Damascus is often claimed
to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, Ever since
I first went there in the early part of 1985, I have loved the city
and Syria, the people I met on numerous visits, the location, the
climate, the restaurants everything in fact. Paradoxically, my first
view of the country was a chilling one. Arriving at DAM the Damascus
International Airport very late at night (the Airport was opened
specially to receive the Company aircraft) from a refuelling stop at
Larnaca, we were met on the tarmac by a deputation of high ranking
army officers who accompanied us to the terminal building on special
buses to collect our luggage and the trunks containing the 25 volumes
of our (as yet incomplete) proposal for Phase 2 of the local
manufacturing of communications equipment Contract for the Syrian
Government.
Almost as soon as we left
the airport for the drive into the City and what was to be our home,
office, meeting venue etc over the next weeks and months, at the
Sheraton Hotel, we passed a checkpoint which contained a large tank,
some heavy machine guns and about 8 soldiers, all behind stacks of
sandbags.
The following day, looking
out from the window of my room across the city to the rim of the
mountain range, I was hooked. Over the course of the next few months,
I met and became friends with many people. Some Palestinians,
Armenians and I suppose Sunni, Shia, Alawites, Christians, I have no
idea what as I never asked. To me they were Syrians.
These were the days of
Hafez al-Assad, Bashar al Assad's father. From the impressions I had,
it seems that Bashar has never been able to adequately fill his
fathers shoes. He has given me the impression of being an indecisive
character, influenced and probably controlled by others. True, his
father was a ruthless man who together with his brother and other
family members carried out many acts which many outside considered to
be barbaric. Yet, as far as I could tell, there were many people in
the country who felt him to be a great man and were generally
supportive of his rule.
It is now very sad for me
to see the country tearing itself apart in the current civil war. In
many ways it was probably inevitable that this series of events would
eventually come about, as Syria, along with many countries in the
Middle East have come into existence through the ineptitude and
indifference of the former colonial powers of the United Kingdom and
France following the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Straight lines drawn
in the sand to establish borders on the map would always result in
problems. No recognition, or even understanding, of religious, ethnic
or tribal differences, have resulted in many conflicts over the years
since the 1920's. In turn this has led to mistrust and probably some
hatred amongst the Arab peoples towards the west.
The Syrian civil war may
go on for months or may be over in a few weeks it is impossible to
tell. What we do know, even now, is that there is a great change
taking place in the Arab world and that their collective position and
relationship with the west will never be the same again. The “status
quo” is dead.
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