By Dr. Hisham Al-Awar
What is happening in Aleppo is not a fleeting security breach, nor a localized clash that can be contained by a statement or mediation. What is occurring is a blatant return to the logic of blood as a tool of governance, and to chaos as a fait accompli policy, in a country deliberately left without a state and without protection.
In Aleppo, unarmed civilians are killed, neighborhoods are besieged, and residents are driven into fear and hunger. Meanwhile, the absent authority hides behind its own impotence, and the international community settles for the role of a cold spectator. There are no plans, no deterrence, and no accountability—only a scene wide open to further bloodshed.
The most dangerous aspect is that Aleppo is not an exception. The Syrian coast is coming under attack; the churches of Damascus are being targeted; the South remains under siege and suffocation; and the Druze Mountains and Suwayda paid a heavy, bloody price last summer—and to this day remain without justice or protection. The geography varies, but the crime is the same, and the victim is the same: the defenseless Syrian citizen.
All of this is happening after a phase described as the “post-former regime” era—a stage in which Syrians were promised a state, justice, and security. However, exactly the opposite has occurred. Faces have changed, but terrorism remains the master of the arena, the civilian remains the weakest link, and murder remains unpunished.
The synchronization of these attacks and their expanding scope confirms that Syria is being pushed once again toward disintegration—not by chance, but by the absence of a decisive resolution to halt the chaos. When cities are not protected and killers are not held accountable, silence becomes partnership and inaction becomes complicity.
The responsibility here is twofold: internal, borne by forces incapable of or reluctant to enforce security; and external, borne by major powers that raise slogans of stability while leaving Syrians to face their fate alone. Statements do not stop massacres, and “concern” does not protect children.
Aleppo today is not just a bleeding city. It is a final warning. If this trajectory is not broken, Syria is heading toward a stage where killing becomes the rule, chaos becomes the system, and what remains of hope is buried under the rubble of silence.
