Ma’assy Haleb Al-Thawrah Al-Maghdoura wa Rasa’el Al-Muhasereen (Aleppo’s Tragedies: The Betrayed Revolution and Messages of the Besieged) edited by Sabr Darwish and Mohammed Abi-Samra, Al-Mutawassit Publishing, Milano, Italy, 2016. pp.279.

Perhaps what distinguishes this book is the way in which it was edited. The editors have clarified that they do not aim to present “views” regarding what has happened and what continues to happen in Aleppo, but they instead edited a narrative investigative reportage. It is an innovative writing style in Arabic language books even while present in other languages. I think that this gave the book all of its truthfulness.

The editors related the experience through the words of the witnesses. They collected the rich, diverse, and wide-ranging material and edited it without any intervention throughout seven chapters. Each chapter features the names of those who wrote it originally as personal testimonies of their experiences.

Aleppo occupies a specific position in the Syrian Revolution and in the memory of all Syrians, not only because it is the second largest city or because it is the economic capital, but also because it witnessed a horrific massacre in the early eighties of the last century at the hands of Hafez Al-Assad. The memories of the Aleppo inhabitants are still fresh with much of what it suffered.

However, the devastation of the city and the destruction it has undergone more than three years ago was total. It led to the displacement of most of its inhabitants and its division into two parts. The eastern part is controlled by the Syrian opposition forces now and constitutes 60% of the city’s area, while the western part is dominated by Al-Assad's troops. Nothing connects the sides except two bridges and almost every day tens of those who venture to make the passage are killed.

What is astonishing is that Aleppo was late in joining the revolution, and the revolutionary forces insisted in the beginning to continue the peaceful approach. However, the brutal confrontation towards peaceful demonstrations and the terrorisation of the inhabitants by the “Al-Shabiha” (thugs) working for the regime drove the Aleppines to carry weapons in some of its poor eastern districts for protecting the demonstrations at first, then in resisting the regime’s troops and compelling them to withdraw. At the same time, the vanguards of the armed battalions began to arrive from the rural areas to the city.

The revolutionary movement started in the poorest and most marginalised parts in the city and at first few male and female youths participated in the demonstrations, most of them were from Aleppo University. The momentum rose and the participation expanded to include the inhabitants of the districts. Soon martyrs fell from the side of the demonstrations at the hands of the Al-Assad’s troops and “Al-Shabiha."

When the number of martyrs rose, the issue of carrying weapons and the right of self defence began to be raised among activists. This was done indeed. Small groups of individuals were formed for the protection of the demonstrations. Then those groups expanded, organised their ranks and were transformed into fighting battalions and brigades seeking control of the city and the expulsion of Al-Assad's troops.

The book asserts that the developments that happened afterwards comprised the control of tens of the terrorist battalions and brigades from the Islamic Front and the Muslim Brotherhood till the arrival of ISIS recently and occupying important parts now. The book also confirms that the aforementioned developments were preceded with the support of Al-Assad's regime itself when it took the initiative of releasing from its prisons groups of terrorists trained to carry weapons who joined the active battalions on the ground.

Thus, Al-Assad's regime aimed to spread chaos in order to sieze the opportunity of destruction and anarchy. Moreover, the book points to several pieces of evidence asserting that Arabian Gulf countries financed the fighting battalions.

The book was keen to shed light on Aleppo’s conditions since the peaceful demonstrations broke out in the districts and the universities before casting light on the circumstances and factors that drove the uprising participants to carry weapons.

The book devotes a significant portion to observing the incidental transformations that befell the social makeup of the participants of the uprising and the emergence of the Islamist currents. These transformations expressed themselves in different ways and methods. For instance, many activists were detained at the hands of armed groups, forcing the protesters to replace their slogans which they launched at the revolution’s beginning with Islamist ones, swap the revolution’s flag with Islamic banners, swapping the slogans of the secular state with that of the Islamic State and transforming the judicial institutions into that of Islamic Sharia Law.

Finally, the book is unique in celebrating what’s human and the included testimonies were written by ordinary people not leaders; porters, drivers and civil defence personnel. In addition, the book comprises two testimonies that can be considered definitely part of highly literary pieces written by two European journalists who lived through the ravages of war. The book also relied on several exchanged messages written by those besieged or by those succeeded in fleeing from every day death.