HX Report
Irishman in the Middle East
Photo Story – 2 of 7
The War in Syria has created some 10M refugees from a total population of 23M. Approx 6.5M are internally displaced and some 3.5M have fled the country. Millions of houses and apartments are now reduced to rubble. 250,000 to 300,000 people have died as a result of the extremely complicated civil war war which has many participating actors. More than the combined dead of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Turkey has accommodated the largest numbers who have fled and now hosts 1.9M Syrian refugees, give or take. They are mostly in camps set up by the Turkish government close to the Syrian border, but camp conditions are poor and many have departed them for a life of begging in the major Turkish cities.
Took this shot in March this year in a shopping street in Istanbul, which is typical of what one encounters throughout the entire city. MB noticed that many do not look up as they beg, instead holding their heads down with eyes looking only at the ground in their new found shame as they extend a hand or bowl for an offering.
MB has many Syrian friends and can only describe their state of mind as one of shock. Never in their wildest dreams or nightmares did they think their country could descend to such levels of barbarity and chaos, within a period of 2 to 3 short years. A few years back Syria was one of the more sophisticated countries in the entire region with people of all religions living peacefully side by side. That’s now a very dim and distant memory.
HX Report 
It has nothing to do with my nationality and you my dear MB is proper aware that I am not a Russian. Meanwhile the only thing I urge everybody is to think about reasons of wars, be aware of brainwashing. It is an old moral choice raised by Dostoevsky:” Is a child’s tear worth happiness of all humankind?”. We can translate it like: is it worth to kill people to achieve political or religious aims? And yes many people from former USSR and modern Eurasian Union, who went through enormous sorrow in XX century are sure that what West is doing in Libya, Syria, Ukraine and hitherto in Yugoslavia is a neocolonial expansion. Who is next that is the question?
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MB do not agree with your anti-Western theorie Mr R – not because he is a Westerner but because most of the available evidence disagrees with your position – take-over of Crimea against international law, military support for the butcher Bashar, shooting down civilian aircraft in Ukraine, etc, etc. But you have your theories and MB has his. Well wishes. MB
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Is it possible to admire with Hitler and be sorrow of 30 mlns of his Russian and 25 mln others victims? I believe if to do so it will be a contradiction. Same is to praise Barack Hussein O’Bama, be proud of that he is as black and Irish as Guinness and to be pity about victims and refugees of wars which he ignated, supported and even worse – starting new one. Please don’t forget about already more than 10 000 sacrifised people in East Ukraine and 800 000 refugees.
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You are entitled to your opinion Mr R, same as anyone else. But the piece is tongue in cheek, which has gone completely over your Russian head. As for your political views on the topics mentioned, your nationality colours your view I believe. But that’s just my opinion. Thanks for comments as ever!
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This is just so sad, I sure hope we can start evolving our social/political landscape like we have our scientific one. It’s 2015 already.
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Hi J. Unfortunately many more years of horror to unfold in Syria, short of a large scale international military intervention, which will not happen anytime soon. Sad.
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Very sad
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