“We will remain steadfast, and we trust our Syrian army,” Aleppian resident says
Hope, steadfastness and heartbreak. These three words could summarize what you can see when you visit Aleppo city as the war on terrorist groups in Aleppo and Idleb provinces appear to be nearing some kind of end.
“Terrorist groups randomly fire rockets on many districts in our city to kill as much people as possible and to spread fear among us in order to destabilize the city. But they will fail. Life returns to the streets and the markets of Aleppo when terror rocket attacks stop,” Aleppian citizen told Syria Times e-newspaper.
Dr. Ahmad Jaddouh, former Director of Aleppo University Center for Strategic Studies and Research (AUCSSR) and lecturer at Aleppo university geos daily to his job and refuses to leave his city.
“We are used to living under this tragic circumstances caused by daily terror rocket attack on our city…We are no longer afraid of such attacks. We will remain steadfast and we pray for our Syrian army to achieve victory over terrorist groups as soon as possible,” he said.
He went on to say: “We will remain steadfast in our homeland. We will live as we want .. and we will die when our life ends .. We trust our army … We are used to living under circumstances that were worse than the current ones and we have witnessed attacks that were fiercest than the recent ones. There have been desperate attempts to scare us and to displace us from Aleppo, but we have not left our homes.”
Every person in the city of Aleppo has been affected by the continued terror attacks. Some of them lost their beloved ones, others lost part of their bodies or homes or shops…etc. But life goes on…
Dr. Jaddouh is still receiving calls from some university students, who are being held as human shields in terrorist-held areas in the same city.
“Some of my students tell me that they are awaiting the liberation of their areas from the terrorist criminals, who prevent them from leaving these areas. Their circumstances are very bad and they suffer from poverty and oppression. However, the mislead students prefer to move towards Turkish border because they are involved in treason,” he clarified.
“We hate Erdogan”
Moreover, Dr. Jaddouh affirmed that Aleppians are aware of the dirty role of the Turkish regime’s head Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in daily rocket attacks being carried out by terrorist groups against many residential areas.
“Aleppo residents are aware of Erdogan’s role in the attacks on their city and they consider him as their enemy.. . We hate Erdogan.”
As for media reports about the existence of Turkish products in Aleppo city, he affirmed that these reports are groundless and the residents of Aleppo reject to buy any product when a merchant says that its fabric is made in Turkey.
“Since the start of the crisis in Syria in 2011 and until the liberation of most of the neighborhoods of Aleppo city in late 2016, the Turkish products had been spread in Aleppo markets and their prices were very high because there were no national products then. However now the residents boycott the stored Turkish products if there are any,” Dr. Jaddouh concluded.
Aleppo city will go down in history as one of the Syrian cities that remained steadfast despite the deterioration service and economic situation and daily terror rocket attacks that have taken a heavy toll on its residents for more than 9 years.
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Interviewed by: Basma Qaddour