Dirar Khattab worked as the executive producer of the Al Jazeera documentary “Death of Aleppo.” “Death of Aleppo” is a film that captures the scale of human suffering and destruction in the historic city; and also the resilience of its citizens who battle daily chaos and uncertainty at home.

Watch “Death of Aleppo”: https://youtu.be/rIfscgdRhbk

This interview was filmed during the CEU School of Public Policy’s 2016 annual conference “the view from here: artists // public policy.”

More about SPP: https://spp.ceu.edu/annual-conference

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We now know the pattern of besiegement in Syria and so we know what is to come in Aleppo. Government forces surround an area of a city and cut off all food and supplies. The population weakens and thins, the elderly dying first and then next the children, often from water-borne diseases. The United Nations stands by, failing again in its humanitarian obligations through its obsequiousness to a government whose crimes long ago stripped it of any legitimacy. The West and Russia can drop bombs but not food. Support cannot go to those who might be able to break the siege because of their ideology; instead it just sloshes into a corrupt morass outside the country. Statements are issued and ignored. 2139. 2165. 2191. 2254. 2258. These are the numbers of the United Nations Security Council resolutions that are brushed off by Assad.

Somewhere between half a million and a million people are living under siege in Syria, about 150,000 of those now in Aleppo. What happens now that government forces have cut off roads to Turkey is that the only foodstuffs that get in have to be smuggled through the front lines. As people eat their way through dwindling stocks, infectious diseases are likely to claim the lives of those who are weakened easiest. The body draws down fat reserves and then consumes muscles. Autophagy, or self-eating, can last weeks. By the time people have resorted to eating grasses and tree bark, their bodies are swollen with edema, their stomachs almost unable to take in food, their skin becomes flakey and dry and their hair turns a dull copper. Every person who dies is a victim of one of the most brutal war crimes known to man.

Every actor outside Syria and all the armed men in the country long ago lost sight of why they are fighting. The militia that closed the noose around Aleppo is made up of Palestinian refugees in Syria, motivated probably by money as much as anything. Sieges can be lucrative. There is much money to be made at a checkpoint. Afghan recruits fight for Iranian-funded gangs alongside Shia Lebanese against Saudis and Tunisians recruited by Iraqi thugs. The opposition has fractured into a dark array. Assad can never recover the state he misruled. Russia’s global influence will be sapped in an incoherent and expensive conflict. Iran’s people have no interest in a war that benefits only its deep hidden state. Turkey is in chaos. Saudi Arabia is bullying, shrill and incompetent. The United States has stood by and watched half a million people die while repeating the tired platitude “Never Again.” Europe mostly sleeps, enduring a fever dream of terrorism, upturned boats and drowned children.

In Syria, the thin veil of civilization has been shredded and the efforts of the past 70 years to minimize the harm that comes to civilians in war have been tossed aside. Siege warfare – something that should have ended with the horrors of Leningrad – now kills thousands. Schools, hospitals and rescue workers are deliberately targeted to ensure that the survival of civilians becomes impossible.

There are possible responses. A no-fly zone over northern Syria. Air drops of food to besieged zones. The United Nations should cease all supplies to government-controlled areas if it cannot also access towns under siege, indeed it is time for the UN to leave Syria entirely if it cannot carry out a mandate to help all those in need. Greater efforts could be made to get what is needed into these areas, including fuel and supplies for urban food production by lifting some of the burdensome regulations on aid. We must not give up on a humanitarian imperative to do what we can for those caught in war.

The post Aleppo Under Siege appeared first on The Aleppo Project.

The Washington Post’s Loveday Morris reported on the ‘stunning devastation’ inside Aleppo’s souqs.

The Conflict

Aleppo From Above. BBC. Mohamed Madi.

Drone footage shows Aleppo’s destruction from above.

Al Ees. Halab Today TV.

Rebels, including Jabhat an-Nusra, captured al-Ees and other towns from regime forces in the southern countryside.

Rebels in the northern countryside liberated al-Kamaliyeh, Tal Battal and Karakik from ISIS.

Aleppo province-Kurdish forces. BBC.

The BBC reported from inside Aleppo province about Kurdish forces fighting the Islamic State.

Life in the City

General Committee for Youth in Syria

The opposition General Committee for Youth in Syria held a sports and martial arts event with 50 male and female participants in Seif ad-Dauleh district.

The Breadway theatrical group performed the “Arab Party at the Time of Freedom” in eastern Aleppo. The play depicts situations where certain personalities and groups try to hijack the social movement. Both men and women participated, in a city still considered one of the most dangerous in the world.

Refugees from Aleppo

UNCHR/N.Bose

Shehab, from Aleppo, is one of 70 Syrians in Turkey studying on German government-funded Albert Einstein German Academic Refugee Initiative Fund scholarships. He is a second year health sciences student at Hacettepe University in Ankara.

Kerim plays in temporary German housing. Dyab/AlJazeera.

The refugee crisis through the eyes of refugees–Photographer Kevin McElvaney provided refugees with disposable cameras as part of the #refugeecameras project to document their journeys from Turkey to Europe. Aleppian Dyab photographed his son Kerim at their new temporary room in Germany.

8 yr. old Aleppian Shaharzad Hassan “Refugee Family.” Idomeni, 11 March 2016. AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda.

In ‘harsh truths behind child refugees fleeing war – alone,’ a Greek police officer said that more unaccompanied minors are traveling from Turkey to Greece because parents can only afford to send one family member. Parents hope that the child will send for the rest of the family.

Mustafa Goes for a Walk is the the third of UNICEF’s ‘Unfairy Tales.’ The series of animated films chronicle the journeys of three Syrian refugee children.

Palmyra

The Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums is working with French architectural firm ICONEM to create 3D models of Syrian cultural heritage, including the Bel Temple.

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The State of the Conflict

http://syria.liveuamap.com/

Heavy Russian and government airstrikes in the city and northern countryside, a Kurdish advance towards Tal Rifaat, countryside advances by government and allied forces and opposition shelling of western Aleppo killed, injured, and displaced numerous civilians. These attacks also damaged infrastructure, including the thermal station east of Aleppo that generates electricity for the city and an MSF-sponsored hospital in Azaz. Few Aleppians and Syria watchers believe a newly announced cessation of hostilities would take hold and stop the airstrikes, killing and destruction.

Photo: Halab News Network

Residents in opposition-controlled Aleppo called on groups to unite to halt the government’s advance.“The fate of rebels in Aleppo will be the same [regardless of their affiliation]: either fighting till the death in defense of their land and civilians, or successfully breaking the siege in the province,” citizen journalist Mundhir al-Halabi told Syria Direct.

Shaar District. Photo: Karam al-Masri, CNN

CNN’s profile of Aleppo journalist Karam al-Masri, “Syria: In Aleppo, one man’s story of fear, defiance and survival.” Click here to read our 2015 interview with Al-Masri.

Rami Jarrah explains to the BBC why parents in Aleppo no longer hold their children’s hands.

Reconstruction

Al-Marja District, eastern Aleppo. Photo: Karam al Masri, CNN

The Staggering Price of Reconstruction. “Five years of war in Syria have left large swathes of the country in ruin. And with the peace process on the brink of collapse, an end to the war is nowhere in sight. But with a reconstruction bill that is likely to run well over $100 billion, planning for Syria’s eventual rebuilding must start now,” Perry Cammack, Syria Deeply.

Matterbetter launched the Syria: Post War Housing Competition

Project Amal ou Salam (hope and peace) opened Beit Amal ou Salam children’s centre.

The post Aleppo Weekly February 8-14 appeared first on The Aleppo Project.

After months of ‘dynamic stalemate,’ the military situation to the north of Aleppo city shifted dramatically over the past few weeks. Government and allied forces took control of strategic towns on the Aleppo-Gaziantep road, disconnecting eastern Aleppo city from the northern countryside and Turkey. The city is still connected with Turkey through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing in the western part of Idlib province.

Syrian children arrive at Bab al-Salameh border. Photo: Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty.

Tens of thousands of Aleppians from the city and countryside fled towards Turkey because of intense Russian and government bombing and fears government forces will siege Aleppo.

Shahba Press News

Thousands of people from Aleppo massed at the Bab al-Salamah border crossing seeking to enter Turkey. One interviewee explained that because the Turkish authorities have not giving them access, better off refugees are paying 1000 USD to be smuggled across the border. CNN‘s Arwa Damon filed this report.

Photo: Zahra’a News Network

Residents in the Shia-majority town Nubbol greet government and allied forces as they enter the town for the first time since 2012.

DATA SNAPSHOT

In late 2014 and early 2015 we asked 1001 Aleppians,  “Do you think you will return to Aleppo?”

• 72 per cent said “Yes.” 28 per cent said “No.”
• This was generally true whether someone was male or female, had children, owned real estate, or his/her house had been damaged or destroyed.
• It did not hold true for education levels. If someone had at least some post-secondary education, he or she appeared 14 per cent less likely to return to Aleppo than someone without any post-secondary education.

Reconstruction plans should carefully consider who will return to Aleppo when the fighting stops.  If, as is likely, the most vulnerable return first, and those with higher levels of education and more financial resources return much later, or not at all, the Aleppo of tomorrow will look very different than the Aleppo of yesterday. Click here to read the report.

SUPPORTING SYRIA & THE REGION

The UK, Germany, Kuwait, Norway, and the United Nations co-hosted the ‘Supporting Syria & the Region’ conference in London.

There were also events for civil society and the private sector.

One of the conference’s main aims was to get kids back to school. For more on educating Syria’s young, see the Syria Crisis Education Strategic Paper and Reaching Children Affected by the Syria Crisis 2016 report as well as the Children of Syria and #NoLostGeneration websites. As Marcell Shewaro, the Executive Director of Kesh Malek, a Syrian group that runs informal schools in opposition-held areas of Aleppo said, “When working on education you feel how important it is that there is another generation, and this generation needs to have a chance, the chance to have education.”

ECONOMY

Fuel Prices (per litre)

• Regular: 300 SL or 75 USD cents
• Diesel: 250 SL 65 cents
• Locally refined: 250 SL or 65 cents

The post Aleppo Weekly February 1-7 appeared first on The Aleppo Project.

The Aleppo Weekly is a compilation of what CCNR staff found to be the week’s most compelling stories, images, videos, and other resources that provide information about the life in the Syrian city, analyze the conflict that is destroying it, and help residents plan for their future. The weekly follows topics of interest to the Center’s researchers, and has a special focus on those displaced from the city and others whose voices are rarely heard when it comes to peacemaking or reconstruction.

The post December 14-20 appeared first on The Aleppo Project.

The Aleppo Weekly is a compilation of what CCNR staff found to be the week’s most compelling stories, images, videos, and other resources that provide information about the life in the Syrian city, analyze the conflict that is destroying it, and help residents plan for their future. The weekly follows topics of interest to the Center’s researchers, and has a special focus on those displaced from the city and others whose voices are rarely heard when it comes to peacemaking or reconstruction.

The post November 16-22 appeared first on The Aleppo Project.

The Aleppo Weekly is a compilation of what the Center for Conflict, Negotiation and Recovery staff found to be the week’s most compelling stories, images, videos, and other resources that provide information about life in the Syrian city, analyze the conflict that is destroying it, and help residents plan for their future. The weekly follows topics of interest to the Center’s researchers, and has a special focus on those displaced from the city and others whose voices are rarely heard when it comes to peacemaking or reconstruction.

The post November 2-8 appeared first on The Aleppo Project.

The Aleppo Weekly is a compilation of what the Center for Conflict, Negotiation and Recovery staff found to be the week’s most compelling stories, images, videos, and other resources that provide information about life in the Syrian city, analyze the conflict that is destroying it, and help residents plan for their future. The weekly follows topics of interest to the Center’s researchers, and has a special focus on those displaced from the city and others whose voices are rarely heard when it comes to peacemaking or reconstruction

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