AZAZ, Syria (North Press) – Both the political and military opposition have not managed to fundamentally change the reality of the areas they seized, rather they have become a tool to fulfill wishes of countries that govern them, residents and IDPs residing in the countryside of Aleppo, north Syria said.
After a decade of war, the Syrian opposition has followed the same policies of the Syrian government in starving up people and cracking down the political freedom, which they took to streets in order to get rid of it and its restrictions.
Not to mention the spread of unemployment, corruption, and security chaos in the opposition-held areas in north and northwest Syria that made it worse, according to the residents and IDPs.
The Syrian military and political opposition is still “groggy and countries exploit them according to their interests,” Omar Badran, a pseudonym for an IDP of Tel Rifaat town, in the northern countryside of Aleppo, and resides in Azaz city, said.
“The opposition has nothing to do with decisions. It cannot prove or free itself from the restrictions of the supporting states,” he added.
Turkey has supported the Syrian opposition factions since the eruption of the Syrian war and involved them in military operations in order to seize Syrian territories and increase its power.
Turkey has strengthened its policy in Syrian areas it seized, by Turkifying the civil and cultural sectors raising Syrians’ fear that the Turkification policy will become a legitimate project to annex those areas to Turkey.
Between 2018 and 2019, Turkey conducted military operations against indigenous people of Afrin, Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) and Tel Abyad.
Turkey has been paying efforts, for a while, to expand its border within the Syrian territory and annex areas to Sanjak of Alexandretta that it had annexed in 1930s.
“The big loser in the events that are carried out in Syria and those will happen and is planned for in the future is the people, who pays the biggest tax in the war and who has been exploited by personalities that are imitating the regime’s style in tackling issues,” Badran noted.
Bringing back pre-war conditions
“Things that took place during the past years including the handing over of areas that were held by the opposition to the Syrian regime in turn for Turkey to seize others, clarify the opposition’s case,” Sa’id al-Nabhan, a pseudonym for a lawyer in Azaz city, said.
With the start of the Syrian war, al-Nabhan hoped that the opposition would change the reality. “Others felt optimistic and thought that the opposition would free people from the grievance of the Syrian regime, but what we are witnessing now is a repetition of the events we witnessed before war.”
Meanwhile, the lawyer accuses the armed opposition factions in the city of stealing and exploiting residents through either imposing taxes on shops and goods in the markets or confiscating possessions of those who are arrested.
“Even if the person is innocent of charges against him, they confiscate all what he has including money, phone, and others,” he noted.
Leaders of the factions justify the robbery, violations and corruption that are carried out in their areas of control as individual abuses.
Militants of the armed opposition factions deploying in checkpoints in the entrances to cities like al-Ra’i, al-Bab and Azaz confiscate what they want of goods and cars that load vegetables and fruits, “and this what the government soldiers used to do previously.”
Royalties ranges between 50 and 70 US dollars for each truck loaded with goods and they differ from one checkpoint to another according to the number of trucks and the imported commodities, according to local traders.
Failed opposition
Meanwhile, Talal al-Senn, a pseudonym for an IDP of the town of Kafr Nabl, south of Idlib, residing in Azaz, has lost confidence in the opposition factions’ ability in restoring his town after the government forces took control over it in early 2020.
“I hoped that the military and security authorities in the area could perform their real duty in preserving security, integrity, and freedom of people, but they were involved in corruption issues that has become obvious to all people,” al-Senn said.
However, al-Senn is no more interested in what the political opposition abroad say, as it only hurries to fulfill and implement the interests of its guarantor and sponsor,” according to him.
As for Morhaf al-Ibrahim, an IDP of Hama countryside residing in Azaz, recalls the days when the opposition was controlling large swaths of Syria in 2012, “But the opposition and all political groups have become concerned in exchanging positions among themselves.”
“The opposition has become weaker than before, it cannot protect itself, and t is unable to force countries to recognize its independent work as a Syrian opposition without external interference,” he noted.