A bad thing never comes alone. The adage tragically applies to the Syrians struck today by this earthquake.
Certainly, more than 80 or 85% of the deaths reported following the earthquakes of February 6 and 7, according to still unofficial counts which will change, were on the Turkish side of the Turkish-Syrian border.
There is no question of minimizing the gravity of this tragedy for Turkey and the Turks. But at least Turkey has a more or less functional state, even if it is corrupt and authoritarian. In the hours following the earthquake, she saw rescuers from dozens of countries rushing to try to save lives while there was still time. Turkey has allies, it is a member of NATO (even as a “black sheep”). It is a relatively accessible country, including to foreign media; coverage of the tragedy was extended there.
Not so in Syria. The country is a pariah, mafia, dysfunctional state, banned from the international community, subject to sanctions and a form of blockade that isolates it from the rest of the world. A state unable — or unwilling — to help affected populations, especially when they are in areas beyond its control.
In the “Syrian” part affected by the earthquake, the territory is militarily fragmented. The northern border is almost hermetically sealed.
In the far west, it is the last jihadist bastion, in Idlib and the surrounding area, where the displaced have accumulated over the defeats of the rebellion: millions of people at the mercy of the vagaries of humanitarian aid .
Further east, there are areas under Turkish control (army or associated militias) and, beyond that, the Kurdish autonomous government. To the south-west of the disaster area are the government areas: Hama, Latakia and above all Aleppo, a martyr of the war (destruction of East Aleppo in 2016 by regime forces and Russian air force), hard hit by new.
Faced with this disaster straddling a border, we tend to forget the Syrian side of the drama. And even when we don’t forget it… what to do, and how?
UN relief chief Martin Griffiths admitted this himself over the weekend: “Until now, we have failed the people of northwestern Syria. They rightly feel abandoned; we must correct this failure as soon as possible. »
Syria is a series of dramas piled on top of each other. A war almost over but not completely, with occasional bombings continuing. The small town of Marea, under Turkish control, a few kilometers from the border, suffered on Tuesday – the day after the earthquake! — rocket fire of obscure origin: Damascus regime? Kurdish forces?
A country in the smoking ruins of war with its aftermath: general impoverishment, demolished infrastructure, absence of the state and of any reconstruction. No more epidemics, COVID but also cholera… and now the earthquake, disaster within disaster.
The delivery of humanitarian aid is a puzzle, a game of cat and mouse. Who is responsible for blockages? Complex question.
Western sanctions, as the regime and many citizens of good faith repeat, exasperated by their misery, seeing that the regime does not suffer? But humanitarian aid is explicitly excluded from the restrictions. The main source of the (insufficient) aid that has been passing through the north for years is European and American.
Who limits the opening of humanitarian crossing points in the north (Bab al-Hawa) to the strict minimum? It is Damascus, supported in the Security Council by Russia, invoking a “violation of sovereignty”. Turkey is not innocent either.
The other solution for delivery is to go through the south, through Damascus, where the regime has for years taken its “tithe” on the rare humanitarian donations, when it does not confiscate them outright. Hence the mistrust of donors: but will it only go to the people who need it?
The world reported this weekend, in a heartbreaking report on the Syrian side, that Russian soldiers (several tens of thousands are still in Syria) are patrolling devastated areas (Lattakia), but without intervening in relief, frustrating the local population. What are the Russians doing? What are the Iranians, supposed to be in solidarity with the Syrian people, doing?
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a convoy of several dozen trucks from the Kurdish area (where there are also a few hundred American soldiers and advisers) was blocked for a long time on Friday and Saturday. Apparently they are pro-Turkish forces…who, because of their own war against the Kurds, are preventing decimated civilians from receiving the help that could save them.
The isolation, oblivion and impasse of the Syrians in this drama are to be mourned.
François Brousseau is an international affairs columnist at Ici Radio-Canada. [email protected]