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Agence France Presse
July 28, 2012 Saturday 9:50 AM GMT
Syria's Aleppo: commercial hub turned battleground
ALEPPO, Syria, July 28 2012
Syria's second city Aleppo has turned into what could be the key
battleground of the 16-month uprising, as government forces launched a
major push to drive out rebel fighters on Saturday.
Troop reinforcements poured into the southwest of the commercial hub
of some 2.5 million people, where the rebels concentrated their forces
after seizing much of the city on July 20.
"The fiercest clashes of the uprising are taking place in several
neighbourhoods of the city," the head of the Britain-based Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP.
Before this month, Aleppo had seen sporadic protests but had been
largely spared the bloodshed that has engulfed other cities since the
uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's rule broke out in March
last year.
The city suffered the wrath of the Assad family's regime after an
uprising led by the Muslim Brotherhood between 1979 and 1982 when many
of its businessmen backed the rebellion.
But the manufacturing centre, renowned for its textiles, profited from
a free-trade agreement signed with Turkey in 2005, even if some small
businesses found themselves unable to compete.
"Aleppo was calm because it is an industrial and commercial town that
found favour with the regime after 10 years of punishment for its
support for the Muslim Brotherhood during the 1980s," said geographer
Fabrice Balanche, who heads the Mediterranean and Middle East Studies
and Research Group in Paris.
"The security apparatus has been very powerful since then. The rebels
come from the countryside but Aleppo's residents are staying home."
The lure of the big city as well as the search for jobs has drawn
large numbers of migrants from the countryside around Aleppo.
Around 45 percent of the city's 120 square kilometres (45 square
miles) is made up of informal neighbourhoods, whose residents are
mostly Sunni Arabs or Kurds.
Overall, the majority of its residents are Sunnis, around 65 percent
of them Arabs and 20 percent Kurds.
Christians represent around 10 percent of the population, around half
of them Armenians, with the remainder Syrian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox
or Maronites.
Members of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam to which
Assad and his family belong, make up around five percent of the
population.
But unlike in Damascus and in Syria's third largest city Homs, the
community is not concentrated in any particular district.
With the exception of Hamdaniyeh, home to large numbers of government
employees, many of them Alawites, the community is dispersed
throughout the city.
The metropolis of the north of the country, Aleppo was considered the
second city of the Ottoman empire until its collapse after World War
I.
It served as the capital of a vast province stretching across
southeastern Anatolia as well as northern Syria before the post-war
redrawing of international borders deprived it of much of its historic
catchment area.
Aleppo preserves many heritage sites including its renowned 13th
century citadel.The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organisation named the Ancient City a World Heritage Site in 1986.
From: A. Papazian
July 28, 2012 Saturday 9:50 AM GMT
Syria's Aleppo: commercial hub turned battleground
ALEPPO, Syria, July 28 2012
Syria's second city Aleppo has turned into what could be the key
battleground of the 16-month uprising, as government forces launched a
major push to drive out rebel fighters on Saturday.
Troop reinforcements poured into the southwest of the commercial hub
of some 2.5 million people, where the rebels concentrated their forces
after seizing much of the city on July 20.
"The fiercest clashes of the uprising are taking place in several
neighbourhoods of the city," the head of the Britain-based Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP.
Before this month, Aleppo had seen sporadic protests but had been
largely spared the bloodshed that has engulfed other cities since the
uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's rule broke out in March
last year.
The city suffered the wrath of the Assad family's regime after an
uprising led by the Muslim Brotherhood between 1979 and 1982 when many
of its businessmen backed the rebellion.
But the manufacturing centre, renowned for its textiles, profited from
a free-trade agreement signed with Turkey in 2005, even if some small
businesses found themselves unable to compete.
"Aleppo was calm because it is an industrial and commercial town that
found favour with the regime after 10 years of punishment for its
support for the Muslim Brotherhood during the 1980s," said geographer
Fabrice Balanche, who heads the Mediterranean and Middle East Studies
and Research Group in Paris.
"The security apparatus has been very powerful since then. The rebels
come from the countryside but Aleppo's residents are staying home."
The lure of the big city as well as the search for jobs has drawn
large numbers of migrants from the countryside around Aleppo.
Around 45 percent of the city's 120 square kilometres (45 square
miles) is made up of informal neighbourhoods, whose residents are
mostly Sunni Arabs or Kurds.
Overall, the majority of its residents are Sunnis, around 65 percent
of them Arabs and 20 percent Kurds.
Christians represent around 10 percent of the population, around half
of them Armenians, with the remainder Syrian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox
or Maronites.
Members of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam to which
Assad and his family belong, make up around five percent of the
population.
But unlike in Damascus and in Syria's third largest city Homs, the
community is not concentrated in any particular district.
With the exception of Hamdaniyeh, home to large numbers of government
employees, many of them Alawites, the community is dispersed
throughout the city.
The metropolis of the north of the country, Aleppo was considered the
second city of the Ottoman empire until its collapse after World War
I.
It served as the capital of a vast province stretching across
southeastern Anatolia as well as northern Syria before the post-war
redrawing of international borders deprived it of much of its historic
catchment area.
Aleppo preserves many heritage sites including its renowned 13th
century citadel.The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organisation named the Ancient City a World Heritage Site in 1986.
From: A. Papazian