Fear lingers in the eyes of children bereft of their fathers, their mothers, their sisters, their brothers and their childhood, fear lingers on the faces of those women who have been feasted on in the name of 'war tactic', fear lingers on those streets where someday in the distant past lingered aspirations of young minds, fear lingers inside those half-erect houses that used to be "home", fear lingers within and without. This is Aleppo, a city which was dubbed the 'ancient metropolis' in the past but has metamorphosed into a kafkaesque necropolis.
Aleppo "was" the largest city in Syria and the country's industrial and financial capital according to a profile done by BBC News. Not only that, it was listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Since 2012 however, that 'heritage' has been sucked out of the city and been replaced with barrel bombs, air strikes and mortars. Robin Wright of the New Yorker in her article, "The Battle for Aleppo, Syria's Stalingrad, Ends" affirms that the the present day Aleppo is reminiscent of Stalingrad and the Warsaw ghetto, such is the acute destruction of life and property. A battle that started in July 2012 between the pro and anti- government forces has gutted the city inside out. This so called Battle of Aleppo which started in 2012 (the Syrian Civil War started in 2011 growing from the Arab Spring) between the despotic Assad regime and a myriad of (U.S backed) disorganized rebel groups is deemed to have finally come to an end. But then again, has it?
The World Community though champions its mission to "create the conditions for lasting peace" (UN Peacekeeping Operations) failed to save Syria from its self destructive streak that began as a coup in 2011 and quickly escalated into a full blown civil war, and later turned into a proxy war between US and Turkey backed Rebel groups and Russia and Iran backed pro-government forces. Five years later, upwards of 400,000 people have succumbed to the war (AlJazeera). Staffan De Mistura, UN special Envoy to Syria in an interview with Aljazeera News said, "As far as I'm concerned, this is considered the worst humanitarian tragedy since World War II". The question that perturb's one's conscious is what substantial efforts did the world community make (or will make) except watch, blame, condemn and repeat. What unsettles us is the realization that we (whatever that we may entail) have failed Syria and Syrians.
Today, the name Aleppo is synonymous with pain, suffering and loss. A city that once housed over two million people has been reduced to rubble and dead bodies of thousands of those two million people underneath that rubble.
Though to outsiders like us it may appear that with the ceasefire reached in Aleppo the battle has come to an end, and that Aleppo, at last, has been 'liberated'. But the truth is that the battle wounds are still open and liberation for those who are suffering from those wounds is a far fetched dream. The conflict in Syria is still on-going. There are hundreds of thousands of Syrians who have lost everything they ever had and there are hundreds of thousands who will lose everything they have if we don't reach a diplomatically sound solution soon.
Every single day I see a new video of a child wailing for her mother or a mother wailing for her child. I see videos of people walking amid airstrikes as if it they have seen so much worse that an airstrike fails to threaten them anymore. This 'normalization' is what scares me, and makes me feel like an invalid.
To those like myself who feel this invalidity in response to the Syrian conflict, there is one way we can effect a minute change, and that is through monetary donations for the Syrian effort. There is plenty important work being done by not-for-profit organizations and charitable funds like Aleppo Fund, Save the Children, Shelterbox, Oxfam, International Medical Corps and ICRC. Even a small donation can make a change.
