Government will spare no effort to help Syrian Drama

Syrian art, including drama, is part of the Syrian information tools. It has been able for decades to convey the image of life in Syria and to convey messages to the Syrian society with all its components and try to fix the damage done to the society by different factors.

The relation between the Syrian artists and the media is deeply rooted. However, due to the current crisis in Syria, this relation suffered some problems that need to be solved. These problems and the honest and important role of artists in shedding light on the social, economic and political life of the Syrian people were the focus of the meeting held recently between Information Minister Omran al-Zou’bi and a delegation from the Syrian Artists Guild.

The meeting tackled the state of Syrian drama, the Guild’s work and preparations for the upcoming production season.

The actors suggested suitable mechanisms to overcome obstacles hindering Syrian drama, particularly in light of the pressure exerted on Syria, with the Minister affirming that the government will spare no effort to help Syrian drama and noting that the Legislative Decree No. 33 for 2012 issued by President Bashar Al-Assad helps reduce burdens in drama production and create an environment that enhance it.

Following the meeting, Minister al-Zou’bi said to al-Ikhbariyya TV “We are planning for the coming years to make the Syrian drama in a state of prosperity and to improve the conditions of the Syrian artists in a way that appreciates their creative works, efforts and sacrifices during the past years.”

Fadia Khattab, head of the Artists’ Guild said “we met to discuss our troubles and to point to the problem and try to solve it in cooperation with concerned parties with the purpose of avoiding more troubles and enhancing the situation of art in our country to a higher level.”

Actress Antwanet Najeeb said “everyone of us talked about what troubles he or she is facing and things will hopefully be better to all of us.”

On how they view the stance of some of their colleagues who chose not to stand by their homeland within the crisis and left the country to take opposite stances, actor Mustafa al-Khani said “everyone is free about his political view. He can choose either to be opposition member or a supporter to the government, but he or she isn’t free about his national view. Our belongingness to the homeland should be clear, unquestionable and undoubted.”

“Having different viewpoints is something positive so long as it serves Syria’s interest and contributes to the progress of the country,” al-Khani said, stressing “the country can’t be built by arms, blood and conflicts, but by dialogue and by us being closer to each others.”

Actress Tulai Haroon said “ Syria is like the mother who cared a lot about her children and offered them her best. She should not be stabbed in the back and betrayed by her own misled children, She must be offered as much good as she deserve.”

For his part, director Najdat Anzour said “the national sovereignty of the country is a red line. All can be free about their opinions, but if the issue goes further and is developed to damage the country’s national side, we all will be against them.”

“The door is still widely open for the artists who left the homeland and took irresponsible stances against their country to come back to their motherland which will embrace all but those who insist on their mistakes.” added Anzour.

The meeting is seen by all the artists as an important initiative to bring back the wheel of drama in Syria to the right track represented in the goal of serving the homeland and the Syrian citizens and of helping to get the country out of the crisis.

The difficult circumstances Syria is currently passing through are very strange for our society and this necessitated from all of us to exert more efforts to expose the conspiracy our country is being exposed to and point to the causes of the crisis and try to refer to a solution.

Hamda Mustafa