So many people of the sons of Deir Ezzor governorate and the viewers for what is happening in this governorate are putting question and exclamation marks on how the media deal with the facts that occur in it.
Those questions and exclamation marks are not just on the international and regional media, but on the local media as well, both the alternative and the pro-Syrian regime media which supposed to give more attention to the facts that occur in it, and deliver news of this governorate which is under the domination of Syrian regime and the Islamic State, which are wreaking havoc on it.
Recently, a massacre took place and led to so many deaths and injuries among civilians as the fighter jets of the Syrian regime targeted Al-Hamidiyah neighborhood, which is full of civilian residents, the media and specially the alternative media didn’t deal with that massacre as they should, they reacted like the massacre occurred in other country outside of Syria, or in other continent or perhaps on another planet. Moreover, the media haven’t heard of it. The strange thing is that this is not the first time or let us say not even the tenth-time media pay no attention to what is happening in this governorate, especially the massacres perpetrated against civilians. However, they reacted like it is a normal thing and it is not important to be mentioned. Some people say that what happened in Aleppo or other areas took the spotlight off what happened or what is happening right now in Deir Ezzor. However, it is not acceptable to say that, what happened in Aleppo didn’t took the spotlight off another areas which didn’t experience massacres as brutally as what happened or what is happening in Deir Ezzor, this ignorance is not new but it is relatively old, this ignorance wasn’t just before the year 2011 but even after it , and it is continuing until now, for example, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators came out in Hama and Deir Ezzor, but the media focused on the demonstrations of Hama and ignored Deir Ezzor demonstrations.
Some people say that the Syrian regime worked on this ignorance over decades, And the reason for it-the ignorance- is that the regime imposed a media blackout on this governorate even it is full of blessings, has the Euphrates river, oil, the strength of its demography, its history and monuments , the regime kept stealing it and He succeeded in doing that due to that ignorance, the continuation of the ignorance after the year 2011 confirm that everybody is convinced of the vision and the stories of the regime, that this governorate is really not important like what the regime said about it, and it has nothing useful or any blessings, and some people are convinced that Deir Ezzor is a burden on Syria and society, the strange thing is that the regime has logical reasons behind this ignorance-for the regime of course- but even after the year 2011 this ignorance still exist for incomprehensible reasons and especially from the alternative media.
It is not right to say that Deir Ezzor is not an important governorate, it is Self-contained and even export its products, it had supplied all Syria with the agricultural and livestock products Until recently, and if we talked about the underground resources Deir Ezzor provides Syria with the oil , and even export its production, the incomes of that oil wasn’t to Improve the Infrastructure of Deir Ezzor governorate, and with all of that Deir Ezzor hasn’t complained but on the contrary it was dignified in this domain, In addition to the passage of the Euphrates River in its lands, which is enough for drinking and farming for hundreds of years in the future, Deir Ezzor has a lot of archaeological sites that have been discovered and other unexplored sites as well, not to mention the hundreds of politicians, intellectuals, poets and artists.
The promotion that Deir Ezzor province is not important Syrian conflict is a wrong illogical promotion, if it was like that it would be abandoned by the Syrian regime Since the beginning, but on the contrary the regime is Sticking to it until the last gasp, the regime is Fighting furiously to stay in Deir Ezzor as it is dominating two neighborhoods in the governorate, on the other hand the Islamic state knows exactly how valuable Deir Ezzor is fighting to control it.
It is necessary to carry out the process of dismantling the marginalization of Deir Ezzor, As the Syrian know that the eastern area including Deir Ezzor is an Iraqi region which is not true, it is Syrian but the Syrian regime since the seventies of the last century and even before that tried to relate it to Iraq due to its geographical and social proximity to it, the regime tried to separate Deir Ezzor from the Syrian society because of the conflict between the Iraqi and Syrian Baaths, In fact residents of Deir Ezzor suffer from the marginalization and deception, They are trying to prove the opposite by showing their Syrian nationality twice, geographically and politically, which is so difficult and expensive morally and psychologically.
It is important to recall that media and especially the alternative media didn’t care since the massacre of the Republican Guards which occurred at the end of September 2012 to the massacre of Al-Salihiyah on 24 January 2017 and other massacres : Al shaitat massacre, Al-Quriyah massacre,Al Boleel massacre,Al Ommal bakery massacre,Al Aid yard and the covered market in Al Mayadin massacres,the massacre of omar bin Al Khatab mosque in Albukamal, the massacres of Al Khan area in Al Tbni and khesham, and so many massacres that can’t be mentioned in this article, some of these massacres were mentioned by media but they didn’t give them that attention, they didn’t talk about the other massacres at all, this ignorance is another massacre against the victims, and against the sons of this governorate added to the massacres that happened and still happening in it.
we have to mention that the JFL observatory has been working to communicate with local and Arabic media, even the Arabic and English-speaking Turkish media, audio, visual and readable media, and that to change the Rigidity in dealing with what is going on in Deir Ezzor, however, these efforts were met with a dry, illogical and irresponsible responses, for example one of the journalists confirmed to the observatory officials that “The issue of the siege of neighborhoods in Deir Ezzor is none of our business”, the question here is if the Tragedy of Deir Ezzor doesn’t mean anything to the revolutionary local media who should be interested in it? The media of Mozambique?
When someone asks the observatory about the situations of the governorate he asks about old events and not about the new ones which means that this media have no sense of responsibility to update their Information about Deir Ezzor, the observatory has to depart from the contexts of questions to draw the attention of the media to the last violations that occurred in Deir Ezzor, even if those media supposed to be the first to know about these violations, and this is another struggle facing the observatory.
What is certain to the observatory yet is that the lack of attention by the media Purposeful to do that or no, It is a participation in the marginalizing of Deir Ezzor, keeping it like a black box , nothing comes out of it but what the violators of human rights want, like the Islamic state, Syrian regime and others, ignoring the massacres against civilians in Deir Ezzor, but if we look at the subject from another angle we will see that the way of lamenting on what is going on Deir Ezzor in the alternative media and the various other media didn’t give any results, It did not reveal to the world the size of the disaster taking place in Deir Ezzor, for example so many local and international humanitarian and human rights organizations and because of the media default, weren’t aware of the details of the siege imposed on some neighborhoods of Deir Ezzor, and the fact that this siege is with the participation of the Syrian government at the highest level, the revolutionary media didn’t monitor or care about the suffering of the displaced people from Deir Ezzor, whether in the opposition areas or the areas under the control of Syrian regime or the domination of the People’s Protection Units which belongs to the self-administration.
In addition to all the above, there are subjective reasons for not presenting Deir Ezzor to the interface of events, like the disagreements between the media activists, as well as The control of some of the opposition bodies to the regime on the channels of communication with the Arab satellite that interested in what is happening in Syria and the negative role of these actors so this media don’t get to divergent views contravening the directions of these opposition bodies That hold the reins of command of those channels, the disagreements between the media activists Impeded the formation of a media interface for Deir Ezzor which can deliver its voice through this media interface, clarify what is going on in the province and show its tragedy and suffering to the world.
The sons of Deir Ezzor are facing double-edged fact and have been suffering from the ignorance by the regime over the decades and its continuation beyond the year 2011 until now, but they have the right to ask why these media institutions are blind?
When they asked a veteran politician from Deir Ezzor why Deir Ezzor is absence? he answered saying: this is a thoughtful and systematic thing, because everyone came out of it left an imprint, and the regime didn’t want to repeat this thing”.
One of the Syrian Jurist activists has confirmed in this context the marginalization of this generous governorate is systematic, Deir Ezzor has been asked and always will, to give what it has to give with the dignity of its people.
Finally… we have as the sons of Deir Ezzor and especially the human rights activists, media activists and politicians not to wait to get the attention, but we have to move forward to present the issue and the struggle of Deir Ezzor, so our governorate can get on its feet and follow in the footsteps of what is happening in Syria in general to participate in it effectively.
