In Assad’s heartland, villagers see Russians as saviours
http://www.theguardian.com/world/20…
Sunday 4 October 2015 00.02 BST
Lindsey Hilsum
Many Syrians in Tartus and Latakia view Vladimir Putin as a loyal friend who will deliver end to war
The village of Jebleh is a good place for plane-spotters. Last week dozens of Russian fighter-bombers – Sukhoi Su-24s, 25s and 35s – took off from the Bassel al-Assad airbase less than a mile away, roaring through the cloudy autumn skies towards their targets in Syria’s north and east.
Tupolev transport planes have been landing all week, bringing in men and equipment. Fifty miles to the south, at the port town of Tartus, Russian ships dock, loaded with ammunition and other supplies for Russia’s new campaign to drive back the enemies of the Syrian government. Local people say the coast road is often closed at night so that weaponry can be transported from the Russian naval base to the airport. They have no complaints – no one cares that the Russians said they would target Islamic State (Isis) and then hit other rebel groups. In this area, all enemies of the government are regarded as terrorists.
The military airfield used by the Russians is named after President Bashar al-Assad’s older brother. Their father, the late President Hafez al-Assad, tipped Bassel as his successor, but his eldest son died in a car crash, leaving Bashar next in line. Hafez and Bassel are buried in a giant, black marble-floored mausoleum a few miles further up the hill.
Portraits of Hafez, seen in this part of Syria as the patriarch not just of the family but of the country, are everywhere in the coastal regions of Latakia and Tartus, the heartland of the regime’s support, and of their minority Alawite sect.
Here, people see the Russians as loyal friends who have supported the Assad dynasty for 45 years and who have finally, after four years of civil war, come to their aid.
“We reached the point where the Americans and the Saudis were against us, as well as the rebels, so we asked for help to bring an end to this war,” said Munzer Abdullah, a civil servant, in Jebleh. “Our army and our high command are tired so we need help from the Russians to get rid of our enemies.”
The war has not yet come to Tartus and Latakia, but the region’s young men have gone to the war. The village of El Naguib, in the hills above Tartus, has lost 147 soldiers, while 52 have been seriously wounded. One evening last week families of the martyrs, as the dead are known, gathered to commemorate those who sacrificed their lives for the causes of nation and leader. All are loyal but some feel they have been asked for too much.
Zaina Tayan, who estimated her age at about 70, begged visiting journalists for help, saying that two of her sons had been killed. “Less than three months later, they took my last boy for the army. Can you get them to discharge him ?” she wept. “We are all serving the country and the president but I would like my son back.”
In July, Assad admitted that the army was suffering “a shortfall in human capacity”. The military has lifted the ban on drafting men from families that have lost a son. Many of the young men fleeing Syria for Europe are escaping military service. Tours of duty are frequently extended.
“I was already at the end of my service but they didn’t discharge me,” said 25-year-old Khalil Fahim Yusuf, still in uniform and nursing his arm in a sling. “I was hit in the face by an explosion, but after I recovered they sent me back to my unit. Then I was wounded in the hand so they eventually sent me back to my village.” Finally discharged, he now receives 45% of his military salary.
The Russians are the heroes of the hour. People greet the few foreigners who visit with a cheerful Russian “Dobry den !” and shout out their enthusiasm for President Putin, who they believe will deliver them from terrorism. Many think the west is supporting Isis, which they call by its Arabic acronym, Daesh.
“We can see that the Russians are determined to defeat Daesh and the terrorists, whereas by contrast the Americans and their coalition don’t seem to have the same determination,” said Safwan al-Saada, the governor of Tartus. “In the last year they said they were fighting terrorism, but Daesh grew stronger, not weaker, so we can say their coalition is not serious.”
The Russian air campaign could dislodge the rebels around Hama and Homs who had begun to threaten the coastal belt. But the problem will be taking and holding territory. Syrian ground troops are boosted by al-Quds forces from Iran and Hezbollah from Lebanon, but Saudi Arabia has pledged to send more equipment to their opponents, increasing the chances of a widening and ever bloodier war.
In Latakia and Tartus, shielded from the reality of a conflict that has torn Syria apart, people have little idea of the hatred for Assad felt by those who live under the indiscriminate barrel bombs that the regime drops on rebel-held areas of Damascus, Idlib and Aleppo.
Craning their necks to see the fighter jets streaking overhead, they dare to hope against all evidence that the Russian air campaign marks the beginning of the end of the war.
Lindsey Hilsum is international editor for Channel 4 News
RSS 2.0