Syria: Voices From Aleppo

From People And Nature Gabriel Levy shares some Facebook posts from Aleppo.

Aleppo is being drowned in blood.

The Assad regime’s armed forces and Iranian-supported militias are doing the killing, supported by Russian air power and armed with Russian weapons. The “great powers” are standing by and letting them get on with it.

This is a disastrous setback for the popular uprising that started in Syria in 2011, although even now that movement of social liberation has not been completely defeated.

These are some facebook posts from Aleppo and elsewhere, shared by Syrian friends.

From Raed Fares on 12 December.

Doomsday in Aleppo
The people of Aleppo have gone to sleep
The people of Aleppo have died
Now, finally, the world will be blessed with a deep, uninterrupted sleep
As power in the US is transferred from a failure to a racist, Putin and Assad are murdering 150,000 civilians in Aleppo
The entire world can finally have some peace and quiet as the screams of Aleppo’s residents will be forever silenced
But their corpses, the corpses of Aleppo, will turn your dreams into nightmares


Aleppo. From Raed Fares.


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From Day of Solidarity with Syria on 13 December.

The Assad regime arrested young people fleeing the besieged districts of Aleppo and is recruiting them to take up arms!

Young men under arrest in eastern Aleppo, 13 December. Photo from Day of Solidarity With Syria.


Young men under arrest in eastern Aleppo, 13 December. Photo from Day of Solidarity With Syria.

The photos above are from their post.

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From Dani Qappani on 12 December.

A message from the few remaining humanitarians in Aleppo, where massacres are happening right now: “We can not believe that the world’s most powerful countries cannot get 100,000 souls four kilometers to relative safety.” Neither can I. This is devastating.

Full statement:

The bombs are falling as we write this. For years our humanitarian volunteers have worked to save the lives of our people in Aleppo: operating in underground hospitals, rescuing entire families buried under the rubble and risking our lives to document what the daily war crimes committed by Assad regime and its ally Russia. We can do no more.

Now we are with 100,000 civilians trapped in an area of five squared metres with the non-stop bombs, shells and advancements on the ground. In one building more than 500 people are sheltering. People have been underground for days.

We are calling on you in the International Community to provide a safe passage out of Aleppo for the remaining 100,000 people. We know that the UN has a plan to get us out across the 4 kilometres of Western Aleppo to safety: with a few dozen buses and lorries we could all be evacuated in twenty four hours. However, we need you to guarantee the safety of their workers and our own.

If we stay we fear for our lives. The women may be taken to camps, the men disappeared and anyone who is known to have supported civilians will face detention or execution. We’ve watched thousands of our boys and mens be detained. Countless White Helmets, doctors, nurses and humanitarians have been targeted and killed in the regime’s cruel assault on Aleppo. The regime has been trying to kill us for five years. Please don’t give them this chance.

We can not believe that the world’s most powerful countries cannot get 100,000 souls four kilometers to relative safety.

Signed,
Syria Civil Defence [the White Helmets]
Independent Doctors Association
Syrian American Medical Society
Kesh Malek

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From Ameen Al-halabi on 13 December.

We are the people of Aleppo, who have watched the world casually turn its back on us, as though we were not part of this world, as though we do not deserve a life of freedom and dignity. Should we regret that we aspired for such equality?

In any case these are our last moments it seems and as I look around me all I see is pain, mothers screaming in the background “where are my children” Maybe her children are somewhere better than this treacherous world, maybe we all are.

Maybe its time to say goodbye
#Besieged_Aleppo

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From Abo Alhuda Khaled.

A demonstration in eastern Ghouta in solidarity with Aleppo.

A demonstration in eastern Ghouta in solidarity with Aleppo. From Abo Alhuda Khaled

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Please follow the English-language blogs by such radical Syrian commentators as Yassin al-Haj Saleh, Leila al-Shami or Syria Freedom Forever. Many, many more links at Syria Sources.

My comment about Syria and the western labour movement, for what it’s worth, is here. I wrote about war as a means of social control in Ukraine, here – and I believe that war in Syria, too, is primarily a means of social control, on an even larger, bloodier scale.

9 comments:

  1. This piece would make me very sceptical. I don't know Gabriel Levy or his site but a cursory glance it seems pretty one sided. I don't see any criticism of American involvement and it's role in the Middle East or worldwide.

    Imagine an article based on Facebook comments and dodgy web pages. Almost it is incredible saying that there is no ISIS in east Aleppo. Imagine inferring that they are not perpetrating any atrocities.

    Before anyone says that I am supporting Assad or Putin, I am not, but I am saying that the war in the Middle East, the aggression against Russia, involvement regime change, in has been orchestrated and backed by US and it's allies.

    I see this this guy Levy is hailed highly by http://paulocanning.blogspot.ie/2015/08/dont-link-to-counterpunch.html. I am not surprised. Here is a quote from Paul Canning which gives you an idea what the site is like and I am not surprised of his support for Gabriel Levy.

    "My own research into the editorial practices at CounterPunch shows otherwise. Not only have white supremacist authors long been a fixture at CP; their ideology is shared by members of the editorial collective. All in all, it is entirely reasonable to say that the formation of a Querfront (an alliance between the far right and the left) is a longstanding project of the newsletter, consistently endorsed by the decisions taken by CP editors and their own stated positions. In the following, I will examine the relationship between the CP editors and the racist Right via individual case studies and several statistical investigations."

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  2. Sorry for keeping posting. http://www.newsbud.com/2016/12/08/newsbud-exclusive-the-worlds-biggest-hostage-crisis-comes-to-an-end/

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  3. A very welcome and heart-rending counter-narrative to the pro-Assad lies being posted by some sick souls on this site. Yet another stain on the collective conscience of the world.

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  4. "But their corpses, the corpses of Aleppo, will turn your dreams into nightmares"

    Ill sleep just fine thanks. Americans remember the strange fruit hanging from Fallujahs bridge, and rightly want no part in this conflict. The ones with sleep issues should be the ones invited Jihadis into their neighbourhoods.Massive fail.

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  5. Buncrana Together

    There is no ISIS in Eastern Aleppo. It was a coalition of moderate and Islamist rebels who took control of Aleppo in 2012 as part of the revolution against the Assad regime.

    It is Russia and Iran who in intervening on the side of the regime who have been the aggressors. The West provided next to no practical assistance to the rebels, laid down unilateral red lines and then drew back from them after the sarin gas on Gouta in August 2013 enabling Russia to fill the vacuum on one side and ISIS to come to prominence on the anti-regime side.

    Please do not confuse one Middle East war (Iraq 2003-09) with another Syria (2011 -).

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  6. What a load of rubbish. The 'white helmets' have been established by a 'ex' British army officer(mi6?) and I have yet to witness these 'impartial emergency workers' anywhere near the people that have been filmed leaving Alleppo. I have seen videos of these white helmets dancing and yahooing with armed men(rebels,Isis,al nusra?) and standing awaiting to bag the body of a combatant facing his execution. Don't forget the so called 'mannequin challenge' they apologised for. That was a lie too. They were staging a 'rescue' for propaganda purposes and were awaiting their cue to act.

    Btw it is strange that the west has been very quiet about tackling ISIS in Syria, after all that's what they told the public when they declared their intention to go there. Cynics would suggest that was simply a cloak to hide the fact their proxies were under pressure with Russia intervention and thus they had to go in to over cover for them and push back Russia etc. Judging by their concern and keenness to get a ceasefire the cynics were right. Russia once more has saved the day from fascism and we should be all thankful.

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  7. Wolfe Tone

    In response to your slander of the White Helmets and the legacy of the late Jo Cox:

    http://paulocanning.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/expel-those-who-defame-white-helmets.html

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  8. Barry 'I have my finger on the pulse' Gilheany, do you deny the White helmets were founded by an 'ex' Brit?

    And wtf has the quickest 'murder trial' in UK history I.e jo Cox, got to do with proxy state terrorists? Btw, we in Ireland are well used to killings carried out by dark forces(state forces) to further a certain agenda, and going by that, I would say the jo cox thingy has dark forces finger prints all over it, just saying.

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  9. Barry Gilheany(that still makes me laugh), but for you and anyone else who wants to see these 'white helmet' frauds:

    http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2016/11/29/syria-white-helmets-caught-mannequin-challenge-mess-up.html

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