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Why the Syrian Revolution is taking that LONG
And why the Assad Regime is that BARBARIC
(Slide 1) About two years ago in 2011, what we call ‘The Arab Spring’ brought revolutions to five countries in the Middle East, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Syria. The people in those countries decided to reclaim their dignity, freedom and democracy by bringing their dictators down; they did that and it is over now, except in Syria. Many spectators around the world, who are not insiders about Syria, are watching what is going on there and wondering why that revolution is taking that long and why the Assad regime is that barbaric.
So what is different about Syria?
I will first answer these two questions briefly, and then go back to more details. Syria has been ruled for the last 44 years by two brutal dictators, currently by Bachar Assad, and before him by his father Hafez Assad. They both belong to a sectarian minority that makes only about 5% of all the Syrians. That minority is called The Allawite and its followers believe that their leader, who is now Assad, is God, actually. To them, anyone who opposes him opposes God and, therefore, should be killed. In general, when a minority rules the majority in any dictatorship regime, we should expect nothing but massacres. We will talk about the history of the Allawites in few minutes.
Now the reason why our revolution is taking that long is that Assad is fully supported by the most evil dictators of the world. I will tell you who they are and why they are doing so. But I will also tell you why the free world countries, like the USA, Britin and France, for example, are not helping the Syrian revolution the same way they did in Libya.
Before going any further, let’s have a quick geographical and historical glance as it helps with understanding any conflict.
Syria; Geography and History
(Slide 2) Syria is a Mediterranean Asian country, ¼ the size of Texas, strategically located where 3 continents meet; Asia, Europe and Africa, which gives it a very important geopolitical value. It has Turkey to the North, Iraq to the East, Iraq and Jordan to the South, Israel, Lebanon and the Mediterranean to the West. Its economy is an agricultural one in general, but it also depends a lot on trade and oil production. It also depends highly on Tourism as the capital city of Damascus is recognized as the oldest capital city in the world. The Syrian population now is about 23 million where about 70% of them are Arab Muslims.
(Slide 3) Up to the 7th century, the current Arab world, including Syria, was divided between the two super powers of that time; the Romans and the Persians. In that same century, Islam started from the holy city of Mecca in the Arabian Peninsula and quickly formed a powerful state and spread across the border. (Slide 4) The young Arab Islamic State liberated Syria and the rest of the Arab countries in North Africa from the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire itself survived that impact and retreated to its European territory north of the Mediterranean. The Islamic Arab State also liberated Iraq and the Gulf States from the Persian Empire. The Persians were not as lucky as the Romans; the Arabs continued their march into Persia where they crushed the Empire. Syria, and the rest of the Arab countries, adapted Islam since then.
(Slide 5) The Muslims around the World now, Arabs and non-Arabs, are about 2,000,000,000, about 90% of them follow the main stream in Islam which is called the Sunni, and about 10% only follow another theology called the Shiite. There are fundamental differences between the two that led to hatred and wars during the last 14 centuries. The main difference was about the one who should rule the State after the Prophet passed away. The Shiites insisted to keep that power in the Prophet’s family forever as a Dynasty. The Sunnis wanted it to be a decision made by ‘The assembly of the wise ones’. The percentage of the followers of each theology tells you which one makes more sense.
(Slide 6) The French and the British imposed a mandate on that area between the two WW’s, divided it to four parts where Britain ruled Jordan and Palestine and France ruled Lebanon and Syria. After WWII, Britain and France withdrew, and gave those countries independence.
Who are the Allawites?
As I mentioned, the Syrians today are 23 million; the Allawites make about 5%. Another 25% of the Syrians belong to other 20 minorities like Kurds, Christians, Armenians, Druze and more, whereas about 70% are Sunni Muslim Arabs. (Slide 7) The Allawite sect was originally formed in Iraq in the 12th century by a man who claimed to be God. Because of poverty and illiteracy, he found people who believed in him. (Slide 8) But he and his followers were outlawed and persecuted right away, so they escaped to the neighboring Syria seeking safety.
(Slide 9) They believe that they are ‘The Chosen people’, and that God lives in the body of their leader; when that leader dies, the soul of God transfers to his son or to the next leader.
Some of you here may say ‘People are free to believe in what they want, so what is the big deal of that sect?’ My response to that is “if people are free to choose the God they want to worship, they are not free to kill others just because they want freedom and to get rid of the dictator”.
So the Allawites believe that the orders of Assad, including those of slaughtering or burning his opponents, are the orders of God. Therefore, they believe that following these orders bring them blessing from him. That point in particular explains their barbaric practices against the civilians, especially against children, without feeling any guilt.
A lot of torture survivors narrate that during the torturing in the security branches, and when they asked their interrogators, who were mostly Allawites, to have mercy on them by the name of God, the interrogators then would ask those victims: Which God do you mean, yours or ours? Our God, Assad, ordered us not to have any mercy on you.
The Assad Sr. Era
(Slide 10) After Syria got independence from France back in 1946, it suffered 9 military coups in 24 years. The last coup took place in 1970 and was led by the Alliwite General Hafez Assad, the current Bachar Assad’s father. That year marked the beginning of the bloodiest era in Syria’s modern history.
When Assad Sr. came to power in 1970, he was the first Allawite to become the head of state in Syria. Before that date, the Syrians didn’t pay much attention to the sectarian issue. But after that coup, they started questioning the man’s eligibility, as a minority and also as a dictator, to rule Syria against the will of the majority. Assad Sr. had a historic chance at that time to rebuild bridges of love and forgiveness between his sect and the rest of the Syrians. He lost that chance when he decided to act like a dictator, and dictators usually destroy, not build.
(Slide 11) Therefore he decided that in order for him to stay in power, he had to rule with a fist of iron and also to commit massacres to keep the majority, which hates him, under control. The worst one of all, the massacre of the city of Hama, took place in 1982. It is also considered the worst in the second half of the last century worldwide; about 50 thousand civilians were brutally killed, mostly slaughtered and burned alive, in a matter of days. Suspiciously, both the West and East ignored that barbaric massacre by looking the opposite way.
(Slide 12) Assad Sr. also decided to militarize the whole Syria; with keeping all the key jobs in government in the hands of his sect, especially those in the army, security and intelligence.
(Slide 13) He kept the key positions to himself and his first family members. He also attracted the rich from the Sunni majority and the other minorities to back him in return for helping them in increasing their fortunes. Those ‘Turncoats’ were as criminal as he was.
The Assad Jr. Era
(Slide 14) Hafez Assad became sick and passed away in the year 2000. His son, Bachar, a 37 years old eye doctor who had his training in Britain, took over. His fathers’ top officers orchestrated a phony referendum for him where he won about 95% of the vote. (Slide 15) The Syrians at the beginning were a little bit optimistic with the young new ruler, but they didn’t have to wait too long to discover they were wrong. Shortly after Bachar promised freedom and democracy in the year 2000, he threw those who believed him in jail. Five years later, Syrians from all classes peacefully requested freedom and democracy again, but he, again, responded the same way, proving that he is no one but his father’s son. (Slide 16) In that year (2005), political inmates in Saidnaya’s Military prison clashed with the guards over demands for better treatment. The crisis was settled with a massacre where about 1000 prisoners were murdered in cold blood.
(Slide 17) The Syrians were the last to join the Arab Spring in 2011. (Slide 18) Middle school kids from the southern city of Daraa wrote graffiti on their school walls saying ‘Down with Assad’. The kids were arrested and taken to a secret police station where they were tortured, bitten up and their nails were savagely pulled off by pliers. When their parents asked for their release, the officer in charge, who was Assad’s cousin, laughed and said to them “You have to forget about those kids, so go and make others”. (Slide 19) The very next day, March 15, 2011, hundreds, then thousands, of peaceful demonstrators started to take to the streets of Daraa, marking the beginning of the revolution.
(Slide 20) Soon, the revolution spread to other cities and villages. It was kept peaceful for the first six months, but, even thought, Assad gave his orders to shoot to kill, (Slide 21). The children were always primary targets to force the parents to stop the revolution. (Slide 22) But, soon, a lot of regular army officers and soldiers started to defect and then formed the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA); it has more than 100 thousand fighters now.
(Slide 23) Both Assads, in a way, trapped most of their fellow Allawites by keeping them in poverty and by not offering them decent education. Instead, they offered them jobs in the army, security forces so they can be used as killing machines against the people when needed. The regime also used them to form vicious militias called Shabbiha who are assigned to do the dirtiest jobs like slaughtering and burning civilians including children. (Slide 24) Because of that bloody history of that sect with the Syrian people, especially during the two Assads’ regimes, the Allawites believe now that they are fighting for their existence.
(Slide 25) The majority of them still worship Assad and that is why they are ready to fight for him to the end.
(Slide 26) As they always write on the walls, they are ready to burn the whole country and kill every body else for the sake of Assad’s blessing. Let me translate to you what they wrote here.
(Slide 27) Only a few of the Allawites managed to have higher education and to mix with other cultures. Those individuals reject silly believes such as Assad is God, and some of them are even in the opposition, believe that Assad is a war-criminal and should be brought to justice.
(Slide 28) Today, after two years, the Free Syrian Army and its supporters are controlling 70% of the Syria and the fighting now reached the capital city of Damascus. The Syrian Revolution so far was very costly; more than 100 thousand civilians have lost their lives, 200 thousands disappeared with no trace, 5 millions became refugees in or outside Syria, and the revolution is still going.
The Assad’s regime, from the very beginning of the revolution, decided to turn it to a sectarian religious conflict, Alawittes with the Shiites against the Sunni Muslims. Assad thought that by doing so, he can wine militarily. What happened after that, and the situation on the ground today, proved him wrong. What he really did was attracting Sunni fighters from around the world to come to Syria to fight him. He did not notice that he is fighting with side of the 10% against the 90%.
(Slide 29) Let’s now move to the other question and find out who is still supporting that ghoulish regime to keep it alive and why?
The Assad supporters
Iran
(Slide 30) The Iran which we see today is mainly what was left from the collapse of the Persian Empire in the 7th century at the hand of the new born Arab Islamic State. The Iranians adopted the Sunni Islamic theology along with all the Arab and Non-Arab countries at that time. (Slide 31) But in the 16th century, the face of Iran and its future changed forever when the country was ruled by a Shiite Dynasty called the Safawi. It forced the Iranians to follow the Shiite Islamic theology and did the same in the neighboring countries which became under their control; they also pledged to restore the glory of the Persian Empire. That Dynasty ruled Iran for about 200 years, then it was removed by an attack from outside, but the Shiite theology did not go with it.
(Slide 32) The Shiites came back to power in Iran in 1979 with Imam Al-Khomeini bloody revolution; he brought with him the same Safawie project; (Slide 33) to restore the glory of the Persian Empire by forming the so-called The Shiite Crescent from Iran to the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. That project requires converting all the Sunnis there into Shiites and widening Iran’s control on the neighboring countries.
(Slid 34) Therefore, they established in Lebanon in the Eighties a militia called “Hezbullah”, The Party of God, from the Shiite Lebanese. That militia is in control of the political decisions in Lebanon today.
(Slide 35) The Iranians also managed to control the whole of Iraq after the USA withdrew two years ago. The current Iraqi government is dominated by Shiite Iraqis. The Iranians also established another Shiite militia in Iraq called “Jaish Al Muhdi” The Army of the Savior, to fasten their grip around the country. President Bush added Iran to his “Axis of Evil” in year 2002, and the policy of that country is even more evil now with its nuclear ambition.
It is very important to know that the Shiites and the Allawites are historical fierce enemies, but they agreed to forget their bloody history and work together, so each one can achieve its goal. I, myself, believe that if Syria, under an imaginary scenario, falls completely in the hands of Iran, the Allawites in Syria would be the first to be massacred.
Iran, for the last 40 years, has invested billions of dollars in Syria. It is considering it now one of its provinces, as an Iranian clergy stated a few days ago. That explains why Iran is the main supporter of the Assad’s regime with fighters, arms and money, and why it ordered its militias in Iraq and Lebanon to go to Syria to prevent the fall of Assad.
Russia
(Slide 36) The Russia we see today is what is left from the old Soviet Union; the country president Reagan once called “The Evil Empire”. The evil still rules there, but with a new face. Russia was and still is the main arms supplier of Assad, who in return, let the Russians have military bases in Syria; on land and sea. The most important one is the naval base in the city port of Tartous. The Russians lost a major Arab ally lately, Kaddafi of Libya, and lost another one 10 years ago, Saddam Husain of Iraq. It looks and sounds like they will not give up Assad easily as he is the last Arab leader they can call an ally. The Russian secretary of state, Lavrov, is now also called “The Syrian secretary of state in charge” because he makes more statements on behalf of Syria than his Syrian counterpart. The Russian ambassador to the Security Council twice vetoed resolutions that would stop the crimes of the Assad against the Syrians.
China
(Slide 37) Communist China is the second arms supplier to the Assad regime. It was and still is one of the major countries in the world where human lives have no value. Therefore, talking about human rights in China would sound like a joke. We all still remember the massacre of 1989 in Tiananmen Square when the regime brought in the tanks and killed thousands of students who were asking for freedom and democracy. China today is not different from that China; it is still a supporter of the most evil regimes in the worlds like those of Iran, Burma and North Korea. It has a lot of economic projects and investments in Syria and it will not give up the Assad regime easily. The Chinese ambassador to the Security Council backed his Russian counterpart in vetoing twice against the resolutions that would stop the crimes of Assad in Syria.
Other Supporters
(Slide 38) North Korea, this second member of President Bush’s “Axis of Evil” is also known to sell weapon to Assad, supply him with nuclear technology and help him on the ground. Cuba under the 2 Castors’ and Venezuela under Chavez have been known as Assad’s closest allies and friends in many fields, militarily and financially. Close friends of Assad from those who passed away were Kaddafi of Libya and Milosevic of Serbia. Now, from the friends and allies of Assad, you can tell what kind of regime Syria had for the last 44 years.
The Israeli factor
(Slide 39) Israel is located south west of Syria. A lot of insiders, including me, believe that Israel wants the Assad regime to survive. Some of you may ask ‘How can that happen while Israel is still in a state of war with Syria?’ There was a war between Israel and the Arabs in 1967 where Israel occupied the Syrian Golan Heights. Assad Sr. was the defense minister at that time; he caused that defeat when he ordered the army to “run away” from its powerful strategic positions without a fight and also without any military reason. That is why most of the Syrians believe that Assad Sr. committed treason by doing so. But instead of taking him to court, he was rewarded by becoming the ruler of Syria.
(Slide 40) Even though the Golan is just about 1% the size of Syria, it has a great economic and strategic value. It has a huge drinking water reservoir and some of the most fertile lands. The two Assads did not make any serious effort or show any serious interest in returning that lost part to the mother land. That is another reason why the humiliated Syrians feel angry with their regime. Israel, from its side as the occupier, does not feel that it had to return the occupied land when the Syrian leaders do not care about it.
Israel, on the other hand, knows that if the current Assad is gone, then the new government wants to reopen the file of the Golan. From this perspective, the Israelis prefers to live next door to a vicious dictator who lets them keep his country’s land than having a democratic government that will ask for its land back. In brief, Israel considers Assad as the “Best Enemy” it can have. And if we look carefully into the relation between both, we find out that they fight only by words and threats and only through the media; each one of them serves the interest of the other.
(Slide 41) Some may ask here ‘What about the free world?’ The answer is very clear; the policy of the USA and the European countries can not ignore the interest of Israel in the Middle East. They want to be sure that the regime which will come after Assad will not bother Israel about the Golan or any other issue. Syria by being a neighbor to Israel is why the Western countries are not interfering the same way they did in Libya. Yes they are supporting the Syrians, but only in humanitarian supplies to the refugees, diplomatic and economic punishments against Assad, and fiery statements and condemnations from the media. Valuable help to the Syrian Revolution and the civilian victims comes from regional countries like Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and Libya.
(Slide 42) Meanwhile, and after two years from the beginning of the revolution, the blood bath by Assad continues. The Syrian people are still fighting for freedom and democracy to remove that one-of-a kind sectarian barbaric regime which ruled them for 44 years. (Slide 43) The World society will in the future remember this human massacre with shame because it did not unite to stop it. History will register that the whole world put its interests above hundreds of thousands of innocent Syrian human lives. Most of what it has offered so far was bunch of lies and crocodile tears.
(Slide 44) As a Syrian writer, I felt that supporting the revolution just by writing is not enough. Therefore I flew to the Syrian-Turkish border last February and met with some of the civilians who were injured inside Syria and also with some of those who became refugees there. I also met with and listen to some doctors and organizers who are volunteering to help with the humanitarian and medical needs. By talking to them and shaking their hands, I told them that they were not alone, and that Syrians around the world, especially here in Houston, were always thinking about them and willing to help.
***
This lecture was given in Houston Community Collage, Central Campus, by
Tarif Youssef-Agha
An Expatriate Arab Syrian Writer & Poet
Member of the ‘Syrian Revolutionary Writers Assembly’
Thursday April 11, 2013
Houston, Texas
http://sites.google.com/site/tarifspoetry
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