"I am entrusting this story to you."

The following article is a translation of a recent article by Fehim Tastekin that appeared in the Turkish newspaper Radikal. I felt that it was an important perspective that is purposefully overlooked in the Turkish, American and European media because what it shows is the real life experience of those caught in the conflict on the ground in Syria. We need the truth about Syria, not the imperial (and distorted) perspective that is hammering for yet another aggressive war in in the Middle East.

For those of you who would like to read the original article in Turkish,  you can read it here: Bir emanet hikâye / Dünya / Radikal İnternet

“I am entrusting this story to you.”

by Fehim Tastekin

A large portion of the Turkish media is trying to conceal the truth about Syria, and is providing the basis for occupation. The basic slogan of the dissidents (who are armed and propped up by Tayyip) is: “The Alevi to the coffin! The Christian to Beirut!” This is the mentality, with which the imperialists support “the army of freedom”. And the truth in Syria…it is completely different than the events we witness on tv channels and in newspapers every day.

He finished by saying, “I am entrusting this story to you. Tell people about it as it is.” The man, who talked to me calmly and gravely for an hour, started sobbing loudly…

These days, there are a large number of people who feel the same grief like Abdullah Hamsun Ebutamir in the south of Damascus, in the Seyyide Zeynep neighborhood. Each floor of an apartment hotel harbors tragedies and stories which are the other side of the process, which has been continuing for 13 months in Syria. When l got permission to come here, an official from the Minsitry of lnformation was surprised and told me that for the first time, a foreign journalist wants to go to Seyyide Zeynep. More than 1 million people have become refugees in their own country. Some of the people who fled from Homs are here too. Ebutamir, a seventy-two-year-old from Homs, is a shoemaker and he is Shi’a. Here is his story: ” They abducted my two sons. They took them while raiding my house. After they were abducted, their severely brutalized bodies were found. The partisans of freedom did this. One of my sons had two children, the other had three children. They were not interested in politics. They were shoemakers like me. They call this peaceful demonstration. The only crime of my sons was not wanting to join them. This is not about being supporter of Assad. If you participate with them, you are a member of the partisan of freedom. If you do not, you are an enemy. They introduce themselves to everybody as the police. The man, who took my sons, said that he was a colonel. However, he was someone l knew from my neighborhood. They left my third son, Yusuf, after beating him because there were not enough seats in the car. We had three houses. They pillaged all of them. Some people said to me “let’s kill two people from the Sunni. I refused.”

The Dissident Killed My Brother

This time, we were in another apartment and were listening to another unbelievable story. When Nizam Muhammed, an employee of a shoe factory, was killed, Al-Arabiya announced that a soldier killed him. Al-Jazeera announced that Hezbollah killed him, but none of this was the real story. Haydar el Ebbir, the brother of Nizami, told how people who have been living together for centuries have become sectarian enemies. He said: ” There was a demonstration near Nazimi’s house. The dissident was insisting that he participate with them. He refused to participate with them. They threw stones, Molotov cocktails and opened fire on his house. We said “Please leave that house!” but he said that he did not have any problems with anybody and stayed at home. In the end, a dissident group called Halid bin Velid killed Nizam in front of his house. We moved his wife and two children to another place. When his son went to the old house to feed the birds in the house, they threatened him with weapons. There was a crowd of people. Some were shouting “KILL HIM!!!! KILLL HIM!!!!” The older people intervened and took the child from them. They did not leave them in peace in the second house, so we had to move them again to another house. While we were moving the furniture, they came by in a black car and started shooting at us. Eight bullets hit my brother Arif in the stomach. My son Abdulmunim, my cousin and l were injured too. After they moved to the third house, they shot Muhammed Ali, the son of Nizami, in the street. The bullet has been on his foot for eighty days. We could not have it removed. They, at the same time, killed a young man, who was trying to help Muhammed Ali. We came to Damascus. They follow the Shi’a around. How can you call them revolutionaries? They are common criminals. Some of them are from my neighborhood or prisons, and some are also drug addicts. While we were in Homs, almost 200 Shi’a people had been killed, and 1500 Shi’a families left Homs. The Sunni were helping us in Homs, and, in Damascus too they are aiding us. The police went to Homs to check his house three days ago, and they abducted him.”

I asked him if they are connected to lran or Hizbollah. He said : “No, neither Hizbollah nor Iran are here. Only Ayatollah Huseyin Fadlallah, one of the leaders of the Shi’a before 2006, came here. We do not have a militia force which protects us. At the beginning, they were shouting the slogans ” The Alevi to the coffin! The Christian to Beirut! “. We, 300 people, came together and wanted to meet with observers from the Arab League; however, we could not.”

They Abducted My Mother And Father To Barter For People Who Are Under Arrest

And another person who escaped from Homs…: His mother and father were abducted 18 days ago. He prefers to keep their names secret, because they let them go the day before, and he is anxious about the security of his father and mother, for they have not arrived at Damascus yet. He introduced himself as M.C. ” They went in by breaking down the door of the house. They said that they abducted my father and mother to barter for people who are under arrest. Our house was burned down. They tortured them by beating them for 18 days. The military found a solution by speaking to important people in neighborhood. They sent women and children away from the region, where they could be prtected and they kept people that they abducted from our side there. If the military performs an operation, they kill our civilians. That is why the military has been waiting for a long time to conduct a new operation. Somebody was abducted in Homs. They wanted seventy thousand dollars as ransom. The public saved him by collecting the money.” According to M.C., in Homs people with weapons abducted 400 people. Five percent of Homs is Shi’a, ten percent is Alevi and five percent is Christian.

When said to him “If you do not have another reason for hostility between you and them, I think the source of this anger against the Shi’a is the Iranian support of the Assad regime.” He answered, “When they went out for demonstrations for the first time, they were shouting this slogan: “Neither Hizbollah nor Iran!! We are Muslims who are afraid only of Allah!!!!” They openly imply that the destruction or appropriation of property and the spilling of blood of people who are not of our kind, is legitimate. A few days ago, Seyyid Muhammed Nasir, a Shi’a scholar, was murdered near his house after praying. In Homs, the Sunni who condemns attacks on the Shi’a cannot do anything for fear of death. People with weapons open fire on both protestors and soldiers, in this way, Al Jazeera utilizes this as they want. A close relative of ours was killed. Al Jazeera lied and said that a Hizbollah soldier killed him.”  Ebutamir adds, “A Saudi channel showed the images of my sons and said that they were killed by soldiers.” Yusuf, who is the son of Ebutalip, survived after receiving a beating, said that on the second day of the demonstrations, demonstrators had weapons. He saw four vehicles that were full of weapons.

The most feared thing in Syria is that tensions will be transformed into a sectarian conflict.

While l was coming back from Seyyide Zeynep, l asked the taxi driver “ Are you Alevi?” he said “l am from Syria.” The taxi driver said that his mother is Alevi and his father is Sunni. If there is an election, Assad will win 70 percent of vote, and the Sunni and the Kurds will vote for him….

Translated by The Global Perambulator & Co.

Robert Fisk on Syria: Robert Fisk: Western agreement ‘could leave Syria in Assad’s hands for two more years’

New Ron Paul speech on Syria:http://ronpaulflix.com/2012/06/ron-paul-floor-speech-on-syria-june-27-2012/

John Pilger on ‘psy-ops’ in Syria, Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan:History is the enemy as ‘brilliant’ psy-ops become the news

Ed Herman on “Humanitarian Imperialism”

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