.. صامدين…. سنعلم اولادنا في مناهجهم بانكم انتم من قتل البراءه انتم من قتل علمائنا وقاماتنا…. وحرمونا الحياة الكريمه
انتم من ارسلكم الصهاينه لتحقيق حلمهم ولكن هيهات منا الذله..

Translation of statement # 27 by YK

(it seems to be a reply to sawsan sliman) Despite an 8 year war that didn’t leave a household without a martyr, a war that destroyed our lives, our government institutions, displaced us, stole our peace killed our dreams, despite all that we resisted and were glorioulsy victorious thanks to our army and our leader (Assad), so in order to keep us in the dark and backwardness they transformed their war into an economic war targeting our daily bread, strangling us, destroying our currency forbidding us from importing all life necessities, medicines and medical equipment, fuel, they took control of (Syrian) oil and gas fields, they occupied our wheat, cotton and olive fields. We are still resisting and we will fight to our last breath against their terror, with our love of our homeland, our patriotic principles, we will fight for the unity of our land and our people, we will win against the Americans and their gulf allies, we are surviving, resisting and we will teach pour children that you killed innocents, killed our best and brightest minds, deprived us of an honourable life, all in the service of zionist dreams.

28. Hade

إن ماتمارسة الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية من حصار أقتصادي جائر يستهدف الشعب العربي السوري بكل اطيافة لا يستثني منهم أحد . ويهدف إلى أضعافه وتقوية المجموعات الأرهابية التي تعمل تحت سيطرتها .
فبما نفسر أحتلالها لشرقي الفرات ودخولها الأراضي السورية بدون إذن من القيادة السورية الممثل الوحيد للشعب السوري . ولما تسمح ببيع النفط والقمح الواقع تحت سيطرتها لتركيا . وكيف لها أن تدمر الصهاريج المحملة بالنفط وقوافل الشاحنات المحملة بالمواد الغذائية المتجهة للشعب السوري بالطيران الامريكي المسمى طيران التحالف … بينما صهاريج النفط السوري والغاز السوري المسروق من قبل قسد والمجموعات الارهابية الاخرى لاتراها وتغط الطرف عنها لا بل تساندها وتدعمها . فالإدارة الامريكية تدعم الأرهاب بكل انواعه في سورية وهي التي تمده بالعتاد وتؤمن له الحماية الغطاء .

Translation of statement # 28 by YK

The economic blockade imposed by the USA is targeting every Syrian citizen without exception. Its aim is to strengthen terrorist groups that operate under its (USA) control. How do you explain the occupation of the eastern Euphrates region without permission from the Syrian government, the sole representative of the Syrian people. It is selling oil and wheat under its control to Turkey. The (US and its allies) are bombing Syrian government convoys transporting fuel and food stuffs, while supporting terrorist groups continued theft of Syrian oil and gas. The American administration supports, protects and provides cover for terrorism in Syria.

29.

نحن لا نريد الموت لاحد بل ندفع الموت عن أنفسنا و ندافع عن حقوقنا و ثرواتنا كما كرامتنا إن كان لدى الدول المتسلطة و المنظمات الأممية أدنى شك بالرضوخ للعقوبات المفروضة على الشعب السوري و قيادته فإنكم واهمون نحن كشعب سوري مؤمن بقضيته صامدون و سائرون على خطى قائدنا بشار حافظ الأسد و الجيش السوري الاسطوري . نحن أبناء هذه الأرض و نحن الباقون

Translation of statement # 29 by YK

We don’t wish death to anyone, but we are fighting for our lives, our rights, our treasures. If the (regime change cabal) are deluded believing that the sanctions will drive the Syrian people and its leadership into submission. We the syrian people are steadfast in our resistance and our trust in our leader Bashar Hafez alAssad and in our legendary Syrian army, we the children of this land, we are the remainers.

30. Samuel :  I’m American, with Syrian heritage living in Syria since the illegal invasion of Syria, and can tell you that the US government has done nothing but lie against Syria.

31. Qusay

أنا طبيب أسنانوأتابع حاليا دراستي للحصول على شهادة الدكتوراه، لقد تأثرت شخصيا بشكل كبير بالعقوبات الأمريكية أحادية الجانب، فمثلا عندما كنت أقوم بدراسة الماجستير كانت المعاناة كبير في العثور على سبل لنشر بحثي العلمي في المجاَلات العلمية بشكل أساسي بسبب حظر كافة وسائط الدفع الالكتروني مثل باي بال وماستر كارد، كما أنه من شبه المستحيل أن أستطيع الارتقاء ببحثي العلمي الذي أجريه حاليا للحصول على شهادة الدكتور حيث يتعذر علي التعامل مع المختبرات العلمية و الاستفادة من التقنيات الحديثة المتوفرة لديها للوصول الى نتائج طبية أفضل تنعكس بشكل أساسي على الارتقاء بالقطاع الطبي السوري وانوه إلى عزمنا وتصميمنا كسوريين على المضي قدما وتأدية دورنا الحضاري فقد قمت بإجراد قسم من بحثي في دولة لبنان لتوفر جهاز أمكنني الإستفادة منه…
أما بالنسبة لعملي كطبيب أسنان فهو لم ينج أيضا من هذه العقوبات الظالمة، حيث أصبح من الصعب الحصول على المواد الطبية اللازمة لاتمام عملي وإن توفرت تكون بأسعار عالية ولا تتناسب مع مقدرة مرضاي على تحمل تكلفتها…
وقد اضررت مرارا في الفترة السابقة إلى تأجيل مواعيد المرضى بسبب عدم تمكني من العودة من دمشق إلى العيادة بسبب انقطاع مادة البانزين التي فرضت عليها مؤخرا الولايات المتحدة عقوبات اقتصادية..
في ظل هذه العقوبات الجائرة سوف نصمد كما صمدنا ضد داعش و سننتصر و كلما ازداد صغط الولايات المتحدة علينا كلما ازداد تضامننا والتفافنا حول السيد الرئيس لننتصر معا…
شكرا لك صديقي وسام ولصديقتك لنشركم الصورة الحقيقية لمعاناتنا

Translation of statement # 31 by YK

I am a dentist currently pursuing a ph.d. The sanctions are severely impacting me and my patients. For example the inability to make simple credit card transactions, impacts my ability to do my research and to collaborate with the global scientific medical community. I was forced to do some of my work in Lebanon. The sanctions are making it very difficult and extremely expensive for me to obtain the medical supplies needed for me to do my job as a dentist in Damascus. The combination of this and fuel sanctions have forced me to cancel and delay many patients’ appointments. In the shadow of these sanctions we will resist, as we resisted against Daesh (Islamic State) and we will be victorious. The more the USA increases its pressure on us the more we will be united around our president. Thanks to my friend Wissam and your (lady) friend (probably you Janice) for publishing the real picture of our struggle.

41. Kamal: My name is Kamal, I have seen another side of the sanctions which have been going on for more than 30 years.

I used to work for a European Airline in Damascus airport, was shocked by the amount of defective Syrian aircrafts sitting in the airport while the Syrian airline was operating with only two aircrafts at that time, they were using those grounded aircrafts for spare parts for the remaining two. when I asked the technicians why can’t we repair and use those aircrafts, they told me that America is not giving us spare parts as part of the sanctions!

USA also doesn’t allow Europe to give parts to Syria.

The sad part is that on one occasion, our aircraft (the European airline I was working for) was grounded in Syria and needed a part, the Syrians gave them that without hesitation, I saw that with my own eyes.

What America is doing is actually putting innocent civilian lives in danger.

Sorry for the long draft

42. Ali

امريكا تتركنا بحالنا ونحنا بالف خير من الله امريكا هي الشيطان الاكبر والسعوديه بلد الكفر والعهر (اطهر ارض وانجس شعب)

43. From a Syrian American. Samira  : I’m a pharmacist who saw many people suffering from gland disease because of sanction on Syrians there was no any possibility to diagnose it it was not allowed for Syrians to buy the radioactive tablets used for diagnosis .

Now as American from Syrian  origin I’ll not vote for any official in the USA government .

Congress senate or president who will impose or support sanctions on Syrians .

Not only me many of my friends Syrians and Americans too

44. Vicken We have been effected by this embargo so badly and still we are ..

Every thing is running by oil and gas and when they desapere from your daily life , you have that feeling Life Stops ..

45. Maggy  It is so unhuman act to deal with people of any country or city or area as you are dealing with the Syrian people …I am from Aleppo and I live this dishumility every day while you all, are sitting in your homes ,driving your vehicles, living your ordinary life….your brothets or sisters in humanity, the Syrian people the Aleppo’s people are not living, they are dying step by step because of your cruality because of your enmity, because of your selfishness because of your greediness….its enough how much you tried to ruin Syria to ruin Aleppo you can ruin whatever you want you who are sitting in the top ….but be sure you will never be able to ruin the strong will of the Syrian people …the will to live to survive to struggle to kill the will of the Satan

46. Robert Aleppo is dying…and Trump is happy.

Aleppo was the industrial capital of Syria, Turkey and allies tried to destroy it and stole all the heavy industry there…the western minded terrorists destroy many of the city’s buildings and the infrastructure, they destroy the old Aleppo’s civilization….All that couldn’t break the people’s will…and now the american sanctions try it again….I’m sure that no one can bend this people’s will who did endure an 8 years random war.

Sanctions on Syria means to make its people suffer…not more

47. From a Syrian American: Stepan: It is so unhuman act to deal with people of any country or city or area as you are dealing with the Syrian people …I am from Aleppo and I live this humility every day while you all ,are sitting in your homes ,driving your vehicles, living your ordinary life….your brothers or sisters in humanity ,the Syrian people the Aleppo’s people are not living ,they are dying step by step because of your cruelty because of your enmity, because of your selfishness because of your greediness….it’s enough how much you tried to ruin Syria to ruin Aleppo you can ruin whatever you want you who are sitting in the top ….but be sure you will never be able to ruin the strong will of the Syrian people …the will to live to survive to struggle to kill the will of the Satan

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Featured image is from Mideast Discourse

The original source of this article is Mark Taliano
Copyright © Janice Kortkamp, Mark Taliano, 2019

By Sarah Abed Feb 12, 2018 – Reposted
Source: MintPress
Eddie Gaboro Hanna — founder of Patriarchal Relief Care Australia, a group that provides aid to Christian families impacted by wars in Syria and Iraq — stated on January 20th, that a few days prior:

The Kurds started a new operation [whereby] they are taking young Christian boys by force to sign them up for the Kurdish military & send them to the front line at Afrin where a new battle has just commenced with Turkey on the border. … I’m with Sootoro now. That’s who I stay with — the good Sootoro of course, not the Kurdish one (Sutoro). Pretty much the Christians are treated as second-class citizens [here] in their own land. … Just like how ISIS has the Islamic tax they have their own Kurdish one. They’ve replaced ISIS.”

In late January I was able to question Eddie in detail about his role and his view of these events:

Sarah Abed (SA): Can you tell me about yourself, your mission, and why you are in Syria?

Eddie Gaboro Hanna (EGH): I’m the founder of Patriarchal Relief Care Australia. For the past five years I’ve been organizing fundraising events and sending funds to our Patriarchal diocese in Damascus, to be dispersed to the most needy Christians suffering in war zones in Syria and Iraq.

I’m now on my second aid mission to Syria and am working on projects such as repairing damaged and bombed homes of displaced families, in hopes they can return to their homes. I’m also aiding over 400 orphans and over 160 widows, as well as purchasing and supplying medical equipment, allowances and supplies to ill and disabled children.

I made a documentary called “Tears of Another Genocide” to help raise awareness and show the world the persecution and genocide against Christians in the Syrian war.

Watch | Tears of Another Genocide – Official :Trailer
SA: How long have you been in Syria during this trip?

EGH: I’ve been in Syria for exactly five weeks now.

SA: What areas have you visited during your trip thus far?

EGH: I visited Damascus, Saydnaya, Maloula, Homs and villages in the province of Homs, Sadad, Aleppo, Qamishli, Hassakeh, and Khabour.

SA: Did you receive protection from Sootoro or the SAA? If so in what areas? What type of protection?

EGH: Sootoro, as in the Christian Sootoro not the pro-Kurdish fake Sutoro, picked me up and accommodated me for a week in northern Syria. In every other part of Syria I was in, which were all under the control of the SAA (Syrian Arab Army), I didn’t need any protection — only in the Kurdish (controlled) areas of Northern Syria I needed protection.

SA: Have you received any threats while in Syria?

EGH: No, I haven’t received any threats.

SA: Has your life ever been in danger while in Syria? If so where, why, and by whom?

EGH: Yes, my life was in serious danger New Year’s Eve in the Christian town of Bab Toma. I was outside among thousands in a crowd celebrating New Year’s Eve and at exactly 12:02, just past midnight, the Free Syrian Army started firing mortar shells and one landed approximately 30 to 50 meters from me killing two Christians that night.

Watch | Civilians flee mortar fire, video provided by Eddie Hanna
SA: What do Syrians want foreigners to know about the war in Syria?

EGH: Syrians want the foreigners to know that it was never a revolution nor a peaceful protest, because in 2009, two years before the war, the terrorists started digging tunnels and stashing massive arms preparing for this brutal war.

SA: What are some of the complaints you’ve heard from Syrians?

EGH: Non-Kurds are treated as second-class citizens by the Kurds. They are forced to pay special taxes simply because they are non-Kurds. Christian homes have been confiscated. Kurds write on the homes that this property now belongs to the Kurds, exactly like how ISIS writes on homes they take. Syrians complain more about America and the Kurds than anything else. America funded the opposition who started the war and destroyed over a hundred thousand Christian homes, and they’ve also funded the Kurds, who are oppressing the non-Kurds and even some Kurds who disagree with their political ambitions.

Eddie told me that he had “recorded a video of the writing they wrote on the wall of an Armenian home, exactly like how ISIS writes on the properties of Christians when they confiscate them.”

Watch | Christian property in Qamishlis seized by Kurdish forces, video provided by Eddie Hanna

In a more official rendering of the experiences Eddie recounted a World Council of Arameans press release, titled “Kurdish YPG / Asayesh Forces Kidnapped More Aramean Christians in Northeast Syria,” which states:

Local Christian sources, fearing for their lives and speaking on condition of anonymity to the World Council of Arameans (WCA), report that they are facing more and more harassments from the Kurdish YPG and Asayesh (security forces).

On Friday, 19 January, the first grave human rights violations of the new year included the abduction of seven Christians — four Armenians and three Arameans (otherwise known as Syriacs). Nevertheless, following intense negotiations, all of them were released except for the 20-year young Aramean, Saliba A., who was snatched in daylight out of his shop in Qamishli by the Asayesh.

After the threat of ISIS, the current wish of the Arameans is for the nationalist Kurds to leave them, their organizations, schools, churches and their self-defense of Sootoro in peace. The Aramean-led Sootoro even includes Arabs, who are also being seized by the Asayesh and enrolled by the YPG.”

Deteriorating conditions in Kurdish “controlled” areas

Eddie and Qamishli resident Samer, a reliable local source, provided me with further insight into on-the-ground conditions and human rights violations they witnessed in Syria. These included soaring real-estate prices as wealthy Kurds buy up as much property that they can get their hands on, often paying the owners double the property’s value.

Kurds are able to offer more for these properties due to illegal control of Syrian industry – including the oil, transportation, financial sectors — imposing unlawful taxes, and charging fees for everyday things such as renewing licenses or carrying out normal business activities. If one wants to sell a certain good, they are directed to a Kurd who is in charge of collecting a tax on that particular good. They are doing this for almost everything and the local population is suffering as a result.

Eddie went on to say:

YPG, PYD, SDF, MSF, they are all the same. The SDF have aligned themselves with the Free Syrian Army who openly work side by side with Jabhat Al Nusra [Al Qaeda]. The Kurd[ish militias] have recruited ex-ISIS members.”

I explained that when I had written about the connections between Daesh/ISIS and Kurdish militias, some people were shocked by the association, he responded: “It’s not shocking when you remember the Kurds were the ISIS of 1915, except they slaughtered Christians on a much larger scale then.”

Much of Kurdish culture is borrowed from Assyrians, Armenians, and Aramean culture. In fact, much of the land in Eastern Turkey that the Kurds now claim once belonged to Armenians. It is hardly surprising, then, that the Kurds assisted in the Turkish genocide of Assyrians and the 1915 genocide of Armenians.

Eddie told me that the taxes being charged are similar to what ISIS was forcing civilians to pay in areas it controlled. Samer stated that the prices of food, clothing, etc., are about 25 percent higher than in other governorates in the country, such as in Damascus. Electricity is scarce; people are using generators and have noticed a lot of cars without licence plates. He said it has become a “military society.” Education is also being negatively affected. Samer went on to say “guns are everywhere; people are buying guns like it’s food.”

Property theft by Kurdish militias persists

Eddie Gaboro Hanna told me: “They [the Kurdish militias] are still taking land and property from Christians by force and charging the Christian businesses a tax.” They are also destroying historical sites and claiming Assyrian artifacts to be Kurdish in origin. Historical revisionism is taking place, and the indigenous people are crying out for the world to stop these violations.

An article by reporter Paul Antonopoulos, originally published by the website Fort Russ and republished by AINA, states:

Reports of ethnic cleansing have been consistent in areas controlled by the SDF/YPG, with Arab villages entirely evacuated and re-inhabited by Kurdish settlers.

In the most recent case, … Tabqa, a city made up primarily of Arab Sunnis and a small Christian Assyrian minority, has seen SDF tyranny continue since they captured the site from ISIS in May 2017. Houses that were emptied by people escaping the fighting and SDF rule have seen their houses confiscated and taken over by the SDF-controlled Tabqa Council.

The Tabqa Council says that the newly vacant homes are to be given to the families of SDF fighters who have died in battle.”

Kurdish independence has been falsely portrayed as an ethnoreligious, democratic, feminist, revolutionary cause by mainstream and even some alternative media outlets. However, these media sources completely ignore facts and realities that contradict the romanticized version being publicly displayed. A point they often disregard is that the Kurds are not the original inhabitants of the lands that they now claim. Assyrians, Aramaeans, Armenians and other Christian minority groups are indigenous to the Levant. Aramaic, the language spoken by Arameans, dates back 3,000 years and is the language that Jesus Christ spoke. Many members of the Syriac Orthodox church still speak Aramaic and it’s an important component of their religious liturgy.

Source: Syria News
Syrian families held captive by Trump Regime Forces and their ISIS affiliates of Maghaweer Thawra terrorists at al-Rukban Concentration Camp went out of their tents in the high heat of the desert to protest for food the day before yesterday, 11th of September, they were faced with live bullets by the US occupation forces.

Russian Coordination Center called on the US occupation forces in Rukban Concentration Camp to exert pressure on US-sponsored Maghaweer Thawra terrorists to stop their terrorist acts against the displaced Syrians held in the camp, these terrorist acts have exacerbated the already dire humanitarian situation of the families there.

A statement by the head of the Russian Coordination Center Major General Alexei Bakin stated: ‘We urge the US command in Al-Tanf area to exert pressure on the terrorist groups under its influence to secure the safety of the refugees at Rukban, and to distribute evenly the humanitarian aid, and to arrange for the swift evacuation of the displaced who are still in the camp.’

Source: Syria News
US Army helicopters dropped food and medicine to ISIS terrorists hiding in the depth of Anbar desert, Iraq, as per locals.

Qussai Anbari, director of the Iraqi Badr Organization, stated ‘ISIS terrorist groups hiding in the depth of Anbar province where no one can reach except US planes and under strict US approvals.’

‘Local Beduin families living in the desert have seen US helicopters drop food and medicine packages to the terrorists who are hiding in the western desert,’ Mr. Anbari added. He explained that the ‘Anbar desert is vast and terrorists cannot travel for long distances to buy food there’.

It’s not a first for US helicopters to deliver aid to terrorists, the US army operates under an illegal coalition of similar evil countries has been spotted delivering food and other aid to ISIS terrorists while the Iraqis were trying to clean their country from the terrorists in Saladdin, Falluja, Musol, and Diyala.

Iraqis also reported US planes transporting ISIS commanders and personnel from frontlines to other areas.

The same what US troops allegedly fighting ISIS in Syria within the same illegal coalition of evil countries have done multiple times leaving no doubts as to who is behind these world’s trash terrorists.

US fighter jets have constantly targeted and bombed the Syrian Arab Army and its allies during fights with ISIS, Nusra Front, and other internationally designated terrorist groups in the country.

A very infamous incident occurred in September 2016 when the US fighter jets bombed for almost an hour an SAA post which was stationed in Thardeh Mountain protecting the city of Deir Ezzor from ISIS. This attack, the Pentagon apologized for later claiming it was by error, killed 90 SAA soldiers and injured 110 more, led to the waiting ISIS herds storming the mountain and taking control of it before SAA reinforcement could arrive and clean it again.

Former US secretary of state Kerry was caught in a leaked conversation with political heads of Syrian terrorists that the US sought the use of ISIS to add pressure on the Syrian leadership to effect the long-awaited Regime Change in the country.

Worth noting that a considerable number of US troops have been killed in both Iraq and Syria during their mission to destroy both countries for the few greedy evil junta ruling the USA. Lives wasted for nothing while working for Satan killing innocent people in countries that posed no thereat whatsoever for the USA across the planet.