First published
in Ossietzky,
a German bi-weekly journal for politics, culture and science in
October of that year.
(I received the
letter in German from a friend in Berlin and found it so
heartbreaking in terms of what Syria was then and what it is now,
that I made this rough translation. L. Weingarten)
Today's Irak, the land between the
Euphrates and Tigris rivers, is seen worldwide as the essence of
hopeless violance and desolation. The destruction of antique
treasures of the "cradle of humanity" by Anglo-American
bombs is an indiction of the extent to which human understanding of
history and shared identity has been lost. All social arrangements
ceased to function as a result of the war.
In the neighboring country, Syria,
between the Mediterranean and the Euphrates, the world looks entirely
different. What a traveller finds here, is a picture of peace,
religious tolerance and colorful, middle-eastern activity, evidence
of a land of progress, working towards cooperation with the west,
with Europe.
Along the 100 kilometer autoroute from
Damascus to Homs, the largest industrial city, one passes rows of
pines and ceders. The broad, green bands of reforestation constrast
with the clay-colored slopes of the Anti-Lebanon mountain chain to
the left and the cement gray, half-built housing settlements on the
right -- mostly bare buildings, bearing a maze of satellite dishes.
All manner of trucks are enroute, ancient busses with wooden-framed
windows, also private cars in increasing numbers now that the import
duties have been reduced.
In the last thirty years the population
of Syria has almost doubled: from barely eight million to around 19
million, of whom 75 percent are below the age of 30; the average age
range is said to be 16 years! Investment in public health care
contributed to this population growth. Children laugh and wave;
wherever one looks, one sees school children and students. Since 1970
there is compulsory education through the ninth year. Foreign
language training, mostly in English, begins in second grade. In
addition to the five large state universities there are also private
secondary institutes. International co-operation is being expanded.
The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) has a representative in
Damascus. Economic reform, beginning in the 90's, has opened the
country to all manner of private investment. Construction activity is
visable everywhere.
The secular-socialist system of the
Baath Party under the presidency of the Assad family -- whose
portraits appear everywhere -- is difficult to grasp by western
standards....the Orient with a touch of East Germand and Cuba
perhaps. Yet, conservative oriental family structures have been
largly been maintained, by Christians as well as Muslims, both of
both have lived with or next to one another over centuries.
Mosques and churches amidst the same
areas. As many as eleven differant christian denominations, both
catholic and protestant, live next to the large Sunni majority, the
Shiites and other muslim sects such as the Druse and the Alawites.
The Assad-Clan is Alawite. In the port city of Lattakia on the
Mediterrean, home of the largest concentration of Alawites, one sees
jeans and short skirts, and almost no veiled women. Its large hotels
are run on a western model.
One can hardly imagine a more
pleuralistic society, made up of the many ethnic groups living in
various parts of the country. On the Mediterrean coast one feels one
is parts of Italy with endless olive plantations and fruit
cultivation. In the northwest towards the Turkish border there are
steep mountain areas. The lake-like reservoir on the Euphrates,
constructed with Soviet Russian assistance, is the key for arability
and watering of large areas of the country. Syria remains an
overwhelmingly agricultural country, but even the wide desert-like
steppes in the direction of Iraq and in the south, towards Jordan,
have been electrified. Small oil pumps produce energy for internal
needs; natural gas is largely exported. Beduins still live in hide
tents or low clay huts. Today they tend to be semi-nomads, movivng
only occasionally with their herds of sheep and goats. Valuable
minerals -- copper and phosphates -- are mined and loaded onto fright
cars which move through the steppe. In the past, trains ran from
Aleppo to Bagdad.
About 120 km towards the border with
Iraq clever young Beduins have opened a "Baghdad Cafe", as
in the film of the same name by Percy Adlon with Marianne Sägebrecht.
An original poster for the film hangs above the water pipes. They
plan to open a small hotel in the near future. Syria is counting on
expanding its tourism. The Third International Tourism Fair took
place recently in Damascus with -- as reported by the Syria Times
--indication of hopeful
perspectives.
Points of interest
for travellers are without compare : some 25 consecutive
civilizations have left their traces here over almost 10,000 years.
Three thousand sites have been excavated; many European archeolgists
are working here and I had the privilege of visiting a German dig
carried on the Berlin's Technical University in Resafa.
The
awe which overcomes one when standing on the excavation heights of
Ebla, seeing on one side the sun going down and directly opposite the
rising full moon is almost undescribable. In the immense Temple
of Baal in Palmyra one
has a sense of eternity. And after an excursion to the fortress of
Aleppo one understands why it is listed among the wonders of the
world.
In the
Bazaar of Aleppo
-- some 12 km in length and the largest in the Middle East --
European visitors are met with a natural friendliness and interest.
Conversations begin easily; many vendors speak English, German or
French and ask about the visitor's opinion of their country. And
whether they really consider it to be a "rogue" state.
Of the of
approximately two million refugees from the conflict in Iraq, half
live in Damascus. In 2006 an additional half a million fled the
conflict in Lebanon. Some 600,000 Palestinians have been more or less
integrated over the years. All this has astonishingly come about
without major problems -- aside from the rise in living costs about
which everyone complains. Housing in large city centers has gradually
become unaffordable. Unemployment does not decrease as more people
continue to arrive.
Europe would do
well to give Syria stronger support for the integration of refugees.
Italy, German and France are Syriens main commerical partners. They
could contribute a great deal so that Syria remains a bulwark of
peace in the Middle East.
_________________________________
Note: Temple of
Baal was largely destroyed by ISIS during this year. The Bazaar of
Aleppo, along with most of the historic Old City, is in ruins due to
battles between the Syrian Army and opposition forces from 2012
onwards.
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