The Battle for Aleppo,
Syria's Stalingrad, Ends
By Robin Wright
Syria's Stalingrad, Ends
By Robin Wright
Aleppo has been part
of human history for some five thousand years. Abraham is said to have grazed
his sheep on its slopes and donated their milk to the local poor. Alexander the
Great founded a Hellenic settlement there. The city is cited in the Book of
Samuel and Psalm 60, and for centuries its residents reflected the three great
Abrahamic faiths. It was at one end of the ancient Silk Road, and a major
metropolis in the many empires that conquered and ruled the region. Its
medieval Citadel, pivotal during the Crusades, is one of the world’s oldest and
largest castles. More recently, Shakespeare referred to Aleppo in both
“Macbeth” and “Othello.”
The Battle of Aleppo, which since 2012 has pitted the
despotic government of President Bashar al-Assad against an array of
disorganized opposition rebels, now appears to be over. A deal to allow the
safe passage of the last opposition fighters, their families, and any civilians
who want to leave—an end to the agony—was brokered Tuesday by Russia and
Turkey. “All militants, together with members of their family and the injured,
currently are going through agreed corridors in directions that they have
chosen themselves voluntarily,” Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told the U.N.
Security Council.
Much of the famed city, the largest in Syria, has already
been destroyed. The Old City has been gutted. The destruction has been compared
to that at Stalingrad and in the Warsaw Ghetto. In a crescendo of cruel air
strikes, which have escalated since the summer, eastern Aleppo fell this week
to the government forces holding the city’s western half.
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