The liberation of Aleppo

Imagine with me now, you who are reading. You went to visit your father in another country. Because he works there, and for the reason of war you are not able to go back to your country. You had no chance to say goodbye to your friends, family and even your home where you grew up.This work will tell you more about my hometown and one of the biggest Syrian cities, Aleppo. Which suffered from war and in my opinion according to my visit there it was liberated.

The start of the Syrian conflict

Everything started on 15th of March in 2011, where people went out in a revolution for a better life and freedom. But the developing of the conflict has two different views.

First view

The revolution was fake as the Syrian media and other media which supports Syria's president Bashar AL-Assad described. The people who went out for revolution were paid for this actions. They were armed with guns, killing people who are supporting AL-Assad and the people who has any link with the Syrian regime. The Syrian conflict developed between the oppositions and AL-ASSAD regime. On the other hand, the islamic state appeared in Syria. Some of the countries were supporting the Syrian president. Such as Russia and Iran, they did not leave AL-ASSAD alone. When the Syrian conflict was developing, they sent their armies to support the Syrian Arab Army.

Second View

The revolution was real, people went out in a peaceful way to express their opinion. But the Syrian regime did not give them this opportunity. AL-Assad is war criminal. This regime, killed the people who went our for freedom in the worst horrific ways. For this reason, the oppositions used guns to protect themselves. America, Israel and many more countries did support the oppositions.

Expert views of the Syrian conflict

Tomas Karlsson who is political editor, journalist at LT Swedish newspaper and political expert explains that this revolution started in a peaceful way, where people went out to express their opinion. "The Syrian media and other Media which is supporting Al-Assad's regime described this revolution as fake one, they also claimed that this revolution is the main reason why all of this happened and is still happening now in Syria. But the truth is that the civil war in Syria would have stopped if AL-Assad's regime gave the people their own space to say what they think. Even the growth of the Islamic State in Syria was because of AL-Assad, if he was peaceful with the people who went out for a change nothing of this would have happened", Karlsson said.

Aleppo during war

In 2013, Aleppo was divided into two parts. The western part of the city which was trapped by the islamic state and the oppositions. Hundreds of bombs were dropped on the western side of Aleppo. No more food was able to cross the borders towards west Aleppo, because it was forbidden for the people who are still supporting AL-ASSAD to eat and live a normal life.On the other hand, the eastern part of the city with the countryside, was under control of ISIS and the oppositions. The boarders were closed between whole Aleppo and the countries which were close to Aleppo such as Turkey and Lebanon. Even the boarders between Aleppo and the rest of the Syrian cities were closed because of ISIS. No water to drink, even the electricity and the internet were not in service.

Aleppo Liberation

In 2016, between November and December the Syrian Army took a military action and tried to take over the places ISIS were controlling. And in the 22^nd of December, Aleppo the city was announced free from ISIS and Daesh. In February 2020, the country side of Aleppo was announced free from ISIS.

Tomas explained that the word liberation in politics and in his own opinion means to free people or country from another country or group of people. "In this case, there is no liberation because Aleppo is under control of AL-Assad now. But for the main time AL-Assad is better than the terrorist groups. Now Syria needs to be free from terrorists. When it is free and liberated from terrorists, at that point we can talk about changing the president and having a new democratic Syria.

Western media covering of Aleppo Liberation

The western media such as CNN, BBC and the Guardian covered the topic of the liberation as a humanitarian crisis. The BBC described the liberation as an evacuation of rebel-held east. While the CNN, described the event as a new chapter in Syria’s humanitarian crisis, because those who are left now under control of the Syrian regime will be afraid of the reprisals from Assad forces. "Syrian rebels suffer intense air attacks after breaking siege of Aleppo", this was the topic describing Aleppo liberation published in the guardian. The content of this article was a description of the groups who were involved in this event, and how dangerous results will be after the Syrian regime took over Aleppo.

But, my experience says the opposite.

This is my story

In 2014 my family took decision to make a try and see if we can go back to Aleppo. At that time, the summer of 2014 ISIS had control on the boarders between Lebanon and Aleppo, the airport and a big part of Aleppo. We travelled to Lebanon, then my family decided to travel to Damascus hoping we will be able to visit Aleppo. My dad met more than three drivers to take us to Aleppo. As the airport in Aleppo is closed, people were taking cars with drivers from the place they are in to Aleppo. But the drivers my father met, told him that we need to have niqaab to be able to pass the boarders. And if anything happened it will be our responsibility.

The drivers who work on the boarders in Syria or the boarders in the countries beside Syria were not in danger , because they had good relations with ISIS, as they work on the boarders and travel a lot . I remember one of the drivers also told my father "If you decide to travel you will need to delete anything on Facebook which shows that you are supporting president AL-ASSAD because ISIS may check your names on Facebook and social media". Nothing was developing in a positive way, for this reason, we decided to go back to Sweden.

Maribelle Hanna Interview

Before liberation, as my friend Maribelle Hanna who is 22, student living in Aleppo describes. People in Aleppo were surrounded by ISIS. They took nearly all the central places in Aleppo. Every-time they went out, they knew that there is big chance to be killed.

According to Maribelle, 2014 and 2017 are two main years in her life. she compared them before and after liberation.2014 was hard for her and everybody she knows, they could not find bread and food. In addition, they were hiding from bombs. In 2014 we were hiding from the bombs and shells.

Because whole Aleppo was nearly under control of ISIS and the terrorist groups. They were killing anyone who takes food to their area. There were a lot of areas which they could not go or see because there was big chance to be hunted.

In 2016 after the liberation, they were able to go out at night. No bombs and shells anymore, even though there were some bombs which were coming from Aleppo country sides which were still under control of the terrorist groups, but in 2020 they were liberated and the Airport of Aleppo was able to be open again after 8 years.

Maribelle mention that the unemployment and poverty are rising. The economics were much better before the liberation.

My trip to Aleppo

On the 2nd of July, 2018 was my flight from Sweden to Lebanon and then to my beloved city Aleppo. I did not know how to feel or what to feel. Will it be dangerous as we see in the news, or it is safe as my friends describe it for me.

I landed in Lebanon with my family, took our luggage and met the driver who will drive us to Aleppo with 12 hours drive. No on of us could sleep, we were awake all the 12 hours. I felt these 12 hours more than 100 years of waiting. When I red the sign "Welcome to Aleppo" my heart started beating so fast and I cried with none stop. The war effects were clear, every second we come closer to Aleppo we can see how huge are the effects of destructions. There were destroyed buildings everywhere. Arriving home, after six years is such a heart melting feeling. You can not decide shall you cry? or be happy that you are home again. We met my uncle and cousins with tears . My journey in Aleppo started.

My home area, Old Seryan near to the center of Aleppo.

My home was not affected by war, only the glass of the balcony was broken because of the explosions. And I saw a huge amount of bullets on the balcony. The neighbours were not the same, most of them moved to another country and the ones who are still there has lost someone who they love during war. It was clear for me that the people here are tired, I can see it on their faces.

I could not sleep when I arrived because I was so happy, I still remember that I met my uncle's family. Their home was not affected but they were affected mentally. When we spoke together I felt how disappointed they were with everything in life. The situation which they were in was not easy, it was not easy to forget everything they went through.

I did not feel for a second that this Aleppo is the same one as I saw on tv and news. It is incredible how media can turn events and situations upside down. Whenever you open the news, you see how they describe Syria as a dangerous country. But for me this was not true, I did go wherever I want and whenever I want. Nothing happened. People were living their lives normally, travelling from city to another safely. People were living a normal life. It was unclear for me why the media wanted to show whole different story, of the situation in Syria.

While I was walking in the streets, I saw two different images in one street. On the right side you can see the huge devastation, when you take a look at the left side you see a restaurant filled with people. This combination made me say, how amazing are these people? But unfortunately, their faces were tired. You can feel how this war made them tired but never made them give up.

Aleppo is one of the oldest cities in the world, it is well known with the ancient and the huge Aleppo citadel. For sure, I visited Aleppo citadel. Because it was newly opened for visitors, as it was closed for security reasons. When I came in, I saw some of the uniforms of the Syrian soldiers on the ground. They were living at the citadel to save it from ISIS. Some of the clothes had blood spots . I also saw some dishes which they used to eat and a lot of bullets in each corner of the citadel. The citadel in general was not affected, only a small part of the upper wall of the citadel was fallen .

Everything around the citadel was destroyed, Some of the buildings, which were well known restaurants were rebuilt in a short time period. And people were able to enjoy the food and the beautiful view of the citadel there.

I was lucky enough to be able to visit my school with my friends. I also met my teachers.

When I came in to the school, I had a full flashback of my memories at this school. Every corner in this school reminds me of how happy we were before war.

At school, you can see that at some places there is still the trace of bullets.It was everywhere, on the walls on the ground and even at some classes. The walls were a bit damaged but they started the renovation.

When I took a full route at the school, I felt something is missing. At that moment I did not know what it was. But after a while, I thought it could be the real happiness. Now, each one of us who were there has his own problems. It could be anything, like death, family problems or thinking about how he could travel to find better life.

Finally, I met my childhood friends Jessica Haskour who is a dental student in Aleppo universtiy and Souad Kousan who is a medical student in Aleppo university. I surprised Souad, she cried. We both were surprised looking at each-other, because I left Aleppo when I was 14 and I came back when I was 20. It was big change from the outside and the inside too. Even though we were in touch. But face-to-face meetings are always different. We sat for hours speaking, laughing and remembering our old school days. I enjoyed every moment with her after all this long time.

After that I met my friend Jessica, who is so close to my heart. She helped me to remember the streets again. Every-time I was walking home back alone, she calls me to make sure I am not lost. I had inner peace even though I was in a place which was suffering from war for six years at that time.

They both told me how hard it was for them to focus on studying during war. They still remember the sound of bombs, and studying with no electricity with the cold weather. We sat and spoke about the hard times they went through, how afraid they were to lose someone from their family.

My childhood friend Souad Kousan

my childhood friend Jessica Haskour

On the other side, the Syrian journalist and researcher Samer Alhamad argues that this in not a real liberation. "Everything that happened was for the sake of AL-ASSAD'S regime not for the Syrian people".

According to his data, during first liberation in 2016 that nearly 130,000 citizen fled from Aleppo to Turkey. And in the next liberation in 2020, nearly 980,000 citizen fled from Aleppo to Turkey or Idlib.

Syrian people went out and asked for freedom, but the Syrian regime answered their demands with guns and blood. People who are living now in the "liberated Aleppo" they are forced because of Al-Assad. They can not move as they want, because Aleppo now is under control of the Syrian regime. He was sure that the image of beautiful and free Aleppo is a lie.

"How can Aleppo be liberated, while there is still Russia and Iran?", Samer discussed. No one can say that it is liberated, as long as there are still people who are not Syrians have control in the country. Russia and Iran are the two main countries who helped AL-Assad regime to take over a lot of cities in Syria in general, and Aleppo in particular. There are Russian soldiers and Iranian solders who are in Aleppo taking decisions and having power there.

"I do believe that there are some islamic groups who were trying to distort the beautiful image of the revolution , but this does not mean that we need to say yes to AL-Assad only because he is better than ISIS", Samer explains. It is a shame to say yes to dictator president such as AL-Assad, only because ISIS and other terror groups used the revolution as a method to revive the Islamic caliphate.

Some of my friends also thought that they will never be accepting AL-ASSAD as a president. "Bashar is better than ISIS, for this reason I am accepting him as a president. Even though, I did not think that one day I will say this", Rama Alhoury who is 24 years old and law student at University of Aleppo said.

Why this topic?

I chose this topic since day one at university. For two reasons, the first reason is because this event means a lot to me as Syrian citizen and as Aleppo is my hometown. The second reason is how western media covered this event, and what I experienced was exactly the opposite. I had a lot of questions when I went there and saw whole different Aleppo than the one which is streaming on TV. How can people think that this is not real liberation? because of this liberation I was able to travel back home and meet my family. I was so confused and speechless. At some point I loss my beliefs that there is still neutral journalism. That's why as a last year journalism student I wanted to prove that neutral journalism still exists.

Beside sharing my experience, I wanted to spot the light on the other side too. Let them speak and say their opinion even if my experience says the opposite. This is the new thing which i added in my project. I showed both sides views and my experience.

Maybe we, as Syrians do not have the same opinion about the revolution in general. But I am sure we all agree that Syria is and will always be our beloved country.