Politics of Injustice and Murder Rule the Middle East

The views expressed in this op-ed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of SyriacPress.

By Suphi Aksoy

In their fight for justice, the working class and democratic intellectuals in the Middle East always had to face murderous armies and torture police of fascist dictators. No matter who stood up against the prevailing unjust order, they were always exposed to many pressures and suppressing powers. Entire generations were poisoned and human lives made hell.

Democratic values, human rights, and aspirations of peace and freedom have always been trampled in the Middle East. In order to subdue those demanding a dignified life, unimaginable evil and barbaric torture methods were utilized.

The states and their associated institutions as established in the Middle East only functioned as a tool of violence and oppression against the society they should serve. Instead they only served those who had taken power over the state. That is why the search for justice, human rights, and the rule of law in the structures of states and institutions unfortunately never went beyond futile efforts and crushed expectations.

Considering developments and injustice in many regions of the world, especially in the Middle East and North Africa in recent years, it is observed that savagery and barbarism are prevalent in all areas of life – primordial forest laws still rule those societies. Instead of humanizing and building democratic societies, humans are reduced to animals and this ruthless and rabid animalization causes more and more massacres.

If we realize that the weapons of mass destruction, the latest technology, drugs, and economic resources have been seized and put to use by these oppressors; and if we realize that these tyrants, by having put fear and poverty in society, have almost fully developed the ground for dehumanization and degeneration… then who can save the people, women, children and all the weak from the killing hands of these tyrants? Dishonored people are brought to a point where they can betray their identities and beliefs. Every day, the elements whose hearts and brains have been bought commit murders, rape women, children, and prisoners in name of their oppressing owners. They have become hired assassins.

A hostile mentality against the concepts of morality and justice prevails in the Middle East: Mullahs in Iran, jihadists in Turkey, Ba’athists in Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon, rogue militias in Iraq, fanatical sectarianists in Yemen, oil traders in Libya, racist ethnic-based entrepreneurs in the Caucasus… and now in and around the Mediterranean, forces that want to divide it among each other again have turned it into a sea of blood. Our times are times of conspiracy and assassinations.

On 4 August 2020, there was a catastrophic port explosion in the Lebanese capital. It brought back memories of Hiroshima. Assassinations were committed against many Arab tribal leaders in the Deir ez-Zor region of Syria. Dozens of anti-corruption protesters in Iraq were executed one by one. All this terror aims to intimidate and suppress the peoples, to incite disorder, and to keep the region in constant fire.

The government of Turkey with its Committee of Union and Progress mentality and its policies of neo-Ottomanism, leads the way in the creation of tensions and new wars. Instead of fighting global live-threatening epidemics and making plans how to secure people’s lives, assassinations are carried out, people are left to die in prisons, and anti-democratic attempts are underway to make Turkish society an open prison.

The continuing conspiracies of injustice and assassinations in the Middle East have left the Syriac people (Arameans-Assyrians-Chaldeans-Maronites-Melkites) and other peoples facing great and existential danger. Therefore, the need is most urgent to protect the most vulnerable and oppressed segments of society, the indigenous peoples of the region, and secure democratic values. For this to happen, the oppressed peoples must come together, join hands, defeat the murderous networks of the status-quo rulers and regime, and form a social system worthy of human dignity.

Only in such a cooperative struggle will the Syriac, Kurdish, Armenian, Circassian, Laz, and Greek-Pontus ethnic peoples be saved. In this chaos and cycle of conflict we call the Middle East, Syriacs will otherwise face the danger of having to say goodbye to their homeland and go down in history as a people that was. For this reason, and because the sovereign powers of the region have become authoritarian rulers and crime machines, international powers and the democratic public opinion should urgently intervene on the basis of justice, morality, conscience, and international law, and stop this downward spiral in the Middle East.

Today, churches are converted into mosques, identities are changed, and peoples are separated from their history. All differences are made singular. But living under persecution is against the character of our era and humanity’s passion for freedom. For this reason, it is necessary to struggle together, to overthrow dictatorship, and to obtain our freedom.