Greetings, Here are the news titles from Al Mayadeen.
Our reporter in Homs stated that the Syrian army destroyed a factory of explosive devices
in Khalidiah neighborhood and killed who were inside.
In the mean time, violent conflicts in Al Sultania neighborhood
caused the death of eight armed opposition fighters and injured others.
In Aleppo, the armed conflicts continue around Thouknat Hanano in Arkouk area.
Al Mayadeen correspondent reported the resistance of the army
against many attacks by armed opposition forces in Al Maydan area,
after their advancement into the Old City, especially in Shaghoura.
In Damascus, the military operations continue in the southern neighborhoods
such as Tadamon, Kazaz, Daf El Shok and Beit Sahem.
Activists reported that bombardments reached parts of Al Hajar Al Aswad, Yarmouk camp and Assali.
Countries of the European Union have agreed to intensify the European sanctions
imposed on Syria, as the Foreign Minister of Cyprus, Erato Marcoullis stated
Allo
Good evening
Good evening Doctor
How are you?
We are fine, how are you?
How is the situation there?
It's bad and it's getting worse.
The situation is terrible.
OK, OK
Doctor, we will proceed tomorrow, immediately
We start tomorrow.
Ahmad, come here! Straight away!
Come in!
Close the door
What's going on Abu Amir?
Ahmad, we have to close the museum and empty the exhibition halls.
When?
Immedialty!
Actually, in the summer of 2012, when I was appointed as the Director General,
the situation was complicated!
In 2012, the crisis was in its beginning,
the bombing was escalating, and it was the start of a war
This danger grew larger, slowly with the spread of conflict in Syria in many places.
When violence started escalating in Aleppo
we turned our attention to the National Museum due to its exceptional richness in artifacts.
Tens of thousands of artifacts pertaining to different historical periods.
We held a meeting with the museum curators
and gave them instructions to completely evacuate the museum,
to open the storages and place the artifacts there safely.
- How are you Ahmad? - Hello Mr. Khaled.
- Did you agree with Abu Amir? - Yes, yesterday evening.
Well done, do you need anything?
We need a lot, most importantly we need boxes and foam to protect the pieces.
It's a huge task and it's going to take weeks.
We are running out of time, we need to work faster.
Thank you
We worked day and night for long hours, and we tried to do as much as possible
The museum contains 50,000 artifacts
We had a problem in getting boxes and packaging materials
like sponge, paper, plastic wraps and tapes
Our area became a disaster
There was a state of panic in the museum, the staff were all terrifed...and so was i
Terror all around, shrapnel everywhere, all the glass shattered
We started checking the halls and looking for damages on the artifacts
Before we could finish, about half an hour into it
We flew off the ground, stones of the museum fell on us.
This explosion was a disaster for the museum's infrastructure,
Outside we found head scalps, fingers of the people who were in front of the Amir hotel.
I realize now that we were living in a war, in every sense of the word.
After we snapped out of the shock from that blast, and from how dangerous it was
we realized that we could suffer from far bigger and more dangerous bombings
and it could even go beyond the bombings. The situation can turn into chaos
The situation can turn into chaos
and someone could manage toget inside the museum.
In 2003, I was Director of Museum Affairs at the DGAM,
and we witnessed the destruction of the Baghdad Museum, the looting and theft.
How could we protect the artifacts?
This was our concern
How to protect our artifacts? Where to hide them?
Where is Ahmad?
he's on his way.
Come in
Hello Ahmad
We were afraid to lose control with the escalation of violence in Aleppo.
Here
Abu Amir, here
- Let's close this storage - Ok
we must also close this one
we have to close them all
Here Abu Amir, this room
This means that we have to start as soon as possible,
don't tell anyone about this.
- Of course - Sure
- All right? - Ok
- Bye - Bye
The storage rooms weren't well fortified
We thought about building concrete walls
and camouflage them to create hidden storages within the storages
This way, the important pieces would be invisible to the intruders
We worked extremely hard on fortifying the secure places
in order to be fortified against all kinds of dangers,
whether it is related to water, humidity, fire, explosions or looting
We secured the rooms in a way that even we wouldn’t be able to enter them
if we were pressured to do so.
Now the security level is at its best day and night,
we even instructed the curators to take a night shift to supervise the guard duty.
In that period, I was living and sleeping in the museum daily.
I also took night shifts and had a bed in my office.
In this period, I had to leave my house.
They burned down my house.
There were explosions, kidnappings, the financial situation was dire and complicated.
Not everyone had a house to live in, many people lost their homes, lost their cities, their villages.
I feared for my parents, and they were very afraid for me because I wasn’t in a safe place…
“Ahmad, always take care of yourself”
Allo
Hi Dad.
How are you?
What's going on?
Good, thank god.
How are my brothers and sisters doing?
I hope all is well there?
Ok Dad, let’s hope.
Say hello to my siblings for me.
Bye
Bye bye
Dangers were everywhere in Syria, there was threat to people’s homes, lives, children.
The situation was worsening, more roads were being blocked
we couldn’t pass through more streets because of the snipers.
To continue going to work became a kind of a challenge,
challenging the painful reality that all Syrians were living in this crucial moment of our history
but the mission was sacred.
I tried to never miss a day of work because I had this feeling that if don’t come for one day,
I will never come again.
Daily life was very hard, especially with the daily missiles, terror...
and on top of this we had to think of a way to protect the objects that we couldn’t hide.
We tried to find a way that does not require machinery,
big efforts or a lot of money,
because at that time we were unable to provide the materials.
We tried to benefit from the experiences of international museums that witnessed a war.
We managed to provide a good amount of sand and bags.
We bought it at a very high price.
The sand absorbs part of the impact hence protecting the statues.
We brought workmen and we worked with them,
everyone did, the curators, the guards,
everyone was working, like in an ant farm.
About a year later, the humidity started wearing away the sand
and the sand bags began to tear and sand was falling all over.
So we had to repeat this operation again.
We protected these statues twice.
We began thinking again of a longer lasting protective method.
We insulated the objects first, built the wooden frame around them and filled them with sand.
We struggled to provide wood and workmen because of the difficult situation.
This was the best we could do within these limited and modest resources.
We were 10 men and women working there,
as employees and volunteers who were helping out of love for archaeology.
The situation was getting worse,
and the situation in the museum was very bad.
Missiles were falling all the time.
The skirmishes were happening so close that we could hear their sounds.
- Ahmad. - Hello Abu Amir.
The generator is toasted.
Go straight down to the storage room to check it out.
Immediately!
Ok i’m going down right away.
Come in.
Ok, ok.
Ok, ok, no problem.
Mr. Khaled!
Ok, I have to hang up, there is an emergency.
What's the matter Abu Amir?
A shell fell on the generator, it no longer works.
What a mess!
Come with me!
The impact of this missile and the damage it caused
to our only generator resulted in an increase in water levels.
We relied on the main power generator to pump the underground water and lighting.
We tried to substitute with smaller generators
but they couldn’t pump as fast at the bigger generator, so the water levels kept rising.
We were even more worried about the artifacts that were inside the storage rooms.
We were racing against the course of events to find a solution
Allo.
How are you doing Dr Mamoun?
Hello Mr. Khaled.
How is the situation there? Good?
Dr. the situation in Aleppo’s museum is unbearable,
the objects are in danger.
We have to find a solution.
What are your options?
We’re suggesting to transfer them by plane.
Not that’s impossible, the airport is closed, our only option is by land.
Dr. it’s impossible to do this by land, the road is closed,
we can’t transfer by land.
No one would guarantee the safety of the objects.
But we can’t wait any longer, the situation is very difficult.
You know we are under siege!
Ok, we will see, we will find a plan to do what’s needed.
Yes fine. There must be a solution. Think about it.
The situation in Aleppo was so bad,
no water, no electricity, the city was under a severe siege.
No food was being let into the city.
In the market you only see cookies and powder juice packets.
Abou Ali leaves his house in Aleppo everyday and heads towards the waiting line.
Dozens of citizens line up next to him in front of one of the few bakeries left.
The lack of flour imposed by the previous siege on the city,
in addition to the lack of essential materials, forced many bakeries to stop working.
You would crave a tomato, a cucumber, some lettuce, but there were none. There is nothing.
We got water from water tanks but we did not know how clean it was.
Living conditions were terrible, no fuel, and bread was hard to find.
If you had a loaf of bread it was considered a treasure.
I still remember that Despina managed to provide bread
and we divided it in half,
she took 2 and a half loaves and I took 2 and a half loaves.
I took them home,
and she told me to try not to eat it all untill we can get some more.
I will never forget this day, ever.
Never forget that we divided the bread between us.
Don't bother, there’s no water.
Brew the coffee, I’ll wash the pot.
Ok
In addition to the waiting problem, there is a complaint about the high prices
God damn it, run!
We mostly feared for my mother
and we tried to be strong for her
because she was terrified of the missiles and she was worried about us.
We tried to be brave so we could make her stronger
but fear was always present.
That’s the coffee.
Let’s drink it and leave.
That’s enough for you.
- I have to go. - Ok.
- Bye. - Close the door.
- Bye. Do you need anything ? - No.
See you tonight.
- Ok bye. - Bye.
The task of saving Syria’s cultural heritage was such a complicated job during the war.
How are you going to save your country’s cultural heritage? Especially when it’s so rich with
thousands of archaeological sites, dozens of Syrian museums, hundreds of thousands of artifacts.
There was constant danger here. The security situation was at its lowest
and the only solution was to transfer the artifacts to another location.
Come in!
Hello.
Hello Abu Amir.
What’s going on Abu Amir?
A top secret order has arrived from Damascus
to empty the storages
and move the artifacts to a safer place.
At first, we need to reopen the hidden storages
as fast as possible.
No one should know what we are doing.
- Ok. - Sure.
You have to start now,
with complete confidentiality, no one should know what we are doing.
Do you have any questions?
- No. - Ok.
We start immediately.
When we first heard the instructions, we were shocked.
How can we pack the entire museum in a short time?
So we started packing pieces from the lighter and more precious ones
to the heavier ones that could perhaps better resist humidity.
We had no materials. We had nothing to use for the wrapping and packing
to protect the objects while they’re being transported.
We used cabinets from the museum to make boxes.
We used the sponge from the ceiling as protective buffers between the objects.
We had limited time to pack,
we were running out of time because at any moment something could happen.
I remember while packing the objects, I was always wondering
will we ever open these boxes again?
Many questions, so much fear.
By then, the situation in Aleppo’s museum became disastrous,
missiles were falling like rain around the museum almost on a daily basis.
We lived day by day, never thinking about tomorrow.
In the morning, when leaving to work,
we say our goodbyes, because we might never come back.
People who are so close to you, your friends, your second family
one minute you are joking and laughing together,
and the next minute you don’t know if they are alive or not.
That fear was terrible in all its details.
I stayed out of love for this place, and love for the Syrian artifacts in general,
and the artifacts of Aleppo’s museum in particular, out of love for archaeology.
I stayed out of love and fear for these artifacts.
I am entrusted with thousands of artifacts,
I wasn’t going to abandon them, and I never even thought about it.
Do you think that because a bomb fell, I wouldn’t come to work?
I mean after everything we’ve been through, do you think a bomb would stop me from coming?
I went into the room to change my clothes and continue working with Ahmad.
The next morning, we came to the museum and Nawrouz had no recollection of any details.
That day had vanished from her life. She remembered no details of it.
Only that a missile fell and that she ran over to us
but nothing else because she was so traumatised.
We got to the point of being emotionaly impaired.
We no longer feel fear, no longer feel anything.
I remember that in the last week of work,
I couldn’t take it anymore I switched off.
We worked until dawn for 40 consecutive days.
We were only sleeping for 3 or 4 hours a day.
Under heavy mental stress. Under the possibility of being stopped at any moment.
This consumed all our energy. Every part of us.
We finished a large portion of the work.
We put a plan while coordinating with the police department.
When we were tasked by the Aleppo police department and DGAM
to protect the transfer of the artifacts to a safe location
we met with Mr. Khaled Al Masri the director of the department of archaeology
and came up with a plan to safely transfer the objects.
We are going to move the artifacts from the museum to the university.
How many loads will we need Mr. Khaled?
I can’t give you a number, but whatever we can move, we’re moving.
Ok
It’s too dangerous to move them all in one journey
it must be done in several stages and over several days.
No problem, but the situation around the museum is getting worse.
Try to prepare as soon as possible to start the operation.
It will take place at night,
the route will be prepared.
We will come with 2 cars,
in each of the cars there will be 4 guards.
You will wait for us inside the museum.
All cars will leave the museum with the headlights off
because there are snipers on this street.
Aleppo was raging, bombs, missiles, bullets, a terrible war zone.
We were afraid of losing these objects with each transfer.
Allo.
Hello Dr.
Hi Mr. Khaled.
The items are finally in a safe place.
Very good.
Be careful and increase surveillance.
We might change the location according to the evolution of the situation.
No problem Dr.
We are waiting for your orders.
Thank you, may God be with you, we’ll keep in touch.
Bye.
In April 2015, the situation in Syria was very complicated and extremely violent.
We heard of the fall of Idlib, Bosra and later Palmyra.
The situation was very complex and Aleppo was no different from these other cities.
Our fear of the inscreasing instability on the outskirts of Aleppo
made us think that we need to take the objects outside of Aleppo, and quickly.
We were concerned. It was a big risk keeping them in Aleppo
and we’ll also be taking a big risk if we transport them
and making the decision on this issue was extremely difficult.
Dr. Maamoun and myself used to sit and think about this for long periods of time,
this was highly concerning for us day and night.
We were constantly thinking about how we could make a decision like this.
It was a huge challenge and a difficult decision that I had to make,
a decision that I lost sleep over.
Are we really able to transfer about 24,000 artifacts from Aleppo to Damascus safely?
Hello, Mr. Khaled.
Good evening Dr.
How are you?
Thank god, we are fine
and on your side? How is it going?
Thank God it’s fine.
Did Dr. Mamoun call you?
Yes he did.
Did he tell you that we had to move the objects to Damascus?
Dr. this project will be an extreme risk, it is not that simple.
We made the decision to move the objects and it’s final!
Look, we made an appointment with the police chief for you.
Do you know where it is?
When?
Right now.
Right away?
You settle everything and you call me back.
Ok no problem.
We had big concerns about this, we weren’t enthusiastic about the idea at all.
Of course, transporting thousands of artifacts from the storages of Aleppo University to Damascus
was a difficult decision, taken in an extremely complicated situation.
Preparing this transfer wasn’t easy at all.
Aleppo was besieged. No one could get in or out.
And here we faced a new issue, which is finding the trucks.
Where would we find large enough trucks in the situation that we were in?
And who would agree to drive these trucks, carrying all these artifacts,
through the last remaining passage southbound to Damascus?
There was no safe time to do this, nor a safe road. Absolutely nothing was guaranteed.
Allo.
Hello Mr. Khaled.
Fine, what is it?
Do you want me to come up now?
Has something happened?
Ok, i’m on my way.
Come in!
He said: “Desbina, we want to transport the objects to Damascus”
I said: “I am ready and I have no problem, just give me the details and time”
He said: “that we will agree on this and don’t tell anyone because it’s a secret”
He insisted not to tell anyone, even my parents at home did not know.
I didn’t want her to come because I feared for her.
It is a big responsibility, but I packed these pieces myself
and they had become the axis of our lives. All our work was for these pieces
and so it was very natural of me not to refuse going
because we started this job to keep them safe, and we were going to finish it.
We were living a crucial moment, moments of weakness inside of ourselves,
we didn’t know what could have happened at any moment.
We were ready,
we were just waiting for the green light from the other authorities involved
to let us know when the trucks could start moving.
It was a normal morning at work when he said to me: “Be prepared, tonight we have work”.
I knew immediately that we will transport the objects.
At midnight the trucks came with a few workmen
and we started loading the boxes into the trucks.
There were 24,000 artifacts in more than 200 boxes.
We worked from night until morning,
and we told the drivers to come at 7am, after we had finished everything.
The drivers and the workmen didn’t know what they were transporting,
they were told that they would transport electronic equipment for the university.
Hello Dr. Ahmad.
Hello Khaled.
What’s the news?
Everything is fine. We will be leaving shortly.
Ok fine, how long before the shipment leaves?
If god wills it, we’ll leave in half an hour.
Ok very good, who’s coming with the shipment?
Bashir Shabani, Nawrus and Desbina.
Ok, I will keep in touch with Bashir.
Pray for us. Good bye.
Bye.
Khanaser road was a sniper’s target,
it gets hit by missiles and it was subject to an attack at any moment
and at any moment the road could have been blocked.
It was the death road.
Our hearts were in our throats from fear.
Guys, from here we have to be very watchful,
there are snipers on each side of the road,
we should speed up and be careful, ok?
Yes sir, copy.
In fact, the most difficult problem was that on the road from Aleppo to Damascus,
many places had no cell phone coverage, so we were feeling lost.
All we could do was pray that trucks would arrive safely.
If they are lost, the history of Syria is lost.
The trip from Aleppo to Damascus took around 12 hours,
and we got there a little after Iftar time.
When i was informed that the artifacts had arrived to a relatively safe place
I felt joy as if a heavy weight had been lifted off our shoulders.
On that day 07.13.2015, I experienced a very special feeling that I never felt before.
You can’t imagine the joy of the entire staff when the artifacts arrived in Damascus.
Get closer to each other. One...
Get closer
...two...
...three
Working with the team of archaeologists had a deep human impact on me.
They treated the objects as living things, as if they were their own children
they were so protective of them, they packed them in their boxes with such care.
These objects were more precious than their lives.
The artifacts represent for me personally...
...a part of my soul, my history, the history of my country.
These are not just stones.
These are our identity, our history, civilization. They are us, us humans.
They represent the mosaic of our common history.
In the beginning of 2017, I was appointed the director of the Syrian museums in the DGAM.
The director of empty museums...
After the cannons and rifles stopped shooting
and we were able to again reach the National Museum in Aleppo
there was a kind of silence among my colleagues.
Some looked like they wanted to cry but were too shy to show their tears,
maybe I was one of those.
I felt as if it was deserted for hundreds of thousands of years.
The fact that the museum of Aleppo is still standing, is a miracle.
It’s heart wrenching to see this now empty museum that used to be flooded with visitors,
students, Syrians and foreign visitors.
The Aleppo National Museum, this rich museum has reached this point.
When I was first employed in 2013, my task was to empty the museum.
It was very difficult because we practically lived in this place
and it felt as we are leaving our home.
When i first started university, I came here and I was young, I was 17 years old
and I lived many experiences here as a volunteer.
The museums are cultural centers that teach generations about their past,
their identity, about the significance of their history and their future.
They can bring together people of all kinds and differences which are fused together
through the education provided by museums and archaeological sites.
As you know, we asked you to come to the Damascus Museum
to open the boxes, photograph the objects and document them
because we need to send them back to you for the reopening of Aleppo Museum.
It was decided that some of the exhibition halls will reopen in the Aleppo museum.
They were going to be restored
and brought back to life after several years of closure.
The re-opening of Aleppo’s national museum
is like re-opening a new window to the Syrian culture, heritage and civilization.
The re-opening of the museum of Aleppo is a message of peace to all Syrians,
here and abroad, because the museum is like a home for all Syrians.
It was a great feeling to see these artifacts again which we packed a long time ago.
That’s like the happy ending of a fairy tale, to finally see them.
The museum is not my work place, it is beyond that.
28 letters in the Arabic language, put together in all possible ways,
cannot express what the museum means to me.
The value of these objects is of a moral nature.
It tells the story of people, of a civilization,
how it began, how it evolved, and how it was constructed.
They are priceless, and very valuable and precious.
No matter how much you try to determine their value, you will fall short.
We are not defending the objects as materials,
we are defending the spirits of the ancestors who made them
and all the history and art they hold within.
I can only breathe when I am in the museum.
My soul lives in the museum,
I am not exaggerating when I say that this is where I find myself.
I wish I was younger so I can continue working here.
And now to the city of Aleppo,
where today is the reopening of Aleppo’s museum after closing it for 7 years,
and rehabilitating a large part of it.
Dima could you give us more details, and highlight the museum with a tour, please?
As we said minutes ago,
this museum opened its doors after seven years of closing them
and after being completely evacuated of its belongings
from objects and artifacts that were present here.
We’re going to take the Al Mayadeen camera inside,
to document the artifacts that have been brought back to this museum
after 7 years and the rehabilitation
of a large part of this museum to contain these 1000 artifacts.
This museum used to contain 24,000 artifacts such as tablets,
finds and artifacts present in Syria that documented the country’s successive civilizations
on the Syrian land since the Greek civilization all the way
to the rest of the successive civilizations on this land.
What makes an employee care so much about this and jeopardize their life,
and maybe their family’s life,
and do this work in this dangerous situation under bombing
and bullets to protect these belongings?
These belongings are not ours personally,
they belong to all of Syria, and even the entire world,
because they represent a civilization.
If we didn’t do this... we were employees here, it was our job and duty to do it.
We didn’t think of saving our own lives.
We thought about saving them, because they are irreplaceable.