More Syrian Violence

Syrian security forces opened fire on Kurds commemorating the anniversary of the Halabja massacre in Iraq, killing several people. One place affected was Aleppo, a city where I spent a few days on my Syria trip and for which I harbor some affection. Some of my description:

"The city of Aleppo, in northern Syria about 30 miles south of the Turkish border, spans the centuries from where the Citadel stands on the hill from which was ruled the ancient Amorite kingdom of Yamzhak to the busy city squares and intersections with posters and statues supporting the personality cult of the Assads who rule the modern nation from Damascus, Aleppo's local rival for the title of world's oldest continuously inhabited city. In between stretch the ruins of ancient Rome, the churches of Byzantium and Armenia, and the ancient Umayyad mosque next to the mostly Ottoman suq in the old city.

"The streets of Aleppo are filled with yellow taxis much like those of Jordanian cities, though where the Jordanian taxis have a yellow sign with the name of the city in black in Arabic on the front and English on the back, Syrian taxis have the taxi number in Arabic numerals on the front and Western numerals on the back in between red and green lights indicating whether it is carrying a passenger. These taxis share the streets with cars, trucks, and horse-drawn wagons carrying watermelons along the curb, manned usually by a father with a son of between 8 and 14 hanging of the side.

"Another salient feature of Aleppo is its wide public spaces, including at least one significant park filled with fountains which at night are lit up red, yellow, and blue, providing a nice backdrop for people walking along the paved sidewalks through the thick grass and trees made possible by the city's place along a river. Near this is also a large pedestrian square dominated by a giant statue of - I believe - something Roman and surrounded by giant ball lamps each with the face of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, who every night looks over this part of the city like the year on the New York apple that drops every New Year's Eve.

"Bashar al-Assad's face is one you come to know well in Syria, simply because it is in almost as many places as the remaining pictures of his late father Hafez al-Assad. This is subtly different than in Jordan, where although you see many pictures of King Abdullah II, they tend to fade into the background, just another part of the landscape. Assad's pictures, however, reach out and grab you, filled with propaganda touches like showing the Syrian landscape reflected in his glasses. Most also have some sort of writing on the bottom - Bashar's favorite word appears to be "Yes," and the slogans one reads include "Yes, Yes, Yes!" and "From our hearts, a thousand times yes!" Many also refer to him as "The Doctor," a reference to the fact that he worked as an eye doctor in London before becoming dictator.

"The sites of Aleppo are varied, ranging from the previously mentioned huge churches of the Armenian Quarter where in the morning you see mainly old people coming to pray while a priest sits in his office conducting some sort of business, to the Umayyad Mosque (not THE Umayyad Mosque, which is in Damascus) across from the colossal Citadel, which can be reached only after climbing a stone step bridge across the old moat. Between the Citadel and Umayyad Mosque and containing 6 miles of road is the suq, much of which dates from Ottoman times architecturally and is completely covered to keep out the sun, though most definitely not the heat."

I also had a conversation there about Saladin, the Ayyubid sultan of Kurdish origin who was Richard I's opponent in the Third Crusade. Someone told me that Saladin had once said there should be no national homeland for Kurds. That statement, of course, is anachronistic, since the 12th century was not noted for ethnic nationalism, but shows how governments can use their education system to achieve a political agenda.