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Armed tribesmen deployed on the streets take control of the city of Ramadi January 4, 2014. — File photo by Reuters
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Shabaan looks at me sharply. There is no mention of the constant US airstrikes against Isis around the town. But she is also contemplating the darkness of that throat-cutting institution, the woman stoned to death in Idlib, the extraordinarily effective propaganda campaign which it runs.
“This is propaganda made by very professional experts. There are professional media people involved. It is being ‘directed’ by professionals. And once those who are behind ‘Daesh’ achieve their goals, they can dispense with it, takeoff the black clothes and become a ‘moderate’ opposition.”
Shaaban laughs. She knows this is a clever conceit — the Middle East has been littered with monstrous “terrorist” organisations — the PLO, the Muslim Brotherhood, Abu Nidal — which have either been turned into pussycats or eliminated themselves.
(The first part of this article was published in Dawn on Saturday)
The next line I was waiting for. “And by the way, what is this ‘moderate’ opposition which is supposed to exist here in Syria? ‘The moderate armed opposition’, they say. How can someone who is armed and puts a gun to your head be a ‘moderate’? Our army is defending our people.” I interrupt.
The world would say that civilians have a right to bear arms when they are killed by the government’s forces. No reply.
The people of Syria fight for their president, she say. Morale is high, the destruction of their enemies — to the health and education systems and to the architectural heritage — is enormous. And so it goes on. President Bashar al Assad, needless to say, gets a clean bill of health.
But then Shaaban turns to Saudi Arabia, the “Takfirist” curricula in Saudi schools, the culture of head-chopping criminals in Saudi Arabia, its support for the Taliban. “It is a culture very similar to the ‘culture’ of ‘Daesh’. So why was ‘Daesh’ created?”
But as an Arab nationalist, does Shaaban want to restore the old Sykes-Picot colonial border between Syria and Iraq which Isis symbolically destroyed?
“I hope the new generation of Arab nationalists will break these borders and help to create a new Arab identity, the emergence of a different reality, to be a real player in international politics. I hope young Arabs will not cling to these borders.
“Why should Lebanese and Syrians have to stop at their border when the terrorists can move freely across? As Arabs, we should sit down and think how we can face these challenges together. There is a master-plan, a ‘maestro’ — yes, I know people say that this is a ‘conspiracy theory’. But what I’m saying is that the conspiracy is no longer a ‘theory’ — it is a reality we must confront together.”
This was a bit like the end of a long symphony concert, the rousing send-off as Arab nationalism is reborn. Surely that is what the original Syrian Ba’ath party was supposed to be about.
Shaaban condemned Turkey for its “lies” and President Erdogan’s desire for another “Ottoman military hegemony” in the Middle East.
She takes comfort from the ease with which Sunni refugees from Idlib and Aleppo have settled among Alawites and Christians around Lattaki and Tartous — although she at no point names these religious groups.
And she talks about the vast number of families who have lost loved ones — no blame attaching to anyone at this point — but then she utters an irrefutable truth. “When you kill a member of a family, you kill the whole family.” And there really is no answer to that one.
(Concluded)
By arrangement with The Independent
Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2014
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