A Christian Syrian Woman’s Perspective from Damascus

Many people have condemned Obama’s American and British policy towards Syria. Not only did it make matters worse but the wholesale slaughter of Christians and religious minorities will forever be a stain on The United States under Obama.  We have  been supporting the destroyers of Christianity in Syria. Now is the time to change policies  towards that country.

It is the hope of the oppressed minorities under Islam that  new Donald Trump administration will stand up for Christians in the Middle East.

Below is the personal perspective of the Syrian War by a Christian Syrian Woman, who has witnessed it all from the very beginning .

“ The dirty war on Syria”

“Could 2017 see a change of Syrian policy and be a year of hope for the Syrian people?”

by Elaina Nana, a Christian Syrian teacher and mother, living in Damascus

 Before what was called the “Arab Spring” back in 2011, I was, like many of my friends, an ordinary Syrian wife and mother of two children, living happily and comfortably in a smart suburban area of Damascus.

I was not particularly interested in politics, and content to get on with my life as a teacher and with my responsibilities with the Catholic Christian charity I was involved with.

Life was secure and the country was relatively stable under the leadership of our President Bashar Al- Assad and his Baathist party.

In fact since the Baathist party had been in power, my country had enjoyed a form of secular government which provided for religious freedom and the basic freedoms we had come to take for granted, which included a great deal of freedom for women.

Our government was not perfect, but in Middle East terms, particularly compared with some of the feudal Gulf States, we really had a lot to be thankful for.

Everything changed with the “Arab Spring” which is what we learned the western media had called it.

Calls for change and more democracy, which initially sounded appealing, seemed to be coming less from those who genuinely believed in change for the good, but from those who wanted change for their own evil agendas. In short, the “Arab Spring was high-jacked by these people. Demonstrations quickly became taken over and run by those who had such agendas and who did much worse than just cursing our Syrian government.

The demonstrations became sectarian and not only against those of other religions, but against moderate secular minded Sunni too.

They also became armed and used violence against the authorities.

It became worse because they used armed gangs to kill innocent people in the streets.

With my own eyes I witnessed them stopping buses and making government employees get out, and then kill them in front of me.

It was brutal and horrible.

They were well organised because the young men and  children demonstrating carried mobile phones to take videos of their chanting against our government, which were sent to the TV offices of Aljazeewra ( which is owned by the Gulf State of Qatar), to make it look as though they were just protesting for change and revolution, but they always hid from their cameras the terrible killings they carried out.

I realised that this was not a peoples’ revolution for change, as was being portrayed to the outside world, but an attempt to overthrow our State and our very way of life by outside forces who wanted a fundamentalist society in Syria.

There were times when I wanted to speak to the kids who were protesting, but I never could, because there were always people there directing them out of view.

I then saw how scenarios were fabricated at great cost to those who paid for this misrepresentation, so that it would look as though the Syrian government was oppressing its own people, to the world media. The truth was hidden, that the real oppressors were those causing the unrest for their own evil motives.

The time came when the strength and brutality of these “ rebels” enabled them to control large parts of Damascus, my home city.

Fear and destruction started to enter our homes, and I will never forget that fateful day when the rebels forced me to leave my lovely house in a suburb of Damascus, and it has now been taken over by insurgents. It broke my heart, the same as it did for countless others, but like many others too, I was determined not to give in, and fled to downtown Damascus, where my family now rent a house.

What happened with me, and with this conflict generally, has, however, made me more attached to my country, Syria, and more committed to defend it and our way of life, by all means.

As a Christian I am very aware that ancient Syria encompassed the four countries of the former Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria, so historically we have an immense Christian heritage.

Christians make up nearly ten per cent of the current Syrian population and we have no desire to leave our country and every desire to return it to its former great self.

We are an example to the world with our secular society, where we work as one, those of all religions and none, together as Syrians of which we are most proud.

We feel aggrieved that up until recently, we have felt that we have been grossly misrepresented in the outside world, and that the outside world has not cared about our fate, even that outside world being courted by the fundamentalist rebels to support their cause.

We now feel hope, as we have had support from the Christian country of Russia, and from others.

We feel hope, too, that after years of the UK government supporting the opposition, that now three former British Ambassadors to Syria have publicly stated that British policy towards Syria has been a huge mistake and made matters a lot worse.

We pray that in this new year of 2017, that steps will be taken to end our conflict and or the rebels to be finally defeated.

For their own reasons, countries such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar have spent huge sums of money supporting the insurgents in our country. They never take any refugees though, from the results of the conflict they have helped to cause.

In different ways so have other countries spent money directly or indirectly helping the insurgents, for their own reasons, such as Turkey the USA and Israel. We are hopeful that the new American President will change USA policy towards our country and will also take steps to end the persecution of Christians in the Middle East.

So now is the time to stop the war in Syria.

We have suffered enough, with immense damage done to our country.

We have been in a war situation for longer than the length of the Second World War.

We know that when the British people were suffering from the effects of that war, that they exhibited stoicism and determination to pull though. We feel that the British people will understand our plight and have sympathy with it now.

We appeal to the both the American and the British government to change their policies, to drop any support for the Syrian “opposition,” and to repair the damage caused over the last few years by establishing a new rapport with our Syrian government to rebuild a new strong and revitalised Syria, who would be the strongest of allies against extreme fundamentalist terrorism.

With such a new policy, there will no longer be any need for Syrians to be refugees in the USA or UK, as they will be safe and welcome back in Syria. Now is the time  for the USA and Britain, with a new leaders in place, to take this step of working with the Syrian government.

Instead of aid being spent just on Syrians in refugee camps in the region, and on the opposition, now is the time for the many displaced persons in our country to be considered for help, as there is no USA or UK government help for those in government areas ((which is most of the Syrian population).

There is currently a truce with the insurgents backed by Turkey, and the other insurgents are currently on the back foot with the Syrian Army on the offensive, and ISIS Daesh is on the retreat with Syrian, Kurdish and other military powers united in defeating them at last. Our nightmare could be about to be over, and I hope the American and British governments will help speed up this process. It is what we pray for.. and indeed what I pray for to, because I want a future for my children who are in their early twenties, and I want my husband, who has done his military service and is on the reserve call up list, to all have a safe, secure, prosperous and happy future…