AT last days the situation in Syria again came to the fore information space. Sputnik spoke with Dmitry Sosnovskikh, a reserve lieutenant colonel who was military service in Syria as part of international military cooperation. According to him, before the civil war, this Middle Eastern state was a prosperous country and was somewhat similar to the Asian and Caucasian republics of the CIS, solving approximately the same problems and faced comparable difficulties.

What were Syrians like before the war? Did anything foreshadow war?

Before the war, the Syrians were quite friendly and gentle. Although state religion Islam is considered, about 15% of the population were Christians. There were Christian quarters in Damascus. At the same time, a Christian in the Muslim quarter could safely walk. They coexisted very comfortably and friendly with each other.

As in states former USSR, there were many Russian-speaking citizens in Syria. The explanation is simple - most specialists received higher education in our country. The attitude towards the Russians was good. There were many mixed families: the husband was Syrian, the wife was from Samara, Ulyanovsk or Kyiv. Depending on where the father of the family studied. Therefore, the attitude towards the Russians was quite loyal.

The Soviet past implies free education, education. Was there something similar in Syria?

I will say that the country could not be called rich. But the state, as far as possible, ensured the vital activity of all citizens. There was free secondary education. Further - more difficult. Rich Syrians sent their children at their own expense to Switzerland, to France.

Many young people from poor families could be sent to study in Russia at the expense of the state. That is, their studies were paid by the state. The task of parents was only to send money to children for food.

There were very rich and very poor. But on at least, internal stress between these two layers was not. People lived their lives.

Social crises, it turns out, was not?

Perhaps there were. But it was most likely determined economic condition countries. Everyone there had to work two jobs. For example, part of the time the father of the family is an employee in the office, and in the evening he is a taxi driver. A plus high level unemployment. And when there are 15 children in a family, it’s no longer fun.

As in some republics of the CIS.

Although the landscapes of Syria are rather similar to Armenia. When I came to Armenia for work, I had deja vu. The buildings outside the city are very similar, the arrangement of rural yards. Well, in the same Armenia, the problem with work is quite acute.

Does the capital, Damascus, look like some post-Soviet city?

Damascus - quite large and peculiar eastern city. And according to the standard of living. We lived in the middle class area of ​​Tijar. There were also fashionable places - the Baabtum area, for example. Christian area. Enough nice houses. The front garden is well-groomed, the figures are standing, the illumination is at night. You go like in a fairy tale. It was all very beautiful.

There were also poor areas. For example, Kabun. We have had to work a lot in this area. Crooked streets, chaotic buildings. Not self-capturing, but without any architectural solutions - just houses stuck on houses. Who has enough money for what? It was big variety food, good consumer goods, for example, Syrian-made clothes. By the way, Russian shuttles liked to go to Syria.

What was the social base of the militants who unleashed the war?

I think that this did not happen without the participation external forces. Because as long as the conditions for the interest of other states in the fact that the Assad dynasty left the political arena did not arise, everything was fine there.

In any state you can find those who need power. I don't think that all 100% of the so-called opposition that appeared there was local. My personal opinion: a significant part of them are mercenaries. Who, in fact, was engaged in inflating this fire.

I just think that there is a real international intervention against Assad. Somehow the West did not like him. Maybe because his birthday coincided with the day of the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in New York.

But this, of course, coincidence. And so Syria is a stronghold of Russian influence in the Middle East, in connection with which the West wants to eliminate the "regime" of Bashar al-Assad. This is covered by pompous phrases about the struggle for democracy. Although his father, Hafiz Assad, had a tougher regime. But at least then any person knew that he could go out into the city at three in the morning and not get hit on the head there.

It so happened that in a little over twenty years, Hafiz Assad managed to make backward country- outwardly prosperous. A man with seventeen children and four wives could count on a piece of bread and be sure of a prosperous future.

How combat-ready is the Syrian army?

I think it's combat-ready. If she had been toothless, then in a month, as in Iraq, she would have surrendered her country. And so hard war is coming over three years. In Syrian society, the prestige of the military profession was very high, so a lot was done for the army.

Was it ready Syrian army to street fighting and civil war?

Some options were constantly considered. Combat training was carried out continuously. But Israel was considered a potential adversary. The armed forces were trained to fight an external enemy, not an internal one.

Are negotiations with ISIS possible?

Judging by how they do not care about all the laws and values ​​that do not fall under the ideology of ISIS, it is useless to talk to them. I have been several times in the wonderful city of Palmyra and in the places of Christian shrines now captured by ISIS - Maaloulya and Sidnaya. Over the millennia of history, conquerors came there, starting with the Romans, continuing with the crusaders, Arabs, Ottomans, but not one, even the most barbaric ruler, had the idea to destroy all this.

However, once, when Salah ad-Din came, they stripped the gold and lead slabs from the temple. Gold went to expenses, lead - to the needs of the war. But they left the temple. And ISIS destroyed all the temples. The same fate befalls all captured historical sites.

Let's talk about refugees. What was the result of this flight?

The fear for life led these people on the road. What I see makes my hair stand on end. On TV they showed the Kabun area where we worked. It's just been razed to the ground. Not a single whole house, not a single inhabitant. The central fashionable streets of Damascus, where everything was in decoration and lights, was a fairy tale, turned into ruins. Only people with weapons run. The country is actually in ruins. People just have nowhere to live. ISIS fighters are massacring entire villages. It was just terrible to live there. There will be no work and everything else when the country is at war.

And the second reason: unknown forces organized a mass exodus of refugees to weaken Europe. Because the war is not the first year, and suddenly a sharp surge in the "resettlement of peoples", the transportation of refugees is organized.

Can Russia's help influence the development of the situation in the country?

Any help can have an impact, but the whole question is how much this influence will be enough, because we, too, cannot feed everyone. The most important thing for Russia is to maintain its influence in the region, and for Syria it is to end the war and return to normal life.

But it will be a long process, it is not for one year. Hafiz Assad has been raising the country from ruins for about twenty years, and now, most likely, no less will be required. We need to keep the existing government and stop hostilities. it the necessary conditions to save Syria.

Ten years ago, when there was no military action in Syria, I came with my husband, a native Arab, to permanent residence in order to start a completely new family life in the world of the East.
Unfortunately, I did not manage to graduate from Zaporozhye State University where I studied for three and a half years. Accordingly, I arrived in Syria without higher education which made it much more difficult to find a job in a new place.

In order not to waste time, I began to actively study Arabic, and found out that colloquial quite different from the pure ancient Arabic dialect and is more complex, still not comprehensible to me.

Half a year of active practice with relatives and friends of my husband benefited - my circle of new acquaintances expanded, which made it possible to determine what exactly I would do in the future in the mysterious country of the East.

Almost all of my husband's aunts turned out to be teachers in different schools- in Syria, this profession is considered one of the most noble for the female half of society, which at the same time is quite well paid. In high school, where girls study separately from boys, school curriculum you can choose individually additional foreign language- German, French or Russian. But since there were no real teachers of the Russian language in our city, and the number of people who wanted to learn it grew, I was offered to take probation in one of the local schools as a teacher for girls.

I was officially registered as a tutor, since at that time I did not have Syrian citizenship and work in public institutions I couldn't be a teacher. I was given a work schedule, according to which I have to teach Russian every day for 4 hours, except for weekends - Fridays and Saturdays. Wage per month was four hundred dollars, which at that time was considered higher than the average subsistence level. I worked at the school before starting summer holidays. After having accepted last exams at the graduates, took up again active search part-time jobs, since it is difficult to sit idle for a long time in Syria.

I accidentally met a Bulgarian girl who has been teaching aerobics classes for Arab women for five years now. This gave me the idea to create own group to reduce excess weight for women. Most Arab women are overweight, which leads to serious problems with health - pressure, diabetes and constant shortness of breath when walking. Among my husband's relatives there are many young women and girls who made me good advertising. Choose a spacious ventilated room for sports and purchase the most necessary sports equipment- was the direct task of my husband. Literally one month and the phone overheated from constant calls - the girls signed up for classes and specified the cost. Even more excitement was made by the announcement - the first day of opening sports hall absolutely free for everyone.

Helping women look good became my passion, a business I enjoyed a lot. I didn’t want to return to teaching boring activities anymore and wrote a refusal to the school for the next academic year.

Unfortunately, over time, my family had to immediately leave the country due to the beginning civil war and leave my favorite thing to the mercy of fate!

Despite the fact that Syria became independent only about 70 years ago, civilization on its territory originated here as early as the 4th millennium BC! Therefore, Syria was considered one of the most beautiful countries in the Middle East, because there – a huge number of architectural monuments that are thousands of years old. The culture of the country reflected various religions: from paganism and Christianity to Islam.

Moreover, Syria was often called the “cradle of Christianity”: the Apostle Paul was from Syria, the city of Tarsus, which now belongs to Turkey. Today, Syria has turned into ruins. The once rich and prosperous country is literally wiped off the face of the earth.

Damascus, the capital of Syria. One of oldest cities world, the largest cultural and religious center has now become a theater of war. This is what the city looked like before the war:

And this is what it looks like now:

Aleppo- most Big City in Syria, its main economic artery. This is what Aleppo used to look like:

And this is what happened to him now:

Homs is an ancient city in western Syria. Until 2012, it looked like this:

After years of continuous fighting locals hardly recognize native streets:

Latakia- the main port of Syria on the Mediterranean Sea. On its territory a large number of beaches and resorts, including Cote d'Azur– Shatt-al-Azraq:

AT recent times the resort town is in a deplorable state:

Hama- industrial and agricultural center of Syria:

Now military equipment is moving along the streets of one of the most picturesque cities:

But the ancient monuments of Syria, which for the most part are included in the UNESCO list, were especially affected. ISIS fighters explain their atrocities as a "war on paganism." Now the ancient temples, monuments, theaters that have stood on Syrian soil for thousands of years under the control of the world community are on the verge of extinction.

Temple of Baal Shamin, Palmyra. It was considered one of the largest and best preserved in Palmyra. The temple combined elements of Greco-Roman and Middle Eastern architecture. Baal-Shamin was erected two thousand years ago in honor of the pagan god of storms and rains.

Now this temple looks like just collapsed stones.

Ancient Palmyra suffered the most. Another "victim" of the militants was the ancient temple of Bel, erected in 32 AD . It was considered the main shrine of the ancient city.

After the explosion, only a few columns remained from the temple.

twenty meters Triumphal Arch in the Roman style, built by order of the emperor Septimius Severus at the end of the 2nd century, is also destroyed.

Triumphal Arch after the arrival of the Islamists - a pair of columns.

The geography of ISIS vandals is not limited to Palmyra. They also reached the city of Bosra, where ancient theater. It was not completely destroyed, but, according to experts, it was very badly damaged.

Aleppo. A monument city, a dream city for any archaeologist. It became the same dream and obsession for government troops, for the “moderate opposition”, for ISIS militants. For three years there have been fierce battles. This could not but affect the architecture ancient city. Militants blew up the tunnel under the western entrance to the Aleppo Citadel - historical fortress built in the 10th century AD.

After the explosion of the tunnel, the wall of the citadel was damaged

Great Mosque of Aleppo- one of the oldest mosques in Syria. Its construction began in 715. Unfortunately, its majestic appearance is a thing of the past.

In 2013, after fierce fighting, the only minaret of the mosque was destroyed.

The vandalism of ISIS militants has already been equated with a "war crime". Nothing can justify a war on memory and history.

Almost daily we see photos and videos of the horrific devastation in Syria, the result of four years of war. Bombed houses, streets littered with ruins, destroyed infrastructure. Huge territories countries were taken over by a group Islamic state”, which establishes Sharia law where a couple of years ago there was not even a hint of fundamentalism.

And more recently, Syria has developed as a secular state, open to the world where it never occurred to anyone to blow up monuments ancient architecture. It is such a country - Syria of the zero years of the 21st century, not yet tormented by war.

2007 Balloon over Damascus - one of the oldest of existing cities Earth. Today, such a ball would be used rather than for admiring the beauties of the Syrian capital, but for adjusting artillery fire.

August 2006 Busy market in the Syrian capital.

August 2008. A shepherd in northeastern Syria.

July 2008 Showing the summer collection of clothes of the Syrian fashion designer in Damascus.

2000s Souq Hamidia Market. The largest market in Damascus, which has existed since ancient times.

October 2008 A dervish dancer from the Aleppo Ensemble performs in Damascus.

March 2006 Carpet production at the bazaar in the historic center of Aleppo.

2000s Mosque of the Umayyads. Muslims from all over the world aspired to this shrine.

2003 Syrian chefs prepare a four-ton marzipan and pistachio cake at a stadium in Aleppo. Then the Syrians broke the record of the Netherlands, having prepared a pie with an area of ​​200 square meters.

Leisure activities of a Christian family on the roof of a house in Maaloula.

Damascus. Children during the holiday of Eid al-Fitr (Eid al-Fitr).

Meeting at the market in Damascus.

View of the ancient citadel of Aleppo from the balcony of one of the houses. Now the citadel is occupied by government troops, and positional battles are being waged for the surrounding areas. Most likely, both the house and the balcony from which the picture was taken have already been destroyed.

Syrian culinary academy dine in one of the Aleppo restaurants, which was considered its "gastronomic pearl".

One of the markets in Aleppo. Aleppo (Aleppo) for many centuries was one of the major centers trade in the Middle East. The many markets are proof of this, which was evident until the moment when the city was flooded by jihadists.

Syrian Bedouins.

Children on a swing in the center of Damascus.

The city of Maarret al-Nu'man in northwestern Syria. The girl looks with interest young man. Today, such a photo is impossible to take: the city lives according to Sharia law established by the Islamists, and girls are supposed to look strictly at the ground.

Bakers play pranks on each other at a market in Aleppo. At that time, no one could have imagined that soon, on the streets of the city, people would be aimed not from "pistols", but from real weapons brought into the country with the money of Saudi Arabia.

Ancient Palmyra- one of the many tourist "Mecca" of Syria. Now it is run by IS militants, who dispose of the cultural heritage at their discretion.

Merchants in Aleppo. Unlike in the last decade, the city's hottest commodity now is weapons and ammunition.

Casino in Damascus. Today, Islamists of all stripes ban not only gambling of any kind, but also any entertainment - whether it be music or dancing.

Syrian girl in the capital's Omayado Mosque. Life in the country moved in a secular direction and no one could think of forcing a woman to walk the streets in the same clothes that Muslim women wore in the 7th century.

More recently, foreign tourists could be seen in the country. Now foreigners in Syria are either war correspondents, or military advisers, or thugs who have come "for jihad" from all over the world.

Today, everyone is talking about Syria: the number of sorties, bombings, destroyed bases, and so on. And we visited there shortly before the start of the war, when, it would seem, nothing foreshadowed. The country was considered relatively calm and safe - for the Middle East, of course. Because when Chief Editor Muslim TV channel Al-RTV Rustam Arifjanov invited several friends to fly to Syria for his birthday weekend, there were no refuseniks. Aeroflot ran there twice a week, the tickets were inexpensive, the visa was issued at the border.

Syria was great. Secular, civilized Damascus, where without special conflicts Christians and Muslims lived. Night clubs, shops, water parks. At night, the city shone with lights no worse than any Dubai. Fountains roared in the closed courtyards of the caravanserais. In the restaurants of the Christian district of Bab Tuma (we called him Baba Dunya, it's easier to remember) - a wide selection of wines, the average bill is $ 20. Girls in jeans and miniskirts (although there were also hijabs). They smoked a hookah in a cafe, sunbathed in swimsuits in the pools - that's the East for you. And no personality cult of President Assad - in any case, there were fewer portraits of him on the streets than, for example, presidents in Uzbekistan or Kazakhstan.

The attitude towards tourists from Russia is fantastic. One of the hotel guests, who came to Damascus from somewhere in the north of the country, upon learning that we were from Moscow, was delighted as if he had met relatives - he ordered a luxurious table in a restaurant and told all evening how much he loves Putin.

Damascus has 2,000 mosques and dozens of churches. Much here is intertwined in such a way that it cannot be unraveled. For example, one of the main Christian shrines - the head of John the Baptist - is kept by Muslims, in the Umayyad mosque. They also consider the Christian saint a prophet, although they call it in their own way - Yahya. Over the centuries, at least a dozen temples have changed on this site: Aramaic, Assyrian, Roman and others. The penultimate one was Byzantine.

The Straight Street mentioned in the Bible, Mount Kasyun, where the first murder in the history of mankind took place - Cain killed his brother Abel, the Chapel of St. I met a flea market near the bridge of President Assad. Several books in Russian, including Primakov's Anatomy of the Conflict in the Middle East.

We wandered around Damascus, and at that time Bashar al-Assad was laying a time bomb under his country, refusing to sign an agreement with Qatar on the construction of a gas pipeline from its fields through Syria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey and further to Europe. Considered that it is not beneficial to the Russians. Instead, he agreed to build a gas pipeline from Iran through Iraq and Syria (bypassing Turkey). And soon it began.

To be in Damascus and not go to the city public bath (hamam), in my opinion, big mistake. So then you will walk all the way dirty, disgrace your homeland. In addition, a ticket costs a penny, and for it, each visitor is still entitled to the service of a soapmaker and masseur. In the bath - a complete international. In a locker room similar to ours in Sanduny, we chatted with neighbors over tea. Syrian, Jordanian, Iraqi and Lebanese. And again: Russia is super, America is the enemy, "Abu Ali Butin" (bogatyr Putin). And please take a photo.

It is interesting that women also go to the bathhouse in Damascus - on Fridays.

The village of Maaloula (55 km from Damascus) is a unique place: people here speak Aramaic, which Christ preached. Here is the Orthodox monastery of St. Thekla - the very one on which the ruler of Antioch, Alexander, lowered a bear and a lioness, but the lioness tore first the bear, and then the lion released to help her. Many legends are connected with the life of Thekla here. You can get to the monastery through a narrow gorge, probably a kilometer long and a meter or two wide, which, as it were, cuts through the mountains. As the locals told us, once Thekla fled from a detachment of Roman legionnaires, and when they almost overtook her, she turned to the Lord. And the mountains parted a little, giving her the opportunity to escape.

At the entrance to the local temple, the priest kisses the hands of all who enter, including Muslims. Not vice versa. Nothing is sold in the temple, it is strictly controlled. Candles and other things you can take for free.

We also talked to the nuns. And later, when they returned to Moscow, they heard that the Islamists, having captured Maalula, staged a pogrom in the monastery, and took the nuns hostage. Only three months later, in March last year, they were exchanged for relatives of the militants. And soon the village was liberated by the Syrian army. Crosses were cut from the temples, everything was stolen and plundered. The statue of Jesus by the Russian sculptor Rukavishnikov has also disappeared.

Native speaker

We got out of the gorge - a cafe by the road, the owner smokes a hookah. Turned out to be a living carrier Aramaic. Russian again delighted, pulled out a bottle of local whiskey. And soon he taught us Aramaic - you will break the language. When we had a good time, he offered to go to a small cave, which is far from the tourist trails: "No one will show you this." We walked along some paths for about 10 minutes. The cave is like a cave, although, of course, it cannot be ruled out that Jesus once spent the night in it. We climbed inside, in the darkness they illuminated the phone. And both-on: on the ancient wall in huge red, from a spray can, clumsily written - Ryazan!

Our answer to Chamberlain is that the stones in the gorge are also inscribed, but mostly in English, French and Arabic.

Palmyra

The road to Palmyra seemed tedious and boring - howls from the radio, the desert outside the window. And suddenly roadside Bagdad cafe 66. Tea, hookah. So it remains a mystery where mobile communications and the Internet come from. Recently I looked at the map - a cafe is just in the center of the territory occupied by ISIS. And I left a business card there - the owner hung them on the wall. I hope that before the arrival of the Islamists, he destroyed it, otherwise they could have been shot for others.

In Palmyra that day it was not crowded - no guides, no crowds of tourists. They wandered the ruins alone, apart from the camels and their battered owners darting between the columns. And everything was still untouched - the temples of Bel and Baalshamin, the Arc de Triomphe, the agora, the theater, the caravanserai, the colonnades. All this stood for more than two dozen centuries, survived a variety of invasions - from Nebuchadnezzar II to Aurelian - and survived.

But then the ISIS members appeared, declaring: the monuments of pagan times belong to the "period of ignorance." Something that cannot be sold on the black market somewhere in Turkey or Europe has been destroyed. The 82-year-old keeper of Palmyra was also executed ...