Aleppo, Homs, Damascus, here we come!
#SyrianSpring
A Syrian man from Aleppo just tells me: it's sunny now, this is the 3rd day without Assad, Assad made Syria cloudy.
Dec 8 • 23 tweets • 7 min read
Hallo Buitenhof, yours truly was net 3 weken geleden èn een 2e keer tot 9 dagen geleden in oppositiegebied. Syrië is nu (een stuk) veiliger dan onder Assad's mukhabarat. @CasparVeldkamp wil Syriërs naar Assad sturen. Godzijdank hebben Syriërs zelf zijn idee de grond in geboord!!
Dat hier de discussie over gaat en niet over de honderdduizenden doden door het Assad regime, de miljoen vluchtelingen, de tienduizenden die uit Assad's martel gevangenissen komen...
(Deze Nederlandse hoopt juist snel Syrië in te gaan.)
Some (highly) problematic points with this map: 1/ The Arab Tal Abyad and the majority Arab Ras al-Ayn are green, not yellow. 2/ Deraa is green, the majority Suwayda has not indicated that they want to break up, right? 3/ Tanf is green. 4/ And 70% of current SDF areas are Arab:
Deir Ezzor: 100% Arab, while the oil reserves are used for the benefits of the PKK, not to develop Deir Ezzor, for example: not in hospitals, schools, infrastructure, etc. And Deiris are not even allowed by the Self-Administration to just travel to a hospital in Qamishli f.i.
Apr 7 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
"Als Hezbollah niet terug deinst voor deze dreiging ...Dan zal Netanyahu Hezbollah zelf aanpakken"
Jongens, maar dit gebeurt al vele maanden. Israel bestookte Hezbollah in zuid Libanon, noord Libanon en op diverse locaties in Syrië.
Fact check: YPG/SDF let Iran into Tel Rifaat, Iranian-backed militias into Inab and other front lines. Plus the SDF spox said they are not willing to fight against Iranian militias. Etc.
Occupied criminals = locals.
The lies of the YPG are as wild as those of the regime.
🧵 Today will be an interesting day in the Netherlands regarding the Netherlands & Syria.
In about an hour, the Committee of Inquiry regarding the non-lethal assistance (NLA) programme in Syria, will present its findings, also online here in English, عربي commissiecammaert.nl1/ Have Dutch officials secretly helped to establish a caliphate in Syria?
In Azaz in particular, the cradle of the Northern Storm brigade عاصفةالشمال, the only brigade in al-Jabha al-Shamiya الجبهة الشامية/Levant Front which received NLA from the Dutch?
Dec 8, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
I haven't read it yet. Also because my own experience with @newlinesmag is really not ok, in short they are not neutral towards northern Syria, pro YPG.
But in short, a Kurd in Afrin told me: the YPG took our children, the brigades take our money.
They asked me to submit several articles about Azaz, although I thought Afrin was more important. 'No not Afrin, too sensitive.' Okay. I spent hotel and editing costs, but I got: Why don't you write about the Kurds being expelled from Azaz?
Dear, there are no Kurds in Azaz..
Dec 7, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
"Niet te vergelijken met Qatar." Oh wat erg, det gebrek aan kennis over het Midden-Oosten aan tafel. In de Emiraten verdwijn je in de bak na 1 kritische tweet, vraag het @iyad_elbaghdadi bijvoorbeeld. Hij heeft het meegemaakt.
Veel Nederlandse media gaan naïef dik mee met de propaganda machine van de Emiraten, dit is al jaren aan de hand.
Jun 28, 2022 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Let's put this aside and take a closer look at the situation on the ground in Northwest Syria. Unfortunately, in 2016, the PKK expelled Arabs from towns and villages. They want to go home. Most of them are in tents and in 2 weeks Russia could block UN aid to the area totally.
The best scenario would be if the PKK left Tel Rifaat and Manbij as both road maps have been agreed in the past. For the Tel Rifaat area in particular, it would mean that many 10,000s cud return home and those displaced persons have expressed their desire to return home regularly
Die video is in taalkundig opzicht interessant. Een mix tussen (de lokale variant van het) Nedersaksisch en Nederlands...
Jun 3, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
#AfrinCity Protesters - against high electricity prices and long power cuts - have set the electricity company on fire tonight. I received this video a while ago from one of my contacts in Afrin (the city).
In the Mahmoudiye district. "And the local council w stormed and set on fire. A popular intifada" as my source describes it, "1000s on the street, against the very high energy bills that people can't afford. Bills reach ahout $50." #Afrin
Jun 3, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
I am at fusha and about 5/6 colloquials. All of these are not yet 100%, مع الأسف الشديد. #uitslover
My way:
Teaching Arabic from 2nd year of university, taking additional private lessons in Amman, Damascus & Beirut: "Tell me the differences from Egyptian Arabic".
Watch Arab media, soaps, listen to music.
Living in Istanbul is also great. All Arabic colloquials are here.
Jun 2, 2022 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Dear @SecBlinken, there is no ISIS thread in Tel Rif’at nor Manbij. Actually the rebels in NW Syria expelled ISIS with less US support than YPG.
There is something else. Kurds in the PYD/YPG camps in the Shahba area want to return to Afrin. But your partner doesn't not let them.
I know several Syrian organizations that have asked you to help solve this. Completely in vain. Why?
May 29, 2022 • 17 tweets • 4 min read
I would like to add some findings here from my field research in different parts of Northern Syria and Turkish mirror towns of the Syrian towns in Southern Turkey. A thread. /1 @martinchulov theguardian.com/world/2022/may…
Syrian Kurds mainly live on the northern border in Syria, but it is not only Kurds who live on the northern border.
Ra's al-Ayn - majority Arab,
Tel Abyad Arab, Manbij majority Arab..
I hate to even say this but I feel like this isn't mentioned often in western media /2
It is not worth disagreeing with NATO membership. I have been researching Northern Syria for 6 years now and have spoken to many hundreds of locals, mainly Kurds and Arabs. I also don't understand why some western countries support the repressive PYD to such an extent.
Apr 16, 2022 • 144 tweets • 34 min read
#NESyria KNC's Fouad Aliko (Yekiti, he is in exile) tells Syria TV that the US wants to restart the intra-Kurdish talks. The KNC wants the Self-Administration to release all political prisoners first: 'Last night 3 journalists were released, a positive step.'
Aliko: The talks have been on hold for 1.5 years, now with what is happening in Ukraine and between the US and Russia, the Americans do not want to leave Syria to the Russians.
And he made some other interesting points. Will tweet them later.
Apr 13, 2022 • 128 tweets • 30 min read
Yekiti's (KNC/Kurdish party in the Syrian oppo) report on the regime's siege of the 2 PYD neighborhood
Aleppo:
"بدأ الحصار بحسب الناشط السياسي مصطفى شيخو قبل نحو أسبوعين، ومع بداية شهر رمضان، عندما منع حاجز فرقة الرابعة دخول قاطرة مقطورة محمّلة بمادة السكر، مطالبين بإتاوة مالية من صاحبها وبالتحديد على حاجز الجزيرة في مدخل حي الشيخ مقصود بحلب."
Mar 24, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
As relations between Russia and the West have bottomed out with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, there is a real chance that Russia will block UN aid to Syrian IDPs in Syria. My latest for @nieuwwij
For anyone who has been following the situation in Syria closely, the Russian invasion of Ukraine is a déjà vu. Although the destruction is now proceeding at a faster pace.
Mar 24, 2022 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Omdat de betrekkingen tussen Rusland en het Westen een dieptepunt hebben bereikt door de Russische invasie van Oekraïne, is er een reële kans dat Rusland VN-hulp aan Syrische vluchtelingen in Syrië gaat blokkeren.
Voor iedereen die de situatie in Syrië nauwgezet volgde, is de Russische invasie in Oekraïne een déjà vu. Alhoewel de vernietiging zich nu in een hoger tempo voltrekt.
Mar 23, 2022 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
Frederike, I've seen their locations with my own eyes. Talk to the locals/Kurds in the area, they'll show you. And for the rest, putting democratic in one's name doesn't necessarily make you democratic. And what a sickening suspicion you do there. I never block but now I have to.
