Syrian Archives

Death toll from Syria conflict surpasses 200,000: Report

December 2, 2014 by administrator

A human rights monitoring group has said that the death toll from the nearly four-year-long foreign-sponsored militancy in Syria has now gone beyond 200,000 mark.

Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said on Tuesday that his agency has documented the killing of 202,354 people since March 2011.

“Of the total, 63,074 of the killed were civilians, including 10,377 children,” he added.

Abdel Rahman stated that more than 130,000 foreign-backed militants, including 37,324 Syrian nationals, have also lost their lives in the Syrian conflict, while a total of 76,223 Syrian army troopers and pro-government fighters have been also killed in the fighting.

The group noted that the toll “is probably much higher than 200,000” since fatalities in some remote areas have not been reported.

On Monday, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) announced in a statement that it has suspended providing food vouchers for more than 1.7 million Syrian refugees due to lack of funds.

The UN agency said it has cut the program which provides Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt with electronic vouchers to buy food in local shops.

The WFP added that it needs USD 64 million to support the Syrian refugees in December only.

Syria has been grappling with a deadly crisis since March 2011. Western powers and some of their regional allies — especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey — are reportedly supporting the militants.

Syrian rebels (FSA) abandon Aleppo, leader flees to Turkey

November 17, 2014 by administrator

Murat Yetkin

Some 14,000 militants of the Syrian rebel group have abandoned Aleppo, while its commander has fled to Turkey, according to Turkish security sources.

The Free Syrian Army (FSA), the recognized armed opposition group against the Bashar al-Assad in Syria, has ceased its resistance in Aleppo, Syria’s second biggest city, withdrawing its 14,000 militia from the city, a ranking Turkish security source told the Hürriyet Daily News on Nov. 17.

“Its leader Jamal Marouf has fled to Turkey,” confirmed the source, who asked not to be named. “He is currently being hosted and protected by the Turkish state.”

The source did not give an exact date of the escape but said it was within the last two weeks, that is, the first half of November. The source declined to give Marouf’s whereabouts in Turkey.

As a result, the FSA has lost control over the Bab al-Hawa border gate (opposite from Turkey’s Cilvegözü in Reyhanlı), which is now being held by a weak coalition of smaller groups led by Ahrar al-Sham.

The source said some of the weaponry delivered to the FSA by the U.S.-led coalition in its fight against both Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) and the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria might have fallen into the hands of Ahrar al-Sham and al-Nusra, the Syria branch of al-Qaeda.

A weakening Western-supported opposition in Syria could not only put Aleppo in jeopardy, but also weaken the U.S.-led coalition in Syria and Iraq, which might affect the positions of other important players in the region, such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Israel.

Syrian troops thwart al-Qaida attack on Idlib city

October 27, 2014 by administrator

Syrian government forces on Monday thwarted an infiltration attempt by radical rebels into the northwestern city of Idlib and wrested back control over a town in the central province of Hama, the state news agency SANA reported, according to Xinhua.

A group of the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front attempted to infiltrate Idlib earlier on Monday, but the attempt was repelled by Syrian troops and pro-government fighters, SANA said, denying media reports that the Nusra Front seized control of the city.

Government forces killed dozens of rebels in the countryside of Idlib after destroying their positions, SANA said.

The Nusra Front’s assault on Idlib was an apparent attempt to ease the pressure on rebel positions in the northern countryside of Hama, where government forces made major advances recently, according to military experts.

On Monday, the Syrian army continued its progress in Hama, capturing the town of Buwaida, SANA said.

In addition, dozens of “terrorists” were killed on Monday in the towns of Kafr Zaita, Sayyad, Mork and Latamneh in Hama countryside, SANA said, citing a military source.

An undisclosed number of rebels were also killed in the countryside of the central province of Homs, the news agency said.

More than three years’ conflict in Syria has killed over 190, 000 people and displaced millions of others.

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Air strikes against Isis are not working, say Syrian Kurds

October 5, 2014 by administrator

Isis fighters have pushed to the edge of Kobani, undeterred by western strikes, says city official

Turkish soldiers on the border with Syria, with Kobani visible beyond as smoke from a shell rises. Photograph: Lefteris Pitarakis/AP report the Gurdian

Isis fighters have pushed to within little more than a mile of the centre of the city of Kobani, undeterred by western air strikes which are proving ineffective, a leading Kurdish official in the city has said.

Fighting between the Islamist militants and Syrian Kurds continued unabated despite another volley of coalition air strikes in and around the Kobani enclave, Idris Nassan, Kobani’s “foreign affairs minister”, told the Guardian.

“There are fierce clashes between Isis and YPG [People’s Defence Corps] fighters, at the moment mainly to the south-east of the city. Isis now stands at two kilometres from the city centre,” Nassan told the Guardian by phone. “I can hear the bombs and shells here.”

According to Nassan, the situation was “under control for now”, but he underlined that air strikes had not deterred a further Isis advance.

“Air strikes alone are really not enough to defeat Isis in Kobani,” he stressed. “They are besieging the city on three sides, and fighter jets simply cannot hit each and every Isis fighter on the ground.”

He added that Isis had adapted their tactics to military strikes from the air. “Each time a jet approaches they leave their open positions, they scatter and hide. What we really need is ground support. We need heavy weapons and ammunition in order to fend them off and defeat them.”

Nassan said there were no evacuation plans for the moment: “Many people have left Kobani now. But there are still thousands of civilians inside the city.”

On Sunday, several MPs and representatives of Kurdish groups in Turkey arrived at the border to show solidarity with Syrian Kurds and to form a “human chain” stretching along villages bordering Kobani.

In the meantime, Saleh Muslim, co-chair of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union party (PYD), went to Ankara this weekend to hold meetings with Turkish security officials to discuss possible Turkish assistance in defending Kobani against Isis.

Turkish media reported that security officials in Ankara urged Muslim to convince the YPG, the armed wing of the PYD that is currently battling Isis in Kobani, to join the ranks of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and to “take an open stance against the Syrian regime” of Bashar al-Assad.

“We are calling on the international community to help us defend Kobani,” said Nassan. “Mr Muslim’s trip to Ankara is part of that call. Since Turkey agreed to join the international coalition to fight Isis, we ask them to help us, too.”

He said the exact outcome of the meetings remained unclear, but hinted that Muslim had asked Ankara to allow for the PYD, the Syrian Kurdish affiliate of the better-known Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), to receive arms from outside of Syria.

“If Isis takes Kobani, they will be right on the border with Turkey. This concerns not only us, but Turkey, too.”

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Turkey, In Gaziantep, ‘We do not want the Syrians’ action

July 7, 2014 by administrator

In Gaziantep, a group of ‘We do not want the Syrians’ action performed. Activists marching with slogans in front of the Metropolitan Municipality, the Mayor did not keep his promises Fatma Sahin called for the resignation grounds.

Located in the city three years, the group said that they are uncomfortable with Syrian refugees, ‘the crime rate has increased’ claim to be found. House rents to rise, and in health care problems experienced protesting activists, ‘Falcons surprised, our patience overflow’, ‘Falcon resign’, ‘Susman cried, Syria’ no ‘,’ Pistachio Syrians do not want ‘chanting slogans municipal building, walked to the front.

Fatma Sahin, local election after the Mayor was in Gaziantep in refugee camps 37 thousand, in the city 150 thousand Syrians had stated that, professional working with asylum-seekers’ lives and for the integration of the necessary preparations had been made had said. (GK)

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Israeli air strikes hit Syrian military targets

June 23, 2014 by administrator

By Orlando Crowcroft The Guardian, Monday 23 June 2014
The Israeli border with Syria. Photograph: Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images

The Israeli military has carried out air strikes on targets inside Syria, including a military headquarters, in response to a cross-border attack that left an Israeli teenager dead.

In all, Israel said it struck nine military targets inside Syria, and “direct hits were confirmed.”

The targets were located near the site of Sunday’s violence in the Golan Heights and included a regional military command centre and unspecified “launching positions.” There was no immediate response from Syria.

In Sunday’s attack, an Israeli civilian vehicle was struck by forces in Syria as it drove in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.

A teenage boy was killed and two other people were wounded in the first deadly incident along the volatile Israeli-Syrian front since Syria’s civil war erupted more than three years ago.

The Israeli vehicle was delivering water as it was doing contract work for Israel’s defence ministry when it was struck.

“Yesterday’s attack was an unprovoked act of aggression against Israel, and a direct continuation to recent attacks that occurred in the area,” said Lt Col Peter Lerner, a military spokesman.

He said the military “will not tolerate any attempt to breach Israel’s sovereignty and will act in order to safeguard the civilians of the state of Israel”.

The sudden burst of violence has added to the tense situation in Israel, where forces have spent the past week and a half in a broad ground operation in the West Bank in search of three teenage boys believed to have been abducted by Hamas militants.

Israel has carefully monitored the fighting in Syria, but has generally kept its distance and avoided taking sides.

On several occasions, mortar shells and other types of fire have landed on the Israeli side of the de facto border, drawing limited Israeli reprisals.

Israel is also believed to have carried out several airstrikes on arms shipments it believed to be headed from Syria to Hezbollah militants in neighbouring Lebanon.

It was not immediately clear whether Syrian troops or one of the many rebel groups battling the government carried out Sunday’s deadly attack in the Golan. Lerner said it was clear that the attack was intentional.

Israel has repeatedly said it holds the Syrian government responsible for any attacks emanating from its territory, regardless of who actually carries them out.

Israel captured the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau overlooking northern Israel, from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war. Israel’s annexation of the area has never been recognised internationally.

The incident occurred in the area of Tel Hazeka, near the Quneitra crossing. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Syrian troops had shelled nearby targets on the Syrian border earlier in the day.

Israeli police identified the boy as Mohammed Karaka, 14, of the Arab village of Arraba in northern Israel. Local media said he had accompanied his father, the truck driver, to work.

Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he spoke to the boy’s father and sent his condolences. “Our enemies don’t differentiate between Jews and non-Jews, adults and children,” he told an international gathering of Jewish journalists.

Netanyahu said in conflicts like Syria, where al-Qaida-inspired extremists are battling Iranian-backed Syrian troops, there is no good choice and it is best for Israel to sit back and let its enemies weaken each other. “This is a fault line between civilisation and savagery,” he said.

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45 Days in Hell: Syrian Armenians Kidnapped and Tortured by FSA

June 17, 2014 by administrator

Articles by Sarkis Balkhian

We were held captive for 45 days. You cannot even begin to imagine the terror we endured during those hellish days.’
–Carlo Hatsarkorzian

In October 2013, Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a report titled “You Can Still See Their Blood” that documented the atrocities committed by extremist groups, such as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar, against civilians in Latakia, Syria.[1]

In response to the report, the Supreme Military Council (SMC) of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) “wholeheartedly condemned” the crimes and reiterated its “full commitment to respecting the rule of law.” The SMC “stressed that the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, Jabhat al-Nusra, Ahrar al-Sham, Suqour al-Izz, and Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar are not part of the SMC command structure and do not represent the values of the FSA or the Syrian revolution.”[2]

Three months earlier, on July 26, 2013, the Free Syrian Army had kidnapped seven Syrian Armenians (four men and three women) while they were leaving Aleppo to resettle in Yerevan, Armenia. The women were released within the first 10 hours, while the men were incarcerated for 45 days.

This report documents the experience of those four men according to the first-hand accounts of Carlo Hatsarkorzian and Sako Assadourian.

The conundrum: ‘good rebels’ vs ‘bad rebels’

Over the past two years, Western politicians with vested interests in the outcome of the Syrian conflict and the ousting of the Assad regime have asserted the notion of “good rebels” versus “bad rebels.” These policymakers affirm that the good rebels consist of battalions fighting under the command of the Supreme Military Council of the Free Syrian Army to bring justice, freedom, and democracy to the Syrian people, whereas the bad rebels are jihadists seeking the creation of an Islamic Caliphate across the MENA region.

The primary purpose of classifying the Syrian rebels into two principal categories—the good and bad—is to legitimize and justify any political, military, and financial support provided by the Western governments and their regional allies to the “good rebels” of Syria.

On Sept. 2, 2013, while the four Armenians were being tortured by the FSA, President Barack Obama had a private meeting with U.S. Senator John McCain to discuss the potential for an intervention in Syria and the possibilities of arming the “good rebels”—that is, the Free Syrian Army.[3]

“He [Obama] said that he was willing to upgrade the capabilities of the Free Syrian Army,” McCain stated in an interview with the Daily Beast. “For the first time we have an outline of action that could lead to the removal of Bashar al-Assad… I’m certainly willing to join that effort, but I need to know a lot of the details.”[4]

The rhetoric used by these policy makers has influenced the mainstream media’s coverage of the ongoing conflict. The vast majority of media sources have been quick to overlook the crimes of the FSA and have instead focused on the crimes perpetrated by the Syrian government and the “bad rebels”—the jihadists.

Moreover, international human rights groups have failed to properly document the plight of the minority groups in Syria. Whether or not this failure stems from the fact that the vast majority of these groups either support Assad’s regime or fear persecution in the absence of his secular government is up for debate. But one thing is certain—without the adequate documentation and condemnation of the human rights violations against all Syrians, including minorities, the cycle of crime will continue.

Prelude

In late July 2012, the armed conflict arrived in Aleppo, changing the destiny of Syrian Armenians forever. Prior to the beginning of the conflict, Carlo Hatsarkorzian, 21, worked as a mechanic at his family’s workshop in the Argoub district of Aleppo, and Sako Assadourian, 27, as a goldsmith. They both came from lower-middle class families.

In September 2012, rebels took over the neighborhood forcing the Hatsarkorzians to close their workshop. Carlo moved to Armenia, where he started working as a construction worker for 3,000 AMDs ($7.50) per day.[5]

In December, Carlo booked a round-trip flight to Aleppo to visit his family for the New Year. He never made the return flight because the Aleppo International Airport was shut down in early January. He’d remain in Aleppo until that life-defining journey in July 2013.[6]

In June 2013, Sako, a former Syrian Arab Army soldier, received a notice demanding his return to the army. His mother, Siranoush, begged Sako to leave the country and to join his brother in Yerevan.[7]

By late July, Carlo, Sako, Garo Boboghlian, and Nareg Varjabedian, along with three Armenian women, decided to leave Aleppo for Yerevan. What followed would haunt them for years to come.

A journey to hell

Abduction

In the morning of July 26, the seven Armenians got on a bus headed towards the Bab al-Hawa border point with Turkey. By 11 a.m., the bus had stopped at an FSA checkpoint near what is known as the Maabar al-Mawt (the Corridor of Death) in the Bustan al-Qasr neighborhood of Aleppo.

“At the checkpoint, the FSA soldiers requested our documentation,” Sako told the Armenian Weekly. “When they realized that we were Armenians, they transferred us to their headquarters.” Later that evening, at around 6:30 p.m., the women were released and sent off to Turkey, while the FSA comrades gave a warm “welcome” to the four Armenian men.

“They forced us to kneel down and say the Lord’s Prayer [Derounagan aghotk in Armenian], while a dozen of their soldiers beat us up until we all started bleeding,” said Carlo. “They hit us with their hands, feet, and anything they could find.”

The abuse was both physical and psychological. While being tortured physically, the four men were subject to verbal abuse, threats, and dehumanization. “You [the Armenians] are all traitors! You are the kafirs [infidels] who support Assad! We will kill you tomorrow!”

The headquarters

In the town of Hraytan, the Free Syrian Army headquarter consisted of a deserted liquor warehouse and a villa positioned across the street. Over the course of those 45 days, the four men were placed in 3 different cells.[8]

At the compound, the majority of the FSA soldiers did not use their official names when communicating with each other; instead they addressed one another using “Abu Ahmad” or “Abu Mohammad,” meaning “the father of Ahmad” or “the father of Mohammad” in Arabic.[9]

The chain of command at this particular base was divided into two branches: religious and military. The head of the religious branch was the Sheikh, the holy leader who was vested by Sharia law and whose verdicts were conclusive. The military command was in the hands of “Abu Ali,” a defector from the Military Intelligence Directorate of Syria, the “Mukhabarat.”[10]

Ironically, prior to the FSA takeover of the Hraytan region, the buildings where the four Armenians were held captive belonged to a Syrian-Armenian family that imported the Efes brand of Turkish beer.

Following the takeover, the Free Syrian Army upgraded the Chaprazian family properties, investing heavily in transforming the warehouse and villa into a high-security concentration camp from which no prisoner could escape.

Unfortunately for the FSA, not too long after the release of the four Armenians, the “bad rebels” of Syria—the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS)—took over the Hraytan region and, along with it, the FSA headquarters.[11]

The snapshots included in this piece are cropped from a video prepared by the ISIS militants and published by the pro-regime news agency Syriantube.net. The video demonstrates the various torture methods used by the FSA and the locations of the warehouse and villa. Both Armenian interviewees, Sako and Carlo, confirmed that the video recording is from the site of their captivity, and the torture techniques demonstrated therein correspond to what they experienced.

The first 23 days

After they were beaten on the first day, the four men were taken to prison cell no. 1 in the warehouse, where they were kept for six days. They were subjected to numerous verbal abuses but no physical torture.

About Sarkis Balkhian is a staff writer for the Armenian Weekly. He is also the director of Advocacy and Foreign Affairs at the Aleppo Compatriotic Charitable Organization, which works to assist Syrians in Armenia and in Syria. Balkhian has a B.A in government and international relations from Clark University and an M.A. in diplomacy and international relations from Yerevan State University. He is based in Boston.

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Syrian President al-Assad re-elected for third term

June 4, 2014 by administrator

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has won 88.7 percent of the country’s presidential election, securing a third term in office. The vote only took place in government-held areas and has been widely condemned as a farce.

Syria’s parliament speaker Jihad Laham announced Wednesday that President al-Assad won the election with a landslide 88.7 percent of the vote to secure a third seven-year term. Al-Assad was widely expected to win the vote.

Syria’s Supreme Constitutional Court said 73.42 percent of 15.8 million eligible voters cast their ballots in Tuesday’s polls. The election was held only in government-held areas, excluding vast chunks of northern and eastern Syria that are under rebel control.

Many of those entitled to vote were unable to do so, having been displaced from home by the fighting.

UN agencies say more than 40 percent of Syria’s pre-war population of 22.4 million has been displaced by the conflict. Some 2.8 million have fled to neighboring countries with more than 160,000 people killed in the 3-year-long civil war.

The election was described as a “sham” by nations that have thrown their weight behind the opposition Syrian National Coalition, which include France, Britain, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the US.

The vote marked the first time in half a century that Syrians have been offered a choice of candidates. Assad’s two challengers, Hassan al-Nouri and Maher Hajjar, won 4.3 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively.

Earlier, al-Assad’s office’s Facebook page said Syrians: “are proving day after day their belief in a culture of life, hope and defiance, in the face of a culture of death, terrorism and narrow-mindedness.”

According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, celebratory shots fired by al-Assad supporters killed at least three people in Damascus after the results were announced.

“At least three people were killed and dozens more wounded as a result of celebratory gunfire shot by Assad supporters,” said the Observatory’s director Rami Abdel Rahman.

US Secretary of State John Kerry, who was in Beirut on Wednesday, sharply criticized the election saying it can’t be considered fair “because you can’t have an election where millions of your people don’t even have an ability to vote.”

“Nothing has changed from the day before the election and the day after. Nothing,” Kerry said, “The conflict is the same, the terror is the same, the killing is the same.”

The European Union also condemned the election, saying in a statement that “it cannot be considered as a genuinely democratic vote.”

hc/rc (AFP, AP, dpa)

Syrian rebels, govt. say poison gas used in village, blame each other

April 12, 2014 by administrator

April 12, 2014 – 17:55 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – The Syrian government and rebel forces say poison gas has been used in a central village, injuring scores of people, while blaming each other for the attack, the Associated Press reports.

The main Western-backed opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, says dozens of people were hurt in a poison gas attack Friday, April 11, in the village of Kfar Zeita.

State-run Syrian television on Saturday blamed members of the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front for using chlorine gas at Kfar Zeita, killing two people and injuring more than 100.

In August, a chemical attack near the capital, Damascus, killed hundreds of people. The U.S. and its allies blamed the Syrian government for that attack, which nearly sparked Western airstrikes against President Bashar Assad’s forces. Damascus denied the charges and accused rebels of staging the incident.