Source: Syria News
Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad told his Russian counterpart that Syria categorically rejects the Turkish aggression under any guise, in other words, a rejection to the Russian – Turkish agreement reached between Mr. Putin and the Turkish pariah Erdogan.

In a phone conversation between the two heads of states following the visit of the Turkish pariah Erdogan to Sochi, Mr. Putin conveyed to Dr. Assad Russia’s agreement with the Turks on combatting ‘all forms of terrorism’ in Syria!

Turkish pariah Erdogan has flip-flopped countless times and failed for over a year to oblige his forces to meet his own commitments under the Astana Agreement (Idlib Agreement) to isolate Nusra Front terrorists from the other terrorist groups in the province, instead, the Turkish pariah strengthed the grip of the al-Qaeda Levant group over entrapped 3 million Syrians in Idlib.

Russian President has convinced the Turkish pariah to replace withdrawing US troops with Russian troops in the area which Trump granted in northeast Syria to establish a Turkish protectorate in. Mr. Putin sounds hopeful to be able to slowly remove Erdogan forces from northern Syria by time, a repeat to earlier bets on the Turks and the Kurds who instead took advantage of the Russian position to occupy more land and attempt to Israelize it.

However, Dr. Assad has stressed to Mr. Putin during the phone conversation Syria’s rejection of all Turkish interventions, attempts to carve out Syrian territories under any form and to stop all forms of demographic changes to any areas by seeing the displaced Syrians return to their homes.

The Turkish pariah wants to created a border province of up to 32 kilometers south of current Turkish borders inside Syria and to replace the people of this land with anti-Islamic Muslim Brotherhood Syrians with their families loyal to him. Syria has fought all these years against any of these attempts.

Mr. Putin taking Trump’s shoes over the Turks thinks this would help solve the current crisis in Syria. It’s the same mistake the West committed in our region for decades thinking the people of the Levant are attached to their land by a real estate contract that can be exchanged with other lands anywhere. This Russian Turkish agreement if it includes such swap of lands, similar to what Israel wants to do with the Palestinians, is doomed to fail and will only cause much more blood-shedding.

Dr. Assad conveyed this message to his Russian counterpart, SANA conveyed his words as follows: ‘The President also stressed the return of residents to their regions to stop any previous attempts of any demographic change to which some sides tried to impose, affirming Syria’s determination to combat terrorism and occupation in any span of the Syrian territories with all legitimate means.’

Dr. Assad told Mr. Putin that all blame for the current situation with the Turkish aggression and spread of terror is on ‘those with separatist agendas’ referring to the sellout Kurdish separatist groups once supported by Russia.

Russia’s agreement with Turkey will give NATO useful idiot the separatist Kurds 150 hours to withdraw from the proposed zone Trump granted Turkey. Russian FM Lavrov stated that Russian Military forces will enter this region to oversee the SDF withdrawal starting today (October 23.)

In a complete breach of Syria’s sovereignty which Dr. Assad rejected, the Syrian authorities will not be allowed to enter the proposed Zone and will have to deploy border patrols along the southern borders with this proposed zone. Syria, as per all its officials, considers the respect to its sovereignty includes its ability to govern all regions within its borders, including the deployment of law enforces agencies, the Syrian Arab Army, and Damascus’s control over municipal and local administration.

Taking advantage of current engagement of the Syrian Arab Army against NATO terrorists in Idlib and trying to change all of the above under any guise will only lengthen the chaos in the country, spill more blood, and cause endless conflicts in the future, which for sure the Russians wouldn’t want to see but fail to realize, for now, not to mention that the Turks can never be trusted, let alone the reputation their current leader earned for just that.

Syria has no other viable option, meanwhile, other than to support popular resistance against Erdogan forces in the Trump Zone, while eliminating terror in Idlib then march northeast and eradicate Erdogan forces from there, bring back the Syrian displaced families to their towns and villages, and restore the country as it was pre-2011 until the complete liberation of the Golan and Iskandaron.

Source: RT
The international chemical weapons watchdog likely skewed its own investigation of the 2018 chemical weapons incident in Douma, Syria to come to a predetermined decision, a damning conclusion based on whistleblower testimony said.
The April 2018 incident in the Damascus suburb was quickly blamed on the Syrian government by the West. Within days, the US, the UK and France launched barrages of cruise missiles in retaliation. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the international chemical weapons watchdog, later backed the justification, all but pointing the finger at Syria in its final report, which was released in March.

Now a panel of experts says the report was based on a flawed conclusion and likely deliberately steered toward the West-favored outcome. The accusation is based on evidence and testimony of an OPCW investigator, who came forward with damning evidence that his own organization had breached its mission.

After talking to the whistleblower and examining internal reports, text exchanges and other evidence, the panel was convinced that “key information about chemical analyses, toxicology consultations, ballistics studies, and witness testimonies was suppressed, ostensibly to favor a preordained conclusion,” it said in a statement.

The statement said the OPCW took effort to exclude dissenting investigators and silence their attempts to raise concerns about the report, which is “a right explicitly conferred on inspectors in the Chemical Weapons Convention.” The experts called on the organization to revisit its investigation and allow those not agreeing with the conclusion put in the final report to voice their concerns without fear of reprisal.

The panel convened by the Courage Foundation, which accepts donations for the legal defense of whistleblowers and journalists that report on leaks, includes several prominent specialists and public figures, including José Bustani, a Brazilian diplomat who served as the OPCW’s first Director General before being strong-armed from the office by US superhawk John Bolton.

Bustani said the whistleblower confirmed his doubts about the report, which “seemed incoherent at best” right from the start.

“My hope is that the concerns expressed publicly by the Panel, in its joint consensus statement, will catalyze a process by which the Organization can be resurrected to become the independent and non-discriminatory body it used to be.”

The panel did not make public the name of the whistleblower or any previously unpublished evidence of the OPCW’s alleged misconduct. WikiLeaks, whose editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson was a member of the panel, re-printeda draft engineering assessment penned by an OPCW investigator, which was leaked in May. The document rejects the claim that chlorine cylinders, which were used for delivery of the toxic gas in Douma, had been dropped from the air, which was used as a key argument in accusing the Syrian army for the attack.

The OPCW did not challenge the authenticity of the document, but stood by its conclusions on the Douma incident.

******************
Statement issued by the Courage Foundation
Panel Criticizes ‘Unacceptable Practices’ in the OPCW’s investigation of the Alleged Chemical Attack in Douma, Syria on April 7th 2018

The Courage Foundation convened a panel of concerned individuals from the fields of disarmament, international law, journalism, military operations, medicine and intelligence in Brussels on October 15th. The panel met with a member of the investigation team from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the international chemical watchdog. On this basis the panel issued the following statement:

Based on the whistleblower’s extensive presentation, including internal emails, text exchanges and suppressed draft reports, we are unanimous in expressing our alarm over unacceptable practices in the investigation of the alleged chemical attack in Douma, near the Syrian capital of Damascus on 7 April 2018. We became convinced by the testimony that key information about chemical analyses, toxicology consultations, ballistics studies, and witness testimonies was suppressed, ostensibly to favor a preordained conclusion.

We have learned of disquieting efforts to exclude some inspectors from the investigation whilst thwarting their attempts to raise legitimate concerns, highlight irregular practices or even to
express their differing observations and assessments —a right explicitly conferred on inspectors in the Chemical Weapons Convention, evidently with the intention of ensuring the independence and authoritativeness of inspection reports.

However belatedly, we therefore call on the OPCW to permit all inspectors who took part in the Douma investigation to come forward and report their differing observations in an appropriate forum of the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention, in fulfillment of the spirit of the Convention. They should be allowed to do this without fear of reprisal or even censure.

The panel advances these criticisms with the expectation that the OPCW will revisit its investigation of the Douma incident, with the purpose of clarifying what actually happened. This would help to restore the credibility of the OPCW and work towards demonstrating its legally mandated commitment to transparency, impartiality and independence. It is of utmost importance to restore trust in the verification procedures relied upon to implement the
prohibitions of the CWC.

Panel members:
José Bustani, Ambassador of Brazil, first Director General of the OPCW and former Ambassador to the United Kingdom and France,
Richard Falk, Professor of International Law, Emeritus, Princeton University; Visiting Professor,Istinye University, Istanbul
Kristinn Hrafnsson, editor-in-chief, Wikileaks
John Holmes, Maj Gen (retd), DSO OBE MC
Dr. Helmut Lohrer, MD, Board member of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) and International Councilor of its German Affiliate
Prof. Dr. Guenter Meyer, Centre for Research on the Arab World (CERAW) at the University of Mainz
Elizabeth Murray, former Deputy National Intelligence Officer for the Near East, National Intelligence (retd); member, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity and Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence (website: www.samadamsaward.ch)

Source: SANA

Hasaka -Turkish regime army launched on Wednesday an aggression on Ras al-Ayn city in the north-western countryside of Hasaka and on Tal Abyad in the northern countryside of Raqqa, SANA reporter said.

The reporter added that the Turkish regime forces launched an air and artillery intensive shelling on the Silos and infrastructure in Ras al-Ayn city.

The aggression targeted sites for the separatist QSD militias in the villages of Mishrafa, Khirbet al-Banat, al-Asadyah, Ber Nouh, Alouk, Nastel, Azizyah, Azizyah school synchronizing with an artillery shelling that targeted Ayn Issa in Tal Abyad of Raqqa northern countryside.

Turkish regime forces concentrated on shelling the infrastructure, targeting electrical line of Allouk water station in Ras al-Ayn countryside which feeds Hasaka city and al-Mansoura dam in the surroundings of al-Malkiyah city that provides water to nearly 2 million people.

The Reporter added that the Turkish aggression expanded to target Tal Jahan, Ismailiah, Salihiyah and Dirbasyah in Hasaka countryside.

Later,SANA reporter said three children and a woman martyred in a shell of Turkish aggression on a house in Bashiryah neighborhood in Qamishli.

Meanwhile, local sources said two civilians in Tal Diab were martyred while 4 children were injured near Dirbasyiah to the west of Hasaka in the Turkish aggression.

QSD militias set fires to some oil wells in Hasaka northern countryside and set fires to tires in some parts of Ras al-Ayn neighborhoods, the reporter affirmed.

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: SANA
Idleb – Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist organization and the affiliated groups in Idleb continue to take civilians as human shields and prevent them from leaving towards the safe areas via Abu al-Dohour corridor for the 26th day in a row.

SANA reporter said that the terrorist organizations continue to cut off roads in order to prevent locals, who are willing to exit towards the safe areas, from leaving through Abu al-Dohour corridor, in addition to setting up barricades to prevent cars from reaching the Syrian Arab Army’s points.

The reporter added that Jabhat al-Nusra terrorists are deliberately circulating rumors and lies to distort the reality of safety and security felt by all who go out from the terror-controlled areas in Idleb.

Authorities concerned continue to take all measures and logistic procedures for receiving the citizens who get out of areas where the terrorists exist, providing them with food and medicines, and transporting them to temporary housing shelter.

By Basma Qaddour
Source: Syria Times
The Deputy Minister of Expatriates and Foreign Affairs Dr. Faisal al-Miqdad has reiterated that Syria will never ever accept the occupation of any inch of its territories, calling on the separatist Kurdish militias not to throw themselves to perdition.

“Once again, we say to those who lost everything: DO NOT LOSE YOURSELVES. The homeland welcomes all its citizens and we want to resolve all the Syrian problems in a positive way and far away from violence with preserving every inch of the country,” al-Miqdad said in a statement to the Damascus-based al-Watan.

He affirmed that the homeland’s fate cannot be manipulated. “The Syrian state won’t accept anything less than the liberation of its total area, 185.000 square kilometer . They have to understand that.”

“Anyone who is not loyal to his country and sells it at the lowest price, he/she will find themselves thrown out of the history. We have warned for many times of these conspiracies against the homeland and the Syrian people, and we said that those who throw themselves into the lap of the foreigner, the foreign will kick them out when the time is right,” al-Miqdad said.

He underscored that the US is being defeated all over the world and Syria will defend its territories.