VARP Charakterblogs

The flight to Gaziantep was simple enough. No issues with border control at all, and still tourists all around us, but less than before. Air gets thinner, I guess. At the airport, we got picked up by doctors without borders (MSF) contact. Let’s call him Amid. Not his real name, of course, because he could get in more trouble than he already is. Amid is a driver for MSF staff to the health facilities in north Syria, and he is a talker, too. Takes us about two hours from Gaziantep airport to the border checkpoint south of Kilis and during that time, Ida and I have almost said nothing but got a complete crash course on the Syrian war. How Assad and his father have suppressed the people for decades and how the Arab spring showed people a chance for freedom. How the demonstrations grew and part of the military deserted to support the demonstrations. How Assad pushed back and how other forces got involved, like Hisbollah and other forces from Iran, and Al-Qaeda forces financed by the Saudis, and how ISIS started to conquer eastern Syria and the demonstrations had long stopped being meaningful by that time. How some idiots used chemical weapons and how everyone thought this would mean a US invasion, and how that invasion didn’t come. How the Russian air force and Russian mercenaries then came and helped Assads government survive. And, finally, how the Kurdish militias YPG and YPJ beat ISIS and got control over northern Syria. Amid was, clearly, on the Kurdish side here, and I can see why. Is my intuition as well, to side with the ones who are freedom fighters against all bad guys, ISIS, the Kurdish government, and the Syrian government. But is also my intuition that someone who gets money from the US and training from the CIA probably did something wrong. Like me, that is.

So, story could have ended here. The Kurds in control of northern Syria and northern Iraq, ISIS beaten, some Saudi influence in the South,but Assad, Iran and Russia still in control of the center and the most important cities, and Israel bombing the Iranians sometimes. But, of course, story didn’t stop here.

In beginning of 2018, Turkey started its campaign in the north to make sure that the Kurds didn’t stay strong just south of its border and the Kurds had to retreat to the east. That campaign is still moving and situation for the civilians is even more difficult now. We have Kurds fleeing from Turks, some people fleeing from the Kurds, and everyone fleeing from Assad. So MSF has its hand full, especially around Aleppo, where the war is still in progress. So, of course, that’s precisely where we will go. Because we’re smart like that, yes?