In May, I visited the village of Hadar, in Syria's southwest, bordering the ceasefire line and attacked for years by al-Qaeda and other terrorist factions. While there, I took the testimonies of several Hadar residents. Related article: https://www.mintpressnews.com/welcome-to-hadar-a-village-under-siege-by-syrian-rebels-and-israeli-forces-alike/244569/ See previous: Hadar Resident Mahmoud Taweel on Life Under Terrorist Attacks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_K2Bi9jDpQ& In Hadar, Syria: Residential Damage From Terrorist Shelling https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5dGVfZSvcg& ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoqHtdVUF6Y

In Homs, Syria, 6 days after the June 3 (2014) Presidential election, still another party blasted festive dabke and many patriotic songs for Syria, for President Assad. Yes, you will see soldiers and higher-ups dancing amongst young men and youths... the people love the army. Also present were Homs tribal leaders and leaders of the reconciliation movement. One of my home-stay hosts mentioned that the party the night before was organized in a different area by some of its residents, keen to celebrate the recent elections. In May 2014, Homs was cleansed of the NATO-Gulf-zionist backed/armed terrorists which had plagued the old city. Related: Freedom (Homs man on the great "revolution" and the protesters' sectarian slogans he heard from the beginning) June, 2014, Homs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5739PhC79yE&feature=youtu.be Homs residents speak of double car bombings which killed 25 people in Apr 2014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mJc3fV20es&feature=youtu.be Residents of a Homs neighbourhood plagued with terrorist car bombings talk about why they support President al-Assad, Apr 2014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvTHN5CmBs4 Liberated Homs Residents Challenge Notion of “Revolution” http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/07/liberated-homs-residents-challenge-notion-of-revolution/ Syrians Flock to Vote in Lebanon http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/05/syrians-flock-vote-lebanon-west/ https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2014/05/30/syrians-flock-to-vote-in-lebanon/ In Syria, Life Goes On Despite Everything http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/05/syria-life-goes-despite-everything/ https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2014/05/13/in-syria-life-goes-on-despite-everything/ ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XDbHZdF9HU

Walking along the Straight Street in Old Damascus last night, Laith Marouf speaks on Damascus' ancient history, abundant everywhere one looks--even the "stones" people are sitting on. But also, do listen from ~3:00 when we reach the martyrs garden that (quoting Laith): "commemorates the genocide of the Syriac Canaanites by the Kurdish militias under the order of the Ottoman Turks, in what is now part of Turkey but was part of Syria... So when people speak to us here in Syria about the imaginary Rojova land, we will never forget that there was an ethnic cleansing of Arabs and Assyrians from our lands at the hands of Kurdish militias under the order of the Ottomans." "This is a monument to the 1915 genocide of Syriac Assyrians, its around the same time as the Armenian genocide. Syria is full of Armenians, it's where Armenians came and hid. My family is from Deir ez Zor. The first land that Armenians escaping genocide reached, a safe place, was Deir ez Zor. My great grandparents hid a lot of Armenian families from the Kurdish militias that were coming into Deir ez Zor to look for Armenians that were escaping." ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQHd5Q3S3uo

Early last week, Turkey, Syria & surrounding countries experienced a series of earthquakes & aftershocks which tragically struck Syria and Turkey the hardest, killing over 35,000 people now, including over 4,300 in Syria. Syria has already suffered over a decade of the West's devastating war on the Syrian people. Now this tragedy. I spoke with Marwa Osman to discuss the impact of the West's cruel anti-Syrian sanctions on the current rescue & relief efforts in Syria. Marwa is a Lebanese journalist, political commentator, host & producer of the Mideast Stream, and a university lecturer. “It's already devastating in Syria because of the cumulative effect of the sanctions. Before the earthquakes, the sanctions worked on three specialized levels: The first level is on the financial institutions in Syria that are directly linked to the government. If you want to wire money from outside of Syria to any bank in Syria, it has to go through the central bank of Syria, which has been sanctioned since the early days of the war. Which means if you want to transfer & wire money to the people affected by the earthquake to their bank accounts in Syria, you can't, because its still under sanctions... The second level: the health sector in Syria. The sanctions are on everything within the governmental institutions in Syria, one of which is the Ministry of Health, which controls all of the health sector in Syria. Syria does have privatized hospitals, but majorly all of the hospitals in Syria are controlled by the government, because everyone has the right to have medical care in Syria. By doing these sanctions on all institutions related to the Syrian government, you by default sanction the health sector in Syria. Third: sanctioning any country that deals with the Syrian government, whether buying selling products, especially medical products or machinery needed for reconstruction, ambulances...You're not allowed to deal with Syria or you will be sanctioned...If you have the right technology, you can detect whether there are people under the rubble. Syria isn't even allowed to buy this technology, because of the sanctions.” Follow Marwa: https://twitter.com/Marwa__Osman https://t.me/Marwa_OsmanLB LINKS FOR DONATING TO SYRIA: https://www.facebook.com/wataawanoo?mibextid=ZbWKwL https://haysatar.com/campaign/242/help-the-earthquake-victims-in-syria https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid02agS6UrYXDJxaMzFsiwekyYUFmCjKzH5txoHz7JsMUmqPeKnAE1QFd4hBW2qLUjzwl&id=100069728167963&mibextid=Nif5oz RELATED TO THE SANCTIONS: Western sanctions will mean that more Syrians die after the earthquakes https://web.archive.org/web/20230212044123/https://www.rt.com/news/571295-western-sanctions-syria-earthquake/ US sanctions are part of a multi-front war on Syria, and its long-suffering civilians are the main target https://web.archive.org/web/20230212045008/https://www.rt.com/op-ed/494613-us-sanctions-war-syria/ Western leaders, screw your ‘Sanctions Target the Regime’ blather: Sanctions KILL PEOPLE https://web.archive.org/web/20230212054459/https://www.rt.com/op-ed/475983-sanctions-kill-people-syria-us/ ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXvvDoZ2f88