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WHAT ALEPPO IS


“What is Aleppo?” asked third party libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson on nationwide US television. And everyone who is aware of the horrendous human drama unfolding in Syria gasped and wrote him off as too ignorant to run for dogcatcher let alone president of the most powerful nation on earth and leader of the Western world.
US Presidential candidate Gary Johnson
Devastated by the Syrian War over the course of the past five years, Aleppo will very likely be, for all intents and purposes, leveled within the next two months, under constant air attacks by the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad and those of his Russian ally and overlord Vladimir Putin. While many may know where Aleppo lies in the bitter war between Assad and nationalist rebels and in the proxy wars of regional and worldwide rivals, fewer know what Aleppo means in terms of world history and culture.
Possibly in existence since as far back as the 6th millennium before the Christian era, it has been inhabited as a city since at least the 3rd millennium BC and was a noted commercial and military center throughout history up to World War I. Its longevity can be attributed to its strategic location as a trading post at the mid-point between the Mediterranean and Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq). It was also one of the principal points of interest on the legendary Silk Road, an ancient network of international trade routes that connected East and West and wended their way from China to the Mediterranean Sea.
Aleppo before the war
The ancient city’s decline in power first came with the building of the Suez Canal in the mid-19th century, which diverted trade to sea routes instead of overland. The fall of the Ottoman Empire and the subsequent carving up of the Middle Eastern region by the victors of World War I saw the northern part of the city’s sphere of influence ceded to Turkey, along with its rail connections with Iraq. In the World War II era the city’s access to the sea was also ceded to Turkey and it became, for all intents and purposes, isolated.
Aleppo today
The positive result of this isolation was that its extraordinary wealth of history and culture—historic landmarks, Medieval architecture and traditional Muslim heritage—was well preserve and lovingly restored. Five years before the Syrian War began, Aleppo was named the “Capital of Islamic Culture 2006”.
World leaders have stood by and watched as this ancient gem has been razed to the ground or, in some cases, have actively participated in its destruction, while turning deaf ears to the cries of its people who have become martyrs to worldwide indifference and sectorial interests.
What is Aleppo? A symbol. A tragic loss for Syria, for global culture and history, for the world at large, and for the cause of peace.   



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