Aleppo: the Final Test

The winter examination period had begun at the University of Aleppo and 15 January was its first day. Many of the young men and women set off for their exams with the same well-known and completely understandable mixed feelings of nervousness, but also hope that they would pass the intellectual battle with flying colours… The students were sure they would pass their exams and were full of enthusiasm for their future plans, not knowing that the battle would have absolutely nothing to do with intellect. Not knowing that for some of them, the exam would be the last one in their short lives, that their textbooks and notes would become saturated with blood, that many of their friends lucky enough to survive hell on Earth would be injured…

And so it was that terrorists launched two rockets from the al-Lermon district. The rockets hit the university and the halls of residence, which as well as housing students was also home to families of refugees forced to leave their homes because of the extreme acts of violence being carried out by “oppositionists” in their own districts. But even in a place which seemingly offered them refuge, they were not safe from the bloody hands of the bandits.

It is the bloodiest act of terrorism in the history of the Syrian opposition and the attacks of hired terrorists. At least 82 people were killed, with more than 150 injured. The number of dead may still increase, as many of those injured are in a critical condition.

The day before this horrific incident, the Syrian army had dealt a huge blow to the terrorist groups in the city, resulting in a large area of the city being secured. And as so often happens, when bandits suffer a military defeat, they take revenge on peaceful civilians by organising acts of terrorism and killing innocent people.

The most cynical part is that they do everything under the slogan: “Fight for freedom and democracy”. In the meantime, as France once again grossly distorts a UN Security Council resolution by bombing Mali under the pretext of the “war against terrorism”, just as it did with Libya and completely legally as far as the world is concerned, France and the rest of the Western world are supporting Syrian terrorists. The question is, what makes the terrorism in Mali different from the terrorism in Syria? Why is the terrorism in Mali bad and why does it need to be dealt with, while the terrorism in Syria needs to be encouraged and called a “revolution” and an “uprising against a dictatorship”?

Terrorists hate the people who live in Aleppo because the city has not seen any kind of anti-government protests for a very long time. Because for a long time, while the mercenaries have been committing atrocities in Idlib, Homs, Hama, Deir ez-Zor and the suburbs of Damascus with the most minimal social base in these cities and provinces, they haven’t managed anything at all in Aleppo for more than a year except cowardly acts of terrorism. Not a single person has been deceived by their slogans, not a single person has bowed down to them or even given them as much as a glass of water. That is the reason why this once peaceful and flourishing city – a city that was once the breadbasket of Syria – has felt the full force of the bandits’ anger with such ferocity. A city in which nearly all Syrian production was centred. Many of the factories and manufacturing plans in Aleppo have now been pillaged and the machinery taken to Turkey. The terrorists have not only taken revenge on the people currently living in the areas affected by their criminal actions, they have also taken revenge on the very history of the city itself and its cultural heritage. The city’s largest and oldest mosque, the Umayyad Mosque, has been burnt down and its famous indoor markets built during the time of Alexander the Great have also been completely destroyed by fire…

However, the bandits had not managed to reach the area where the University of Aleppo was situated, which was under the control of the Syrian army. This is why students were still having lessons, refugees from other regions were living there and life was generally peaceful – as it is everywhere where the “democratisers” have not yet reached.

Students from the University of Aleppo often went to demonstrations in support of the legitimate Syrian authorities, carrying national flags and portraits of President al-Assad. They strongly supported the president’s initiative for getting out of the crisis through peaceful and political means by way of a national dialogue. All of this provoked the furious hatred of the militants and vengeance was not long in coming.

In Aleppo, even the people living in areas seized by militants attended demonstrations on pain of death in order to support the legitimate authorities and demand that the city be rid of terrorists. Time and again, these demonstrations ended with the militants exacting their terrifying revenge and shooting demonstrators. The city will not be cowed, however, and even the lowest, most cowardly and unprecedentedly brutal and cynical act of terrorism has not crushed it.

The radical Jihad group “Jabhat an-Nusra“, declared a terrorist group in the USA, has claimed responsibility for the act. However, leading Syrian “oppositionists”, including the head of the “Qatar Coalition” Moaz al-Khatib, have opposed the decision. After all, the “Qatar Coalition” is now recognised as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people by the USA, countries in the west, Turkey, monarchies in the Gulf and a number of other puppet regimes!

Leaflets with the emblem of the so-called “Syrian Freedom Army”, using an image of the “opposition” flag from the time of French colonisation, have been distributed around the city and provinces of Aleppo. The text on the leaflet reads: “Don’t send your children to study at universities or other educational establishments run by the regime.” This shows that the “militants against the regime” have no need of literate people, they have no need of education and are naturally hostile to learning and enlightenment. They are exactly the same as those barbarians who burnt down the Library of Alexandria in olden times, saying that since there was nothing in the books that would not also be in the Koran, they were pointless and the people did not need them.

Rima Flihan, a seemingly intelligent woman and activist with the so-called Syrian “opposition”, stands out as being particularly cynical. In an interview with a Lebanese television channel, she announced that she felt absolutely no remorse for the victims of the horrific act of terrorism carried out against the University of Aleppo. They were “supporters of the regime”, according to Flihan, since its opponents had long since stopped attending lectures. As for the “good students” who were boycotting lessons at the university, however… “No comment”, as they say.

On exactly the same day, bandits fired shells at the Bani Zeid district of Aleppo, killing a few more peaceful civilians, while the day before, 14 January, terrorists shelled the residential district of Muaddamiya in Damascus; several rockets were launched at buildings from the city of Darya, where counter-terrorism operations were also being carried out by the army. Several people were killed or injured as a result of the militants’ cynical acts, including women and children.

Events in Aleppo, however, were the bloodiest and most appalling acts of terrorism by far. And it wasn’t just the final test for the students; it was also the final test for those countries who are lending their support to terrorists. It is the final test for those who are financing them, supplying them with rockets and supporting them at the level of the Security Council and the UN General Assembly. At the very least, maybe this shocking atrocity by the so-called “Syrian opposition” will force them to stop supporting the murderous and cynical bandits who are hiding behind both “Jihad” and “Fight for democracy” slogans. It is hardly likely to stop those leading players who overlooked the much bloodier crimes that destroyed Yugoslavia, Iraq and Libya and before that Korea, Vietnam, Panama, Grenada and a number of other countries. But, at the very least, it will force those people who are still indifferent to think it over. At the very least, it will force those people who have not yet established their position completely or who are blindly voting for solutions proposed by the USA to wake up. The blood of innocent people is being spilt as a result of the unspoken agreement of half the world, while the leading players are supporting the terrorists and blaming the legitimate Syrian government. These people failed their test a long time ago.

Source in Russian: Topwar

Translated by ORIENTAL REVIEW.