Syria

I want to write a short description about my country which many of you only heard about after the Crisis started and not much familiar of how we were living before that.

Most of what you know you got from media channels like CNN, MSNBC, Fox News and BBC, but these do not show the full picture and in many cases they show what they want only to what serve them better.

Syria is the oldest civilization in the whole world. Our ancestors invented the Alphabet many thousands of years ago and which you're all using. They were the first to plant ie farming, the first to raise cattle and the first to trade.

A French historian once said: Every person in the world has two home countries, where they were born and Syria.

My country is not big in size comparing with other countries, it might be the size of one state in the USA, it's equivalent to the size of the State of Washington and smaller than the size of South Dakota, for comparison.

Our population before the current crisis was estimated at 23 million scattered all over the country with the two major cities of Damascus and Aleppo having the most dense of the population. Damascus was around 6 million and Aleppo was about 4 million. Homs province which the city of Homs is its center was the largest province in Syria by size.

Other major cities, we call province centers, are: Lattakia, Tartous, both on the Syrian coast of the Mediterranean, Hama, north of Homs in Central Syria, Quneitra, Daraa and Suwieda in the south of the country, and Hassakeh, Deir Ezzor and Raqqah in the northeast. And of course the dear Idlib which was green loaded with olive trees and now in red and black soaked with blood and sorrows in northwest of the country.

This is called Al Nasara Lake - Christians Lake not far from my house

We have all sorts of nature and geography. We have mountains, valleys, plains, lakes both artificial and natural, a desert, and we have a couple of forests.

We have some major rivers running through the country one is called the Orontes River coming from what's now knows as Lebanon, Euphrates coming from Turkey and going through Syria towards Iraq. Tigris at the furthest northeast, and Barada River in Damascus.

Syria is the seat for most Christian churches, it has the oldest church in the world in my city Homs called Umm Zunnar, which Virgin Mary's belt (Zunnar) is preserved there. We have the oldest Synagogue in the world in Jobar near Damascus and we have the famous Omayyad Mosque in Damascus where Jesus Christ will make his come back to it.

Our country has seen all the empires rise and fall, and whoever came to us with love lived with us for long, we had 5 of the Roman Emperors and Empresses were Syrians, two from my city, and whoever came to us with war and killing had their empire collapse in no time. From the Mogul to the Crusaders to even the French, when France occupied Syria it got occupied itself by Germany...!

The Ottomans came to Syria with peace and under the name of Islam and when they showed their real face we kicked them out and it was their end as an empire.

Sadly, people do not learn from history to not harm Syria and they tend to repeat the same mistakes committed in history and suffer the same consequences those faced.

The USA has harmed us now a lot, Europe to a great extent and of course the Turks and the Arabs. Be safe on the individual levels in those countries, but be certain your country, if it is among those conspired against us, will pay a hefty price.

Europe is not the same before the War on my country. Brexit is now under way. Look at France now, the mother of democracies how the regime of Macron is treating his own people.

The US sooner than later will face the hardship, they overspent, they are overspread and they are in huge debt. Not sure how you'll solve those problems, but in my humble opinion, you're doomed the moment you invested in terrorists against my country first time.

I lost a number of my colleagues in the university, we have a big sign on the wall in the main building with their names. They were killed by 'rebels' you sponsored because they wanted to learn and your 'rebels' wanted to take Syria into darkness.

One of my cousins, the father of two young daughters, have disappeared more than 5 years ago and we haven't heard from him except once that he was kidnapped by the Farouq Brigade, a group of the FSA, because his name is George.

Another cousin was injured in a battle with ISIS terrorists in Deir Ezzor and now he's on the wheelchair.

We are now living in a rented apartment, 3 families. We had our own apartment in the suburb, I can't tell details because I prefer not to be identified. Some of those terrorists have joined the reconciliation and to be honest I do not trust they have repented and that they might resort to their bad habits any time without notice.

I'll try to write more about Syria, but now have a lot to do before getting to sleep.

Be blessed if you wish peace for us without your interference.

Mashqita Lake in Lattakia.

I love the lakes, I'll try to upload photos I took with my own camera in the future.