Syria faces catastrophe as the world watches on
Even by the cruel standards of this long civil war, Syria’s latest humanitarian catastrophe is devastating, said Moritz Baumsteiger and Dunja Ramadan in Süddeutsche Zeitung (Munich). Backed by Russian forces, President Assad has in the past three weeks unleashed a horrifying new onslaught on the province of Idlib in the northwest of the country, where rebel forces are making a final stand. Hospitals and markets have all been targeted as Assad tries to bring “every inch” of the country back under his control: “It is raining bombs.” More than half a million people have fled the area since December, some burning their homes rather than leave them to be looted. At least 180 civilians have been killed this year. Russia, along with China, even vetoed a UN Security Council resolution in December that would have allowed aid to reach the region.
Syria’s war has now dragged on for almost nine years, and about 13 million people have been forced to flee their homes. So this latest wave of refugees – of whom 80% are women and children – is a “disturbingly familiar sight”, said Sam Hamad in The New Arab (London). Assad is deliberately driving Syria’s Sunni population, who he sees as instigators of the rebellion, out of the country. It is high time we started calling this what it is: “ethnic cleansing”, pure and simple. Many of those displaced are heading towards Turkey – but they won’t stop there, said Burhanettin Duran in Daily Sabah (Istanbul). Assad and President Putin quite clearly aim to unleash an influx of refugees to destabilise Europe, as in 2015. If the West fails to help, Europe will face “major setbacks”.
The Idlib offensive is straining relations between Russia and Turkey, said Anthony Samrani in L’Orient-Le Jour (Beirut). Although they back opposing sides, the two countries share a wider alliance and a mutual hostility to the West; President Erdogan recently angered his Nato partners by buying Russian S-400 missile systems. But Erdogan’s tone has sharpened in a fortnight in which 13 Turkish military personnel were killed in strikes by Syrian forces; he partly blames Russia, with which he had negotiated a truce. He was resigned to part of Idlib falling, but if Assad’s forces achieve a total victory, it would deprive Erdogan of the chance to relocate some of the 3.6 million refugees in Turkey to Syria. Meanwhile, the killing continues, said Waad al-Kateab in The New York Times. Idlib was a “sanctuary” for refugees from devastated cities such as Aleppo; now, they face relentless attacks as the West watches in silence. We Syrians have been left “to face death alone”.