'Fall of Aleppo will deepen humanitarian crisis in Syria'

Ibrahim Kalın, spokesperson of Turkish Presidency, said on Wednesday that the international community is focused on other issues as the carnage in Syria continues as well as destruction of lives, communities, history and culture.

“The fall of Aleppo will be more than a matter of losing a city. It will be the crushing of the last hope of the Syrian people for peace, freedom and dignity. It will be handing the bloody Assad regime another cowardly victory. But more tragically, it will send a painful message to the people of Syria that they are left on their own,” Kalın said.

In his column “Aleppo burning,” published in the Daily Sabah on Wednesday, Kalın said that the Syrian civil war entered into a new phase as it centered the country's second largest city, cultural and financial capital and opposition stronghold, Aleppo.

“The fall of Aleppo will be a key gain for the regime and its backers. But it will deepen the already tragic humanitarian situation on the ground and force tens of thousands of new refugees to move toward Turkey. Above all, it will embolden the Assad regime in the face of the indifference of the world toward the most cruel and brutal war in recent times,” Kalın said.

Kalın said a UN Security Council Resolution adopted on December 18 last year to establish a new framework and a certain timetable to end the war and clear the way to bring humanitarian assistance had not achieved any of these goals.

Moreover, on February 11 this year all parties in the Syrian civil war, excluding Daesh and Al-Nusra front, agreed to a “cessation of hostilities.”

In recent weeks Aleppo has been experiencing the most intense fighting despite so-called ceasefire backed by US and Russia.

“Now, the regime is concentrating its attacks on Aleppo. It is targeting schools, bakeries, hospitals and roads with the aim of punishing civilians in opposition-held areas. This is a typical Russian tactic: Bomb not only the combatants but also their families, homes and towns so that they will give up fighting without actually firing a bullet. The opposition has stood up to this indiscriminate killing. But there are no more safe areas in and around the ancient city of Aleppo. Without any hope in sight, Aleppo is becoming another ghost city. Its near-total destruction is a tragic sign of the failure of the international community to save Syria and its people,” the article read.

Kalın said a UN Security Council Resolution was also supposed to help the fight against Daesh, but “there has been little progress in the fight against Daesh in Syria and Iraq.”

“Since the beginning of the Syrian war, many have said that there is no military solution in Syria. But the Assad regime, Russia and the Shiite militia groups that support the regime in Damascus have proved the opposite to be true. They have used every form of military power including chemical weapons, cluster and barrel bombs and airstrikes, to change the course of events. The UN diplomatic initiative led by the US and Russia is manipulated to prolong the life of the Assad regime and secure the political calculation of its backers,” Kalın said.

He argued that Daesh would remain an effective force on the ground as long as the Assad regime remains in power and continues its brutality and war of attrition under the guise of peace talks.

“The two monsters of the Syrian war, i.e., the criminal Assad regime and the terrorist Daesh, feed off each other and share the crime of destroying Syria and its people.

What the Assad regime is doing to Aleppo and its historical heritage is no less barbaric than what Daesh did to Palmyra last year. Its indiscriminate killing of women and children, doctors, nurses and aid workers is nothing short of war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

Kalın called on UN, US and Russia to stop the Assad regime from attacking civilians and destroying historic heritage sites “if they are really serious about stopping this monstrosity.”

“Talks in Geneva are of no meaning when barrel bombs and airstrikes burn and destroy everything in Aleppo,” he said.

Kalın also touched on Daesh's rocket attacks on the Turkish border city of Kilis which have killed 21 people so far.

“Turkish armed forces have bombed DAESH targets across Kilis, eliminating dozens of DAESH terrorists,” he said, and vowed that Ankara would continue to do whatever is necessary to stop these rocket attacks.