This is a letter to the people of Damascus written by the people of North Syria,
Damascus! You are
suffering for something you have no belief in, bashar al-assad. He has caused the impoverishment of several
of the most ancient cities in the world and which are part of the most ancient
trade route known to mankind. Who is
this personality cult that occupies a palace in the most economically strategic
location of the world. Why are the borders closed and the trade sanctioned in
the most travel centric land and trade corridor in the world.
Syria cannot be deprived
of his inheritance at the center of world trade which he held since the
beginning of mankind. Not even God would dare separate this right from the
people of this land. God put Syria in the center of the world because he wanted
him to be the cradle of world trade. This
land has been under the guardianship of many empire in the past because every
empire wished cultivate themselves within our land and our people. Bloodlines here have known themselves to be Mesopotamian,
Assyrian, Babylonian, Roman, Persian, Umayyad, Abbasid, Ottoman. Now finally the families of these lands will
know themselves to be Syrian. For the
first time in the notorious history of this place, we are Syria.
What kind of government
sends an army to kill people who ask the government to invest in economic
growth for the wellbeing of the youth and citizens who need employment and
income. This is a clear disavowal of the
duty charged to the government as a representation of all people with empathy
and devotion. This is the day we were given
a vivid sign about the work which had been concealed in the darkness for many decades. The government never wanted us to have enough
money to meet our needs. The government
wanted us to be impoverished and deprived.
There is no message more
glaring from the government to the citizens than the jails. The jails are where the government wish to
deprive the Syrian people of resources and break apart their family is no
longer subtle. It becomes very dramatic
in the goverments intention to cut off the citizen of Syria from all of the
kindness and bountifulness of the land.
The government shows his obsession with depriving people of life and
freedom in the darkness of the jails.
The government wears a cloak of denial in public in the daylight of the
streets of Syria because to admit what they have done openly would cause them
to be excommunicated from this land. And
thus so it has. The government in Damascus
has sold pieces of Syria in exchange for self-defense because to step down is
to surrender the stolen property of the countries natural resources. Assad is giving illegal war booty to foreign
countries even though the land was never conquered by him, he’s actually the
president. The government has
transformed the country’s territory into a conquest for foreign powers.
In the recent history, Syria
arose in status that this land had never known before, a world trade leader in
phosphate. Bringing billions of dollars
every year for the past forty years.
Damascus does not have billion dollar natural resources but clearly it
is the receiver of the benefits. All of
the wealth of Syria for decades beyond power Syria had ever known was derived
from the phosphate mines of Tadmur.
Trillions of dollars have been mined from Tadmur and the infrastructure
of the city has not reflected this value. This is a clear sign. The riches of Tadmur have been stolen by Damascus
and Damascus is adorned with only a small part of the trillions of dollars of
riches from Tadmur. Trillions are unaccounted
for.
This year we will change
the course of Syria’s destiny. On june
first we will all silently leave our homes and march to the sednaya prison to
tell the government of Syria that we expect that when we say something you must
do exactly as we the people have asked you.
The choking of the economic power of Syria ends now with the freedom of
these prisoners of the profane institution.
We cannot walk hundreds of kilometers to the borders to ask them to
allow the easy trade for our businesses to stabilize. We cannot go to the presidential palace and
expect that a family who makes trillions of dollars off of mining natural
resources to let go of the money. They
will never loosen their grip on the money.
We must make right what we ourselves have mistaken. We must go to the symbol of the destruction
of the society, the jail system which has not served justice to humanity on
this land for far too long. You will
know that we will be one million people when we march on the jail june first of
2024 because we will tell each other starting today. When you see a flower in my hat or my hair
you will find comfort in knowing that I will be one of the one-million to
gather for the walk to sednaya on june first. June 1, 2024 one million citizens
of Damascus will walk to tell the police that today the gates open now. Open the gates which are the cell-block bars
of Sednaya that have been the symbol of why the government has succeeded in
destroying the economy. The economy was
destroyed because we were isolated and deprived in a covert and hidden way. These cell block bars are the ones that have
controlled the economy of Syria and told all of the people here that they have
no right to inherit the wealth of this land.
Your Loving Daughter,
Catherine Alwan December 31, 2023