Abdalaziz Alhamza “RBSS”
“The more things change, the more they stay the same” this is what the people of Manbij say when comparing their city to Berlin 80 years ago. There is no different between what had happened there and what is happing now in Manbij, both cities have been invaded by all the armies of the world under the pretext of liberation.
There are Russians, Persians, Arabs, Kurds, Sunnis, Shiites, communists and believers there are everyone but its people. The city was not only liberated from ISIS; even its people were expelled out of it! It looks like a world war against the new Nazism, ISIS, took place in the city exactly like what happened 80 years ago in Berlin; everyone was killed except for the Nazism.
Countries started to offer their help in fighting ISIS; they provided military, logical and material support in order to get long last privileges on ground. This is how things are done and this is what has happened in Raqqa’s northern countryside which became a Kurdish region that only lacks for a public international recognition. It is also the same in Aleppo’s eastern countryside where the Turkish authorities are changing traffic signs and the names of streets, schools and hospitals to Turkish names and signs.
Manbij became an internationally contested area after PYD has controlled over the city in defiance of the Turkish threats that ordered them to withdraw which forced Russia and Turkey to intervene with their forces in the area which gave the opportunity for the US army to intervene in order to protect its interests in the area and to prevent Turkey from advancing to the west.
When regime army entered the city, all its allies from Iranian, Lebanese and Iraqi militias got the chance to enter the city also which has made the situation even more complicated. In Manbij you can find Iraqi, Iranian and Lebanese troops not to mention the regime army, YPG and the Euphrates shield troops and more over the Russian, Turkish and US forces. The important question is who will withdraw? When the international forces went out of Germany it was divided despite the fact that it is in the middle of Europe and despite the national European security.
There are many questions and there are even more answers, this world has not changed. If this is the case in Manbij, what will it be in Raqqa, the capital of the terrorist group, where all the options are not reliable?
