If Turkey was the first victim of the terrible earthquake that struck the region, then Syria is the most affected and suffers the most catastrophic consequences, due to a decade of repression, war and sanctions that primarily affect the civilian population.

With this sentence, the French website Orient XXI summarized the case of Syria - as described by a report written by Henri Merbashi - after the international community and the Western media had forgotten it for many years, only to suddenly remember it at a violent and tragic moment in the aftermath of the earthquake that struck southeastern Turkey, causing In the fall of thousands of deaths on the Syrian territory.


What is the future of sanctions?

Officials in Damascus launched a new call to lift the sanctions, taking advantage of the disastrous situation that the people are suffering from, which was compounded by this natural disaster. the emergency situation of the population in Aleppo since the beginning of the war.

Sanctions were imposed on Syria after a fierce campaign of repression against civilians since 2011, as part of a series of economic measures taken by the European Union, the United States and the League of Arab States, including the oil sector and freezing the financial assets of a number of personalities, in addition to a series of measures that have a significant impact on the Syrian population, and the prices of basic supplies and medical products.

Are you punishing the lion or the people?

Despite calls for lifting sanctions on Syria due to the suffering of the population, they are still valid and their effects on the people are clear, especially since the European Union and the Syrian opposition consider them primarily aimed at punishing the Bashar al-Assad regime for its violations against its people, and forcing it to enter into a political process, given that it bears the responsibility The crisis, which is the cause of the dire conditions of about 13 million Syrians who need urgent humanitarian aid and endure the harsh winter without fuel, petrol or electricity.

In this confrontation, the exhausted population remained facing their fate alone, because Damascus refuses any external humanitarian aid that does not pass through it, and the international community is preoccupied with other priorities, until this new catastrophe came, and today "Syria calls on the member states of the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross and other humanitarian organizations to support the Syrian government's efforts to confront the devastating earthquake.

In the face of this destruction, in which more than 1,600 people were killed in Syria, and the Citadel of Aleppo, its historical architectural gem, and other cities such as Hama, Latakia, and Idlib, which are ruled by the opposition, were damaged;

For the first time, the Damascus government pledged to provide aid to disaster victims in the opposition-held area, despite its weak capabilities.