Lift the Sanctions!

Let the Syrian people recover from ongoing trauma

I do not think I have ever cried as much as I have seeing the devastation taking place in Syria. Children’s arms flaring under crumbled buildings; entire families destroyed under rumble. The recent earthquake, a magnitude 7+, has wreaked havoc across Turkey, Syria, and Lebanon killing thousands thus far, with the expected toll reaching the tens of thousands.

Videos showed houses, mosques and shops reduced to rubble, and rusting metal wires jutting out from the ground. A single excavator was working to clear debris alongside a small group of people in the city’s main market.

 “What can one vehicle, some few people working with their bare hands, [do] for those who are under the rubble?” said Alhamdo. “Unfortunately they can do nothing.”

The quake hit a part of Syria’s northwest that is divided between government-held territory and the country’s last remaining rebel-controlled enclave, likely complicating efforts to deliver aid.

Around 4.5 million people are packed into the area, many of them living in dire poverty, having been displaced from other parts of the country by the war.

The sanctions on Syria, which are used for the sole person of advancing western imperialism, do nothing to help the most vulnerable populations. In fact, the United Nations has urged for these sanctions to be removed, even citing 800% increase in inflation in the country which restricts access to medical and humanitarian aid.

As planes start touching down in Turkey to help the affected, Syria continues on trying to heal from this trauma alone when they have not recovered from the last, the one before that, or the others throughout their decades of imperialism and war.

No electricity. No water. No heating. No medicine. The west must lift its sadistic sanctions on Syria and stop suffocating the millions of innocent people. If you have read this far, please consider donating to a reputable local charity organization, email your representatives, and uplift the voices of the people of Syria and Turkey.