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Syrian Voices Book Project

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*above photo: Resilience of Syrians, Old City of Homs, December 2015.

"Freedom" June 2014 conversation with Homs resident who describes the sectarian and violent nature of the protesters from the very beginning of the crisis in Syria.

In early 2011, after years of covert US funding to instigate a Western-supported "opposition" in Syria ("Between 2006 to 2010, the US spent 12 million dollars in order to support and instigate demonstrations and propaganda against the Syrian government. WikiLeaks released over 7000 secret diplomatic cables that document that funding." source ), the corporate media began telling the fairytale of "revolution" in Syria and of "unarmed protesters" being killed by the Syrian government.

Initially, there was confusion about the events that took place in Syria in early 2011. But since then, it has been well established that these events were an integral part of the NATO alliance’s attempt to impose a puppet government on Syria.

Various journalists, reporters, and analysts have documented the violence and sectarianism of the so-called unarmed protesters, including the many massacres that they and the many terrorist factions have committed. I referenced many of these journalists, reporters, and analysts in my own analysis, Deconstructing the NATO Narrative on Syria 

Journalists, reporters, and analysts, be they Syrians on the ground or non-Syrians who travel to witness events and listen to Syrian voices, have clearly and consistently outlined how the global war on Syria came about. They have also documented the ongoing atrocities being perpetrated by Western/Turkish/Gulf and Zionist-backed terrorists in Syria.

Nonetheless, false narratives and blatant lies continue to be put forth by the corporate media and lying "Human Rights" groups with ties to the CIA, US State Department and/or colour-revolution schemer George Soros.

In recent years, many books have been written on Syria, and with the exception of a few, they have been war-promoting books based on false allegations; unnamed activists; the fraudulent one-man Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, located in Coventry in the UK—who himself gleans his data from “unnamed activists”; and the above-mentioned human rights groups complex.

What has been sorely missing, aside from a few honest books on Syria like this detailed and insightful one by Professor Tim Anderson, are accounts of Syrians living in Syria.

I propose to fill the gap with my own book project, Syrian Voices.

· I  will be using information and accounts gathered during my previous four trips to Syria over the last two years.   

· It is essential for me to return to Syria to obtain more material, in order to write a book that prioritizes Syrian voices from Syria: truths from some of the most highly-misrepresented, lied about or simply ignored areas of the country.

· This book will give Syrian voices a platform to address readers who want to understand what is really happening in Syria.

·  Having made multiple visits to Homs—the liberated Old City, the entrance to al-Waer where terrorists remain, al-Zahra'a car-bombed neighbourhood—as
well as Lattakia, liberated ancient Ma'loula , Sweida, the Yarmouk district & centres for displaced persons from Yarmouk , and the Old City of Damascus, I have already collected many Syrian stories—voices and realities which contradict the corporate media's account of events.
 
· This book will also include stories and information obtained specifically from:
   -Syrians living in areas subjected to terrorist bombs, missiles, and mortars— attacks that I experienced repeatedly while in Damascus in 2014, and
  -Syrians in areas which have been liberated from foreign-backed terrorists.



· In addition to highlighting the sordid realities Syrians have been facing over the past five plus years, I also wish to highlight other realities, and indeed, the positives:
  -Victories and liberation of terrorist-occupied areas.
  -Syrian resilience: After over five years of the global war on Syria, as well as criminal sanctions that have devastated the Syrian people, Syrians, miraculously, remain resilient. They have bravely adjusted to the continuous hardship, stress and anxiety of the war on their country and cherish their dignity and their resolve. They are devoted to peace and security for their country and proudly wait and work for full peace and security to return. In spite of the war, they continue to celebrate, to marry, to study, to participate in everyday human life to the fullest extent possible. For this alone, but not only for this, they deserve our greatest respect.
   -Support for internally-displaced persons (IDPs), by both civil society and the government, in Lattakia, Tartous, Damascus and Sweida—to name the main centres that have absorbed millions of IDPs, although there are others as well.
  -Volunteerism: Many groups have been established within Syrian civil society to assist their compatriots during this horrific crisis—groups to provide food and meals for Syrians impoverished by the war, groups to visit and feed Syrian soldiers on the front lines, and so many more.
  -Syrian culture: Syrians have a rich cultural heritage--music, dance, theatre, painting, sculpture, writing, handicrafts and more. Even in times of war, cultural activities continue. Syrians defiantly refuse to be cowed by war and choose to partake in, enjoy and nurture the many aspects of their deep cultural lives.

In order to include in my book Syrian voices from areas of the country that I have not yet been able to visit, such as Aleppo, where there is immense suffering under terrorist bombs, or have not visited since they were liberated, such as Nubl, Zahra’a, and Palmyra, I need to return to Syria very soon.

To be able to meet costs associated with overseas flights as well as travel and related expenses in Syria, it is necessary for me to fund-raise because much of my current work as a writer and related advocacy work is either non-paid or paid very little.

If this book project, as well as my ability to write and publicize new articles from Syria, is something that interests you and that you are able to support financially, I would gratefully appreciate any and all contributions.

If you would like to support my work, but are not in a position to do so financially, I would be grateful if you would share details of this fundraising effort with your friends, family and general contacts on social media and via email. This gesture would give my fundraising efforts a tremendous boost.

In the media war on Syria, Syrian voices need and deserve to be heard widely. This is absolutely essential in order to bring greater understanding about the war on Syria and the will of the Syrian people themselves to people around the world, especially people living in the West. I am committed to making a solid contribution to opening minds and hearts to the realities on the ground. Of course my greatest hope is that the assault on the Syrian nation will end soon.

For samples of my previous writings on Syria, please see here: SYRIA: my published articles

For some of my short interviews with Syrians, see here: short video/audio clips from/on Syria and Syrians

For recent photos and information from my last visit to Syria, including to Homs (Old City, al-Waer entrance, al-Zahra'a car and suicide bombing victims), Sweida, Damascus, see here: Glimpses from Syria (December 2015)

*Homs residents speak about car bombings , April 2014


BACKGROUND INFO ON ME:



I am a Canadian justice activist  and writer, and for many years I have been involved in solidarity work with oppressed peoples. From November 2008 until March 2013, I lived off and on in the besieged Gaza Strip for three years cumulatively. I first entered Gaza on the Free Gaza movement's third sailing , from Cyprus, in November 2008 . I remained there for the next year and a half, returning many times subsequently via Eygpt and the Rafah crossing.

*with a Palestinian farmer from southeastern Gaza , whose home and farm were ravaged by Zionist attacks.

During my years in Gaza, I documented, on the ground, two Zionist massacres (2008/09 massacre , November 2012 massacre ) and the illegal weapons they used (white phosphorous , flechette bombs on civilians ), as well as took testimonies of survivors, abductees, and families whose loved ones had been assassinated. I documented and experienced personally on numerous occasions the heavy firing by Zionist soldiers on unarmed Palestinian women, children, the elderly and men farming and working in the border regions, as well as Palestinian fishers being attacked by the Zionist navy. I wrote extensively for various publications about the criminal siege and starvation policies the Zionists systematically employed, and continue to employ to this day, to oppress and kill Palestinians.

*With a farmer on farmland in southeastern Gaza that was repeatedly razed by Zionist bulldozers.

I have done numerous speaking events, sharing what I saw and experienced in Gaza—sharing what Palestinians endured and what they, themselves, requested that the world be made aware of.

*lecturing in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, 2014.

Feedback from my speaking tours throughout Canada, the USA and the Republic of Ireland has been positive.


SYRIA:


*Interviewing a close friend of Dutch priest, Father Frans van der Lugt, who was assassinated point-blank by western-backed terrorists in Old Homs, on April 7, 2014  (see: Liberated Homs Residents Challenge Notion of “Revolution” )

After the NATO/Turkish/Gulf/Zionist war on Syria began in early 2011, I was among a group of anti-war, pro-justice activists who founded the nonprofit Syria Solidarity Movement (.org ), which advocates for Syrian sovereignty and the Syrian people's right to choose their own destiny, and is against foreign intervention by parties that are not invited by the Syrian people themselves.

In April 2014, I was able to visit Syria for the first time, as a member of an international peace delegation.  During our one-week stay, we visited a Lattakia IDP centre, where we met internally-displaced people from northern Syria, including a man from Harem who provided horrific testimonies of terrorist abductions and decapitations.

We also visited a church housing IDPs from the village of Kassab that had been attacked by Turkish forces and western-backed terrorists in March 2014. As well, we visited Homs and Damascus.

We met with Syrian civilians displaced from these areas, as well as with religious leaders and members of Syria’s internal opposition.

We visited a Damascus hospital where children who had been injured by terrorist mortars were being treated. A BBC journalist was also present, a lying journalist as it turned out, because in her later report, she did not report honestly about the terrorist mortars.

As well, we visited  centres for displaced Syrians and Palestinians from Yarmouk district, whose testimonies ran contrary to corporate media claims about Yarmouk.

Highlights from this visit can be read here .

In May 2014, while waiting in Lebanon for a journalist's visa to enter Syria, I witnessed a flood of Syrians going to their embassy—they were determined to vote in the Syrian Presidential elections. The embassy extended its hours, opened a second day and yet still could not accommodate the deluge of voters.

In June 2014, I returned independently to Syria on a journalist's visa, visiting recently-liberated Ma'loularecently-secured   Homs and Damascus.

In February 2015 I was part of a small delegation to Damascus led by former US Attorney-General Ramsey Clark, former US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney , and long time anti-imperialist Sara Flounders .  In addition to our meetings with various religious and political officials , we also visited the University Hospital , where victims (primarily young children and women) of terrorist mortars and rockets were being treated for various degrees of injuries, including critical.

*Three Year Old Girl Critically Injured by Terrorist Shelling, February 2015

I returned to Syria on a journalist’s visa in December 2015, during which time I re-visited Homs' Old City (which had improved since my visit 1.5 years prior); the last secure checkpoint at al-Waer, a Homs neighbourhood where some 2,200 terrorists still remained; and the bread factory at the entrance, which provides bread to the population within the terrorist-held area, with the wheat being provided by the government.  There I met a Palestinian resident of al-Waer who, of his life in Syria, told me: "The Syrian government treats me as well as a Syrian."

*Homes opposite the December 12 terrorist car bombing blast in al-Zahra'a, Homs.

I also visited al-Zahra'a, the terrorist car and suicide bombing ravaged  district of Homs to hear from the Syrians living there about the terrorist attacks they had suffered just days prior, as well as earlier attacks.

During the December 2015 visit, I travelled to Sweida:

"In Sweida, a Druze area southeast of Damascus which has largely fought off the attacks of militants since the beginning of the crisis in 2011, residents told me they had, from very early on, recognized the 'revolution' as a foreign plot against Syria. Druze leader, Sheikh Hammoud al-Hanawi (known as Sheikh al-Aqel) reiterated what residents had said about this plot and spoke of how Sweida's men, young and old, have protected the region and stand with the Syrian Arab Army.

In Sweida, many residents who had been living abroad returned to open new restaurants, hotels and businesses, in order to support their sanctions-shattered economy. As with Latakia, Tartous, and Damascus, Sweida has also absorbed large numbers of IDPs from other southern areas, including Sunnis from Dara'a.

In spite of the security within Sweida, on the drive back to Damascus, the driver noted that, just 30 km to the east, Da'esh were present, but unable to break into Sweida. The Sweida-Damascus road was formerly perilous due to land mines, snipings and kidnappings, but now is highly-secured by the Syrian army. The driver, whose own friends disappeared in kidnappings, added, "but here we all support the army."" --from my overview:"Syria Dispatch: Most Syrians Support Assad, Reject Phony Foreign 'Revolution'" .

In a meeting with Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban, political advisor to Syrian President al-Assad, she told me :

 “The first thing the West should do in this battle against terrorism is to lift the sanctions from the Syrian people. The sanctions are helping terrorists against the Syrian people, who are suffering doubly from the terrorists and from Western measures against the Syrian people.” [more on that here ]

In addition to my visits to Syria, I have also met with the Syrian Ambassador to the United Nations, Dr. Bashar al-Ja'afari, at his UN Headquarters in New York, USA. Articles based on that meeting include:

- Scoundrels & Gangsters at UN: Silencing the Syrian Narrative, February 4, 2015, Russia Today
- Interview: Syrian Ambassador to the UN, Dr. Bashar al-Ja’afari on Sovereignty, Terrorism, and the Failure of the UN, January 17, 2015, Al-Akhbar (in Arabic here )

More samples of my writing and accounts of what Syrians have told me during my visits to Syria can be found here .

Thank you.

~Eva Bartlett

*Interview with co-creater of Guinness Record Breaking wall mural in Damascus, and his words of love and peace.

*Vanig Konjian, Armenian journalist: "I'm a Syrian and I have never felt that I have been oppressed in my whole life", April 2014.

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Eva Bartlett
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