Lessons
Lessons from the besieged people of Aleppo
Over the last days, I talked to many people in the city of Aleppo, besieged by Assad and his allies, mainly Iran and Russia, since July 7. What I heard from them and saw in videos and pictures impressed me and gave me the sense that despite all sorrow and shortages, people can still be strong and hold together.
Moreover, I am convinced that what they undergo now can be a shining and partially warning example for all of us. The following points show what we can learn from them.
Care for each other
Despite being totally encircled since more than 3 weeks, the 250.000-300.000 people in the eastern parts of Aleppo are not suffering as much as one could imagine - particularly as the city is being attacked and widely destroyed by Assad’s and Putin’s air strikes for more than 5 years.
When I talked to a male nurse and asked him if people are beginning to starve in the besieged city, he told me why this was not the case so far: “Yes, we are hungry“, he said. But so far, people are sharing what they have and giving their insufficient food supplies to others in their neighborhoods and communities. “This saved us from starving until today“, he said.
At the same time many people complained in local media that some richer businessmen were not sharing their food supplies and won’t open their supply depots. Syrian rebels stepped in and safeguarded bakeries and springs to make sure the poorest get some supplies to keep their minimum living standard.
Remaining humanity
What impressed me also were pictures of people feeding stray dogs and stray cats. If we look back to other starving campaigns by genocidal regimes - the one of Leningrad by the Nazis, of Sarajevo by the Serbian regime at that time or the one in Madaya earlier this year - we have seen that as a last resort, people are forced to even eat pets and everything else that is edible - even tree leaves. While this might also happen in Aleppo, if the siege continues for months or years, the war-torn people so far proved that their remaining humanity, also towards animals, is possible - even under those dire conditions.
Never give up
The most striking pictures over the last days were the ones of children burning tires in the streets of Aleppo to create a smokescreen against attacking Russian and Assad regime’s warplanes. While civilians - and even rebels - inside Aleppo are incapable of launching any attack to break the siege, they showed that they still didn’t give up and did not surrender to the genocidal regime that tries to kill them all. Instead, they put their trust and hope - all they have left after being ignored by the world for years - in those rebel forces, trying to break the siege of Aleppo from outside - outnumbered and outgunned by the regime troops and their allies on the ground and in the air.
Not relying on “international community”
The last thing we can learn is the gloomiest admission, especially for me as a German pro-European and pro-international alliance individual. It is the admission that the so-called “international community” has failed to stand up to its self-proclaimed obligation to “never again” allow genocide like the one in Srebrenica or Rwanda to happen.
The people in Aleppo know by now that they can’t rely on anybody but themselves. What we have to learn from the situation in Syria and especially in Aleppo is that this is the bitter truth.
Two days ago, I spoke to an inhabitant of Aleppo, who summed up the whole disaster as follows: "Since March 2011, the regime and the Russian government killed scores of civilians every day. And the international community did nothing but condemnations and speeches. So ... We are expecting nothing from the world."
- Julian Röpcke
- Publication Date: 2016-08-02 14:53
Over the last days, I talked to many people in the city of Aleppo, besieged by Assad and his allies, mainly Iran and Russia, since July 7. What I heard from them and saw in videos and pictures impressed me and gave me the sense that despite all sorrow and shortages, people can still be strong and hold together.
Moreover, I am convinced that what they undergo now can be a shining and partially warning example for all of us. The following points show what we can learn from them.
Care for each other
Despite being totally encircled since more than 3 weeks, the 250.000-300.000 people in the eastern parts of Aleppo are not suffering as much as one could imagine - particularly as the city is being attacked and widely destroyed by Assad’s and Putin’s air strikes for more than 5 years.
When I talked to a male nurse and asked him if people are beginning to starve in the besieged city, he told me why this was not the case so far: “Yes, we are hungry“, he said. But so far, people are sharing what they have and giving their insufficient food supplies to others in their neighborhoods and communities. “This saved us from starving until today“, he said.
At the same time many people complained in local media that some richer businessmen were not sharing their food supplies and won’t open their supply depots. Syrian rebels stepped in and safeguarded bakeries and springs to make sure the poorest get some supplies to keep their minimum living standard.
Remaining humanity
What impressed me also were pictures of people feeding stray dogs and stray cats. If we look back to other starving campaigns by genocidal regimes - the one of Leningrad by the Nazis, of Sarajevo by the Serbian regime at that time or the one in Madaya earlier this year - we have seen that as a last resort, people are forced to even eat pets and everything else that is edible - even tree leaves. While this might also happen in Aleppo, if the siege continues for months or years, the war-torn people so far proved that their remaining humanity, also towards animals, is possible - even under those dire conditions.
Never give up
The most striking pictures over the last days were the ones of children burning tires in the streets of Aleppo to create a smokescreen against attacking Russian and Assad regime’s warplanes. While civilians - and even rebels - inside Aleppo are incapable of launching any attack to break the siege, they showed that they still didn’t give up and did not surrender to the genocidal regime that tries to kill them all. Instead, they put their trust and hope - all they have left after being ignored by the world for years - in those rebel forces, trying to break the siege of Aleppo from outside - outnumbered and outgunned by the regime troops and their allies on the ground and in the air.
Not relying on “international community”
The last thing we can learn is the gloomiest admission, especially for me as a German pro-European and pro-international alliance individual. It is the admission that the so-called “international community” has failed to stand up to its self-proclaimed obligation to “never again” allow genocide like the one in Srebrenica or Rwanda to happen.
The people in Aleppo know by now that they can’t rely on anybody but themselves. What we have to learn from the situation in Syria and especially in Aleppo is that this is the bitter truth.
Two days ago, I spoke to an inhabitant of Aleppo, who summed up the whole disaster as follows: "Since March 2011, the regime and the Russian government killed scores of civilians every day. And the international community did nothing but condemnations and speeches. So ... We are expecting nothing from the world."