Legends of Kwers

Three years under the siege…..

 There…. where the stars and the moon fall asleep relieved by the eyes guarding destiny and the sun shines freely giving warmth to the rifles that guarding the home and the earth that blooms roses from the blood of martyrs and the wounded.  

There…… where is the factory of challenge and patience,  lived men who believed in victorious homeland and dignified life..

 Championships that achieved by the blood of martyrs and wounded told us myths of sacrifice and courage and legends of pride told by the Syrianmothers and grandmothers for their children. 

Kwers airport,  which includes members of each Syrian house and village has become a large house with a beautiful family.. ..

the Big Syria met here on this earth from the far south to the north from east to west.  Both officers and soldiers are united by one goal and one case against one enemy..

Each one of them has a story.. .  each one of them a dream but they all have one fact and one story which is either victory or martyrdom.

Their commander, General Zammam was fighting on the front lines both in the defense and attack..  Each one of them knows his position and duty..  All are involved in the same ultimate goal,  which is steadfastness and achieving victory.

The days pass very hard for the airport garrison.  Those days were full of hope and optimism for all of them and difficult for their parents who were waiting anxiously to hear any news about their beloved sons there..

The enemy continued its frantic attacks against them aiming to break the steadfastness of the airport heroes who were stiff in defending the airport and defeating aggression protecting one another.

When the attack sends each fighter reassured his colleague,  since they are one family and one blood.. ..

They treat their wounded and bury their martyrs,  promising them that they would take their revenge on the traitors and murderers..

Some people ask why do we mention Kwers again and why do we consider it a great and exceptional issue.

I say that this airport is considered the heart and soul for Aleppo. As soon as the airport was liberated the army forces were following up victories on the various battlefronts tightened control over the areas near the airport heading towards Aleppo,  stretching its forces to the west and the east and moving towards north as well.

When I met Moudar who has recently returned from Kwers I knew why this place has a lot of sacredness for many soldiers in the army and in the heart of a lot of people who have sons,  relatives or friends in it.  Moudar who is fighter in the Syrian Arab army told me about their lives inside the airport and how they represent the highest forms of the Syrian mixture.  He said: “There is no room,  tent or form whatever it is small at this airport but it includes soldiers from the north to south,  from west to east.  We live here like a mutually supportive family in all senses.  A family that is united by the blood,  determination and goal”.

“In the beginning we used to say the word “town” or “Day’a”to call the sons of the same region. Where you hear the sons of that region calling each other by this word,  but after months of siege everyone of us turned to be a member of one family in one town,  We gathered in the same trench either to guard our position or to repel an attack.

We used to meet after every battle either to heal the wounds of our colleagues or to bury the martyrs. During the rest period we sat in one place close together in an attempt to warm each other.  We ate from one bowl and shared the few amounts of food and drink that we had.

With each passing day,  every one of us could know about his colleague’s life and family more than any of his relatives or friends know to the degree that if one of us had visited any of his colleague ‘s house,  he would have had the ability to identify all the details related to that house.  He could even know where is the supplies place,  as it was said by one of my colleagues,  who has been with us since the beginning of the crisis.   He is from Daraa.  His family fled to Damascus and refused to go outside Syria for their belief that the crisis will end very soon and that he who leaves his land will lose his dignity.

The messages that came from our families were to reassure everyone at the airport as if they know all in their names.  later we have been told that our families began to get acquainted with each other and relate our news to one another.  Sothe Small family in Kwers has formed a large family that Scattered in the various Syrian provinces”.

He went on to say:”One of the strange things that you can notice concerning each member of the airport Garrison who are liberated that they are now speaking  new strange language which is a mixture representing the various Syrian accents because during the last three years we did not talk with people from outside the airport region.  The airport was for us like a small district in which all the dialects,  customs and traditions have merged to give an entirely new society”.

“Do you know what was our most and dearest wishes there?” He continued with a lovely smile,  “It was ensuring the official drink of fighters,  which is yerba mate.  You know, it has special pleasure in those moments. Ensuring communicationsnetwork to contact with our families,  was also one of our passions. Any thing else was secondary issue does not concern us.  We believe that we will win either by lifting the siege imposed on us and moving on to new places to liberate or to die as martyrs and get a prestigious position for us and for our families”.

When I asked him about the nicest memories,  he said: “our happiest memories were those when the plane came to drop us supplies.  Those shipments contained small bags sent to us by our families,  messages and some small supplies including mate,  sugar,  olive and other things that we were waiting impatiently. But you can not imagine the grief that we feel when those supplies dropped by mistake away from us and fall in the areas controlled by armed terrorist gangs.  We feel that we have lost something dear to us.

The most beautiful moments so far was when the lifting siege forces entered the airport.  It was a real wedding.  Loud screams mixed with tears of joy.

There was a strange mix of joy and sadness feelings within each one of us.  Feelings of joy for the Great victory and sadness forour comrades who were martyred in defense of this airport and could not celebrate with us this great joy ….  Moudar stopped talking,  trying to wipe the tears flowed from his eye.  I respected his silence and sorrow.  I greeted him and left.

Amal Farhat –From Banias to the Syria times