‘Youth for Change’ organization held an event under the title ‘Aleppo Umbrella’ on Sunday to promote the right of those forcibly displaced from Aleppo by the Assad regime forces to return to their homes. The event, which was held in the town of Urem Al-Qubra in western rural Aleppo, urged the displaced people and the youth to restore the city from the grip of the Assad regime and recalled the stages Aleppo has gone through over the past years of the Syrian revolution.
The event, which was launched on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, highlighted the stages Aleppo has gone through, starting with the anti-regime peaceful demonstrations that swept through its neighborhoods which and ending with the mass forced displacement of its inhabitants at the hands of the Assad regime and its allies.
Activists showcased photos and drawings highlighting the suffering the people of Aleppo went through, especially following the Assad regime and Russia’s capture of the Kastello road, the last remaining in and out lifeline of the city. The photos also highlighted the brutal siege the Assad regime imposed on the city and its starvation of its people.
Residents of the city said they were pleased about the move as it encouraged people of the city not to give up the right to return to their homes.
People of the eastern neighborhoods of Aleppo widely scrawled the phrase ‘we are returning to you Aleppo’ on the walls of the city before they were forced out of the ravaged city in December 2016.
The mass forced displacement of residents of eastern Aleppo towards Idlib province saw many tragic stories with activists publishing heartbreaking photos and videos of people being driven from their homes.
The Assad regime and Russia forces’ mass forced displacement and mass killings of civilians as well as the targeting of hospitals and medical staff are among a long litany of war crimes they are committing in Syria. The Syrian Coalition has repeatedly called for holding perpetrators of these crimes accountable.
Several rights groups have published many reports containing abundant evidence about the war crimes the Assad regime and Russian forces committed against civilians in Aleppo with the aim of forcing them to leave their homes in violation of international law and international humanitarian law. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department + Agencies)
