A lot of news has reached me lately regarding the war in Ukraine. Some ask how I feel about it and others ask why I don’t comment on it. The war itself, the fighting, the destruction and Putin’s madness don’t irritate me emotionally.
Because the images of falling rockets, destroyed residential areas and the mutilated bodies of civilians reach me from Syria every day. What makes the war in Ukraine familiar to me is that in Syria, among other places, the same aggressor is behind it. The Russian Air Force has killed 23,000 people in Syria, according to the NGO Airwars. Russia’s defense minister proudly announced that 320 types of weapons have been tested in Syria. It all looks as if Putin’s regime was practicing in Syria.
Because they used the same strategies and it has been repeatedly confirmed that many soldiers who fought in Ukraine were already deployed in Syria. But the reaction of the EU and the USA is different. Because they did not feel compelled to impose any sanctions against the crimes of the Russian regime in Syria. A doctor from Idlib province in Syria wrote on social media after his hospital was destroyed by the Russian air force: “Imposing sanctions because of us is not profitable. Because our blood is the liquid gas that keeps homes warm in Europe.”
But I was completely shaken and triggered in my heart to see the Ukrainians fleeing. I could feel the fear, the confusion, and the pain in my chest and in my mouth. It was utterly unbearable that more people would be uprooted and displaced and accustomed to violence. This is the greatest calculation that war presents us with: people who did not instigate it and did not want it are robbed of their peace. Even those who started the war will gain nothing either, for they will be emptied of their humanity. The only winner in war is nobody. War is the most uncivilized expression of being human.
The double standards in some states when dealing with refugees are also uncivilized. Where Poland and Hungary brutally pushed back Syrian and Afghan people at their borders and let them freeze to death unmoved, now Ukrainians are unreservedly welcomed with open arms because they are said to have white skin, better education and the same religion.
Epah, a friend whom I looked after years ago in basic care, who after six years in Austria had his asylum decision rejected three times and who is threatened with deportation at any moment, wrote to me in view of this double standard that he feels worthless.
This double standard makes me very sad. It is not only racist but also a disgrace in the history of Europe. The reason why we have anchored the Geneva Refugee Convention and refugee protection in our law is because after the Second World War extraordinary personalities who had experienced the misery of flight and expulsion at first hand stood up for it and made themselves strong. If we disregard these laws now and only use them according to capitalist standards, a considerable part of Europe’s modern history will be thrown away.
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