Revisiting Syria: April 20th – April 30th 2014
Arriving April 20th for my third trip in as many years since the crisis broke out the trip from Beirut, Lebanon, to the Syrian capital Damascus went without a single problem. The highway to Damascus was and still is under tight control of the Syrian military reassuring safety and stability. After a easy trip I arrived a few hours later in the Syrian capital Damascus where everything looked relaxed and normal. People are going to work, children are going to schools and the famous historical part of Damascus with its many souks was vibrant and crowded. Weren’t it for some check points spread over the city to guarantee the safety one would hardly notice or remember the violence of the conflict raging on in the country imposed by foreign nations well known
– among them Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey – who continue to fuel the conflict by sending foreign jihadists, weapons and money to Syria. After visiting a famous ice cream saloon in the Souk al Hamidiya which was packed by students and walking to the Christian area around Bab Touma, one would even sense a holiday feeling. But things are not always what you see on first sight. Mortar attacks are happening on a daily basis and everyday people get wounded or killed in one or more mortar attacks hitting the city from the suburbs. Also the lovely neighbourhood of Bab Touma was not spared from these terrorist attacks as just a few days before my visit a mortar came down on a school killing one child and wounding several others.
The nature of these mortar attacks clearly prove the desperation of the terrorist gangs as the Syrian national army in the last couple of months carried out a number of focused military operations effectively securing most parts of Damascus countryside and neutralising the terrorist dens. The terrorists who escaped are desperate and disoriented so that the only thing they can do is launching some mortars hitting and killing a number of civilians among them children. But from a strategic point of view the Syrian army victoriously defeated these terrorists.
The next day, Monday 21st, I heard the news that the Syrian people’s assembly was going to hold a special session to announce a very important issue. Some hours later the news was announced that the Presidential elections will be held on June 3th. Holding the Presidential elections on time must be seen as a message to the outside world that the Syrian institutions continue to work and will not bow for the terrorist threats and attacks against the Syrian people and Nation. It also expresses that whatever the circumstances in the country, Syria will abide by its constitutional rules and institutions sending a message to the sponsors of terrorism that Syria will never bow for their hostile actions. Holding the Presidential elections in time to conform the constitution is a political victory over the aggressors who are keen to try to disrupt and destroy the functioning of the Syrian State. And right after the announcement of the elections by speaker of the people’s assembly Mohammad Jihad Lahham, some Western powers and the so called foreign based opposition described it as a parody of democracy. Isn’t this a new height of their sarcasm and hypocrisy? Since the outbreak of the crisis, now in its fourth year, they have been accusing President Bashar al Assad to be an autocrat dictator but after holding parliamentary elections in May 2012 and now organising in time and conforming the constitution Presidential elections on June 3th these same hostile nations and government who accused Syria to be a dictatorial state are now calling these free elections a parody of hypocrisy. It goes further than sarcasm. It’s an expression of utmost cynicism. And even on the day the Syrian Parliament assembled and declared the victorious message of the Presidential elections, a mortar came down just 100 metres from the Parliament building killing 5 people. Is this the so called opposition’s flavour or real democracy?
Also today, Monday 21st, civil and Ba’ath party members organised a gathering in Khourshid square in al-Muhajirin area in Damascus to immortalise the numerous martyrs who gave their life
for the defence of the homeland and people in a mural using photos of martyrs depicting the Syrian flag.
Following the unveiling of the mural, the families of 44 martyrs were honoured in appreciation of their sons’ and daughters sacrifices to protect Syria.
Tuesday, April 22nd, I leave Damascus early in the morning to visit the city of Homs about 160 kilometres North of Damascus where in the last couple of weeks another offensive of the Syrian army took place to drive out the last dens of terrorists hold up in the historical part of the city. Tak-ing the highway, which has recently been declared safe and open again, we pass the suburbs of Douma and Harasta and further away Yabroud and al-Nabak. Crossing these suburbs you realise the enormous damage inflicted by the terrorists. For kilometres long one sees the houses and buildings in which companies were established or destroyed or severely damaged. The human suf-fering and economical cost to society and its economy is huge.
After driving 160 kilometres from Damascus to Homs we arrive in the city which is divided in the old historical quarter and the modern town. Driving around in the modern town it’s seems that the army is firm in control and life is continuing comparable with the inner city of Damascus. But ap-pearances can be deceptive. Also in Homs mortars are falling on a daily basis launched from the areas in the historical city were the rebels are held up and we visited the place where on April 9th 2014 two car bombs exploded resulting in the martyrdom of 69 innocent civilians. The wreckages of the cars used are still on the spot and beside the 69 victims one can witness the huge material damage and losses these terrorist attacks cause. Local people are even afraid that if we stay too long on the same spot, spies from the terrorists, most belonging to the al-Nusra front, can inform their leadership and mortars can be launched to our direction. After saying farewell and wishing the local people good luck and a speedy recovery we continue our way to a rehabilitation centre to be found in a former school.
The rehabilitation centre is part of the efforts of the Syrian government to start a process of recon-ciliation. A lot of fighters active in the old city are mislead by the leaders of the local al-Nusra branch or even forced to fight their jihad. When they realise that they have been mislead, numerous fighters try to escape to come back to the civilian side and are received in the rehabilitation centre where the Syrian government gives them shelter, food and medical care. In the few hours I was present in the centre talking to the people three persons arrived fled from the historical centre to register in the centre. They were really surprised by the welcoming and caring character of the centre and realise that the extensive reconciliation efforts of the government are sincere. Talking to some people, I get an image how the al-Nusra leadership is reigning the area in the historical city were these people are trapped. Their formula is based on terror and fear. Several people witness that when they try to escape and are being catched they are immediately killed. Trying to escape from the al-Nusra front is similar to risking your life and a lot of residents in the city are worried about what will happen to their family members still trapped in the al-Nusra occupied areas. Other people take me apart and tell me that the leadership of the al-Nusra front in the historical part of Homs are foreigners coming from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Libya with the commander in chief be-ing a Libyan. According to these witnesses the leadership is living in luxury having the best food and accommodation while the common people are starving to death. Another former victim shows me his mobile with several pictures of decapitated heads of soldiers captured by the terrorists or former fighters and civilians forced to fight for al-Nusra. One of the witnesses told me that the person who was holding the decapitated heads in his hands was his brother. The witness himself escaped a few days ago and came to the centre to turn himself in. The cruelty going on and atrocities being committed boggles the mind. But unfortunately it is the reality about what is happening in Syria nowadays.
Turning to the military aspect I had an extensive conversation with one of the officers in charge of the rehabilitation centre. He explained me the strategy of the Syrian army which launched some weeks ago a successful offensive with very satisfying results. The offensive taking place now started a few weeks ago when the al-Nusra fighters were virtually in control of the whole historical town. But despite this disadvantage, the Syrian army managed to surround and isolate them so that no new weapons could be smuggled in again. The army put a noose around the area and is now making making progress tightening the noose. First they regained about 20% of the occupied area and slowly making every day some progress they have now 40% of the area under control. Because the supply lines of the terrorists is cut so that no new weapons can reach them, the army thinks the liberation of the whole area will be a matter of weeks.
Update 1 : another car bomb followed by a mortar attack hit Homs’ Zahra district killing 45 persons and wounding 85.
Update 2 : 2nd of May 2014, according to some news sources a deal have been struck between the Syrian army and representatives of the terrorist gangs to evacuate the historical city of Homs sparing the civilian population trapped in the historical city more suffering and dead. According to the deal the terrorist gangs could leave the historical city northwards making use of a temporary ceasefire enabling the Syrian army to regain full control of the entire city of Homs, including the historical city.
Saturday 26th of April I made the trip from Lattakia to the other coastal town of Tartous which is about a one hour and a half drive by bus and has a population of about 120000 inhabitants. I visited one of the refugee centres of which there are approximately 25 in Tartous province alone. The reception was very welcoming and one of the first things I noticed was how clean and efficient the centre looked. The director of the centre informed me that about 800 till 900 people were staying in the centre, some of them almost two years. Of these 800 à 900 people about 160 where small children and 34 babies under one year age. First we visited the medical section. A lot of these refugees arrive sick in the centre and also with psychological problems because of the trauma they experienced fleeing their city. Most refugees present were from Aleppo and surrounding but a number of them also came from Homs. The doctor present in the medical section explained me that in the centre they have a dentist, a paediatrician and 3 general doctors besides a number of nurses. Every refugee arriving in the centre gets its own medical file and children get their vaccina-tions. If the medical care at present in the centre is not sufficient in case of an emergency the refu-gee is transferred to the general hospital which is just 5 minutes from the centre. It is worth noticing that all this healthcare is provided for free by the Syrian state. Besides the medical care activities are organised for the children and it was heartwarming to see that the director of the centre knew the name of every child by name. The relationship between the director and the families at present was very intimate. Speaking to some families of the centre I got to hear the same horrendous sto-ries as everywhere else in Syria about families whose houses were destroyed and looted while they literally had to run for their lives as the barbaric gangs of terrorists were killing randomly without mercy. A lot of the refugees arrived in the centre without documents or identity cards because of the urgency with which they had to flee. The centre does not make a difference between the people who arrives there with documents or without documents. Asking if the children in the centre do receive education, the director explained me that the children living in the centre just go to regu-lar schools in the vicinity of the centre.
After my visit to the refugee centre, I made a trip around the town and one of the things which im-mediately drew my attention where the posters all over the city of fallen martyrs who were killed in combatting the terrorists. One can see this kind of posters in every Syrian city but the cheer num-ber of posters spread all over the city was remarkably and much higher in comparison with other cities. My guide explained me that it started after the beginning of the crisis when some families hanged up these posters to remember their loved ones fallen for the motherland. Other families followed and nowadays these poster are spread all over the city in every square or street. One of this remembrance memorials is a mural mosaic with pictures of hundreds of fallen soldiers which makes clear of the scale of fallen martyrs. Each family has at least one or more martyr in their family killed by the terrorist gangs.
To conclude the visit to the city of Tartous we made a quick trip to old Tartous, the historical part of the city. Even after 3 years of war, now entering the fourth year, it was good to see that renovation work in the historical part of Tartous is still continuing despite the war. This shows that the people of Tartous as well as the authorities try to continue life as normal as possible and the renovation work in historical Tartous, one of the safest cities in nowadays Syria, is proof of this effort and steadfastness not to give in to the terror of the extremist gangs and foreign jihadists.
Sunday 27 of April I got permission to visit The area around the small Armenian town of Kassab located in the mountains near to the Turkish border. After a 40 minutes drive from Lattakia I reached the village of Ras al-Basiet where I was greeted by a colonel of the the Syrian national army who took us up into the mountains where we got a terrific strategic sight of the surroundings including the entrance of the town of Kassab. The invasion of Kassab by the terroristic gangs, composed of the ahrar al-Sham group and the al -Nusra front, took place in the early morning of Friday 21st of March 2014. These gangs entered over land and by sea actively supported by Tur-key. Between 7000 and 10000 terrorists crossed the Samra border crossing and attacked Kassab town. In this surprise attack 50 soldiers of the Syrian army were martyred and that number would rise to 200 in the fighting that followed the invasion. Also refugees from the city of Aleppo who were there fleeing the violence in their own city were slaughtered. It’s interesting to know that soldiers of the Syrian national army where already present in the area but they were surprised by the attack because they didn’t think that Turkey would actively support another aggression against the Armenian community of Kassab taking into account the dark history of the Ottoman Empire against its own Armenian community which took the scale of a full blown genocide according to a large number of historians. One of the most strategic locations in the area is mountain 45 which was overrun by the terrorist gangs. When troops of the Syrian national army chased them away, they had to deal with the numerous mines and booby traps planted by the terrorists which had to be cleared. Also the Turkmen population living in the surrounding villages of Kassab took up the arms and fought side by side against the Syrian army but the Syrian army was not surprised of this move and even expected this. Up until now about 2500 terrorists have been killed by the Syrian army in the Kassab area. Asking if the so called Free Syrian Army was also involved in the battle for Kassab, the colonel explained me that the Free Syrian Army, an invention of the West, does not count for more than 2% of all the terrorist groups active in Syria and a lot of their members were forced to join the Free Syrian Army because their families were threaded if they would not join the FSA.
This number is a clear demonstration of the hypocrisy of the West. If the Western powers are claiming to only provide weapons to the FSA because they are in their eyes the “moderate” oppo-sition in Syria and if the FSA only makes up for 2% of the terrorists groups active in Syria, the numbers just don’t fit because the massive influx of weapons demonstrates that weapons and in some cases very sophisticated weapons as shoulder mounted anti aircraft and anti tank weapons are smuggled into Syria in much larger quantities. If the FSA only consists of 2% of the armed gangs it means that a lot of these weapons are also provided to the al-Nusra front by the regional allies of the West in the aggression against Syria namely Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Asking if the colonel could make a prediction when Kassab would be freed by the Syrian army, the colonel explained that the town is fully surrounded by the Syrian army and can be retaken every moment but strategically this is not the right thing to do because it will result in a large number of casualties within the ranks of the Syrian army. The strategy which the Syrian army applies is to use heavy artillery and progress slowly forward to exhaust the terrorists holed up in Kassab and the surrounding hills. Following this tactic delays the liberation of Kassab with a few days but according to the colonel Kassab will freed and cleared from terrorists within approximately one week. After thanking and greeting the colonel for his cooperation and explanation of the military operations we made on the way back to Lattakia a quick stop at the sea coast enjoying the beautiful surroundings and views of the green mountains and the blue sea. It was almost a surrealistic scene to be aware that this small piece of paradise is only a few kilometres away of the battle of Kassab with the loud bangs of the artillery shells heard in the background.
Monday, 28th I arrived back in Damascus at noon. When I arrived at my hotel, in the city centre, I heard loud patriotic music and witnessed a large crowd waving with Syrian flags and pictures of President Bashar al-Assad shouting slogans as well as a caravan of cars making use of their horns in a festive mood. When I joined the crowd I came to know the reason for this festive mood. Cur-rent President Bashar al-Assad officially submitted his candidature to the Supreme Constitutional Court to participate in the coming Presidential elections which will take place on June 3th. This ex-pression of joy and support clearly shows the popularity of President Bashar al-Assad in all layers of society… young and old, urban or rural, it is no exaggeration to state that this President enjoys the support of the large majority of the population.
Tuesday, 29th of April, 2 days before the deadline of submitting the candidature to participate in the upcoming elections, Speaker of the People’s Council Mohammad Jihad al-Laham announced four more candidates who handed in the necessary documents for their candidature in the Presidential elections bringing the total number of candidates to eleven : Ali Mohammad Wannous,, Azza Mohammad Wajih al-Hallaq, Talie Saleh Nasser, Samih Mikhael Mousa, Maher Abdul-Hafiz Hajjar, Hassan al-Nouri, Sawsan Haddad, Samir Moalla, Mohammad Firas Rajjouh, Abdulsalam Salameh and Bashar Hafez al-Assad.
Wednesday, 30th of April. Speaker of the People’s Assembly Mohammad Jihad al-Lahham said this Wednesday that the parliament has received notes from the Supreme Constitutional Court that 6 new candidates have submitted applications to run for presidency. The six new candidates are : Mahmoud Khalil Halbouni, Mohammad Hassan al-Kanaan, Khaled Abdo al-Kreidi, Basheer Mohammad al-Balah, Ahmad Hassoun al-Abboud and Ayman Shamdin al-Issa Alam.The new candidates are to wait for getting written approvals from at least 35 MPs each in order for their ap-plications not to be dismissed. These new candidates brings the total number of presidential can-didates to 17. The deadline for receiving applications ends on May 1.
Thursday, 1st of May, Speaker of the People’s Assembly Mohammad Jihad al-Laham announced Thursday that Ziad Adnan Hakawati, Ahmad Ali Qsei’eh, Mohammad Mohammad Nassr Mah-moud, Ali Hassan al-Hassan, Ahmad Omar Dabba, Mahmoud Naji Moussa and Hossein Mohammad Tijan registered to stand in the Presidential elections bringing the total number of Presidential candidates to 24.
Upon return to the Lebanese capital Beirut form Damascus I made a last consideration comparing this visit to Syria with my visit of last year and the year before last year. It’s undeniable that the Syr-ian national army made a lot of progress against the terrorists and have now the large majority of cities, towns and rural villages under control. Especially the areas close to the Lebanese border, have been secured cutting the supply lines of the terrorists considerably. This strategy led to the liberation of the whole region of the Qalamoun mountains northwest of the capital Damascus as well as Syria’s third biggest city Homs. Also, in the surrounding of Damascus, the ancient Christian Aramaic town of Ma’loula northeast of Damascus has been secured by the Syrian army with the terrorists driven out. And, on the coastal area, near to the Turkish border, the area around Kassab has been recaptured by the army with the town of Kassab itself within reach of liberation in a matter of days.
Unfortunately, out of frustration and revenge of their defeat, the terrorist takfiri gangs have now adopted a new weapon to terrorise and kill the civilian population by using handmade mortar shells bombing indiscriminately the cities and suburbs. These mortar shells have no strategic value as they can not be precisely guided. They only cause destruction and dead of innocent civilians, woman, children and men. One does not know when and where the next mortar bomb will fall. This act of desperation is proof of the military defeat of the armed gangs by the Syrian army. Launching these mortar bombs are the only evil act they can turn to. Blind terrorism without any reason or motivation. It looks like the wise words of President Bashar al-Assad were right. The mili-tary component of the battle against the terrorist gangs will be rounded up this year. After the mili-tary defeat of the terrorists, the Syrian army and national defence forces can focus on combatting the terrorist attacks and root out this evil for once and for all.
Kris Janssen
Belgium