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Open Thread 2012-17
Some things to read:
A bit of history of imperial interference in Iran. No wonder that the Iranians reject any further attempt: Why weren’t they grateful? – Patriot of Persia: Muhammad Mossadegh and a Very British Coup – Book review by Pankaj Mishra, LRB
Interesting for the historic background on the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria and their terror campaign in the 1970s: Syria's Islamist Movement and the 2011-12 Uprising – Fred H. Lawson, Origins
COIN always includes terror campaigns: How To Kill A rational peasant – America's Dangerous Love Affair With Counterinsurgency – Adam Curtis, BBC
Translation of the German article linked to @ 60
“Welcome to Syria!”
In the country of civil war journalists are not welcome. Our reporter managed to enter the country. His first report comes from Aleppo, the calm in the eye of the storm – by Alfred Hackensberger
The bomb was hidden on the sidewalk and exploded when the police car drove by. The two policemen in the car were killed instantly
The horror is still written in his face. “I’m standing next to it and unhurt, miraculously. My friend with whom I was traveling, is on the way to hospital.” The bomb in the district Aziza, right in the center of the second largest Syrian city of Aleppo, marked the second stop in the city, the remains of the Syrian civil war so far largely spared. The first assassination attempt in February, 28 people died, 235 were injured.
Aleppo is actually such a thing as the calming influence in the country that is riven by brutal conflict, which are performed on both sides with relentless cruelty. Life goes on as normal here, all shops are open, the markets full of people every day. Deficiency of supplies, as in other war zones such as Homs, Dera, in Idlib there’s no trace. Whether peaches, beans, tomatoes, potatoes, watermelons, there is everything. In the evening, people sit in cafes and cozy restaurants, smoking their shisha, waterpipe.
Aleppo is with approximately 1.7 million inhabitants the second largest city after Damascus in Syria. It is located in the north of the country, just 50 kilometers from the Turkish border. Foreigners must bring a lot of patience to the Syrian border guards, bureaucracy and insolence like in the DDR era. Cases and bags are ransacked wildly as if you were a public enemy. It takes more than five hours for the border guard finally enters phone and laptop in the passport. But then the head of the customs calls friendly: “Welcome to Syria, now you can go wherever you want.” A supprising openness. Other journalists are sitting in Damascus and are instructed not to leave the capital.
The drive from the border to Aleppo through rocky hills. Past olive trees, corn and harvested grain fields. In the villages, men sit in front of houses, smoking hookahs and drinking coffee. The war zone begins at checkpoints beyond the Syrian army (FSA). Young guys, not older than 20 years, with Kalashnikovs in their hands check all vehicles. “We here in this area are gentlemen,” one of the rebel laughs and reveals a view of his only two remaining teeth. In the passport, he searches in vain for an entry stamp from Iran. The Islamic Republic supports the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and has deployed elite Revolutionary Guard forces in Syria. “No, no, noone comes here by Iran,” he said seriously, before he waves his arms to move us on.
After about 25 kilometers, the area controlled by the FSA ends. Now it is the Syrian military, which controlled papers and search trunks. There are again very young men, some only half uniformed, visibly tired. Prior to their tents, a small armored personnel-vehicle is buried. From the positions of the FSA to the army soldiers, two kilometers separate.
“These people are only for Assad guard because they are well paid,” a man later claimed in a crowded vegetable market in the center of Aleppo. “Actually, here are all against the President, but we keep quiet because we do not want to risk the destruction of our city.” Problems it was only in the country, because the FSA freely could come across the border from Turkie. There has been no major demonstrations against the Syrian government in Aleppo, perhaps because the people here are doing well. Aleppo is the industrial capital of Syria. Here, textiles, pharmaceuticals, electrical appliances and even alcoholic beverages are produced. 50 percent of all industrial workers in the country are engaged in the region. There is also a town that was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a magnet for international tourism.
“I haven’t left Aleppo in half a year,” says a taxi driver. “All residents are afraid to leave the city, especially by car.” The FSA has, it is said, many drivers already forced at gunpoint to make their car available. Some owners had also disappeared without a trace. “But Assad will fall, which is inevitable,” says the taxi driver. In principle, however, he does not care who is in power. “The FSA are no better than the present rulers.”
Same opinion has Samir, who, along with other teachers for ten years, has run a small language school, which is now due to the civil war bankrupt. “The FSA makes no friends, they behave like criminals,” says the English teacher and introduces his friend John, who runs a factory for electrical parts in the industrial area of Aleppo. “The rebels come and tell us entrepreneurs to close on Friday and Saturday, so it looks like a strike.” Those who do not follow the instructions will be penalized. “The two factories of my neighbors have already been burned down by the FSA.”
In the cafe “Baron” in the center of Aleppo sit three 25-year-old Christian Armenians who follow the European Championships on TV and smoke hookah here. “We hope that our president wins,” said one of them, who introduces himself as Gero. “Assad protect us. We have our religion, our churches, schools and communities.” The three young men think the media reports are exaggerated and false. “The Syrian army would never commit such a massacre, they say,” says Ivecu who deals in scrap metal. For him and his friends, the FSA is a gang of bandits and terrorists, as propagated by the Syrian government. “We know exactly what happened in Homs,” he adds with a serious look. There, the FSA had evicted Christians.
The looks of three Armenians is clearly afraid. It is the uncertainty that plagues them. How will the civil war end? They fear above all radical Islamists. “We have already received threats on the Internet. We are to disappear,” says Kevoc, who is a professional interior designer. “Otherwise, we will turn our heads.” Some 50,000 Christian Armenians of Aleppo had already fled abroad, and many would think about it, do it well. “But where shall we go?” Gero asks puzzled. “Syria is our homeland, our families are here, here is our life.”
No less thoughtful is the father of Joseph. He is a priest of the Greek Orthodox Church, a congregation, which includes approximately 20,000 people in Aleppo. “My son has emigrated to Venezuela after his European countries have given a visa,” he says, adding sadly, “. With his wife and young son” Every family in his community would consider to flee abroad. And who can afford it. “Only the poor remain to wait and see what happens.”
The 58-year-old man God wants to remain in his homeland, although he is afraid of the Islamists. “My whole life I’m living in a street where only Muslims live. Religion was never a problem.” Two million Christians living in Syria. But now rebels could overturn the peaceful coexistence of religions quickly.
For the clergy were the events in Homs, lived the predominantly Greek Orthodox, triggers his fear. “Six months ago we had driven the Christians there and set fire to their houses, killed ten people.” Now there are only about 30 families that have been prevented, in the end, to leave the city. “A change of tactics,” he explains. “Now, they use them as human shields.”
The blame for the destruction of Homs, the 58-year-old does not give the regime. And Christian inhabitants of Homs, who lost their home, accusing the FSA. One of them is Fadi, he claims to have seen demonstrations against the “men with long beards,” had distributed plastic bags with weapons to the young men. “And when the peaceful protest march past the police station, shots were fired from among the protesters at the police.”
Father Joseph says goodbye. He even today wants to go to his home village at the Turkish border in the middle of the field occupied by the FSA. He advised friends to create white clerical collars to protect themselves. But he does not want that: “Who can stand at 40 degrees with a closed collar.”
© Axel Springer AG 2012th All rights reserved – Translated by Google and Alexander Grimsmo
Posted by: Alexander | Jun 21 2012 13:18 utc | 61
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