State’s Terrorism is more Atrocious than the Terrorism of Extremist Groups
The Russian regime is claiming that Russia intervened in Syria to protect the Syrian people from the terrors of the extreme group ISIS. From our perspective, the Syrian people welcomes anyone who would help get rid of extremist groups with open arms. That, however, should be through practical and actual means and not merely a pretext to justify and mitigate a military interference as we haven’t ever touched on any serious methods to protect the Syrian people from extremist groups whether by Russian forces or by the international coalition forces. All what have been done is a military action that lacks a popular approval firstly, and secondly this military action has failed to protect the Syrian civilians from the savagery of the Syrian regime which is the primary base and justification for the existence of such extremist groups.
A remarkably important point that must be noted is that ISIS emerged in Syria on 9 April 2013, while Russian forces entered Syria on 30 September 2015; two and a half years after ISIS. Nonetheless, Russian forces have killed more civilians than ISIS has according to the most recent report by SNHR: “Russia’s Red Square is Tainted with Syrian Blood” which was published on 16 August 2016 and according to 14 others reports on the violations that have been perpetrated by Russian forces since its involvement begun.
Russian forces have killed no less than 2704 civilians including 746 children and 514 women between 30 September 2015, the day when Russia entered the Syrian conflict, and the end of July 2016. Among the victims were:
Medics: 28 medics including eight women
Media activists: 10 media activists
All of these numbers and statistics are recorded with names, place and date of death, way of killing, and other details.
In contrast, ISIS has killed no less than 2686 civilians including 368 children and 323 women between 9 April 2013, the day when ISIS was established, and the end of July 2016. Among the victims were:
Medics: 34 medics including four female doctors and 11 female nurses.
Media activists: 57 media activists including foreign journalists and photographers.
The Russian state claims to fight terrorism, so it is might be difficult to comprehend that what it is doing is a systematic state terrorism which possess material and logistic sources that are far superior to the extremist groups who might have eclipsed the Syrian and Russian regime had they possessed similar sources. However, we are only concerned with describing reality: The Russian regime has terrorized and massacred the Syrian people and surpassed the extremist group ISIS. We have to be brave enough to acknowledge this truth even though it might be uneasy to accuse states of terrorism as they are preserved as an institutional body in the general mind and they supposedly must protect people from terrorism.
The Syrian people is the victim of the terrorism of both medieval groups and inhumane states, and it is preserved and classified by the rest of the world on religious and ethnic basis rather than through an equal humanitarian perspective. It doesn’t matter how many civilians you kill but who these civilians are.
The states that are allying with Russia must immediately take into consideration these statistics. We have said over and over that the Syrian people sees Russia as a murderer enemy. Therefore, it is impossible for Russia to contribute impartially to any form of solution as long as it is insisting on siding with the Syrian regime that is accused of perpetrating tens of thousands of crimes against humanity and war crimes against the Syrian people.