'In Damascus there is no unoccupied housing at all. Does it look like a city residents are leaving en masse?'

A pharmacist instead of a doctor

In the comments to my previous article a man, who has never been in Syria, was long and tedious explaining that everyone is fleeing somewhere from the evil regime [in the Russian version — editor's note]. This fable is quite common. Let's see, whether it is true or not, and why it can't be true.

I will explain on the example of Damascus. In this city now there are many refugees from other regions of the country. They are all going particularly in Damascus. No one is going from Damascus to the controlled by the bandits territories. Only where the territory is under the control of government forces there are jobs, salaries and benefits. Only there, there is free medical care and free primary and higher education.

I don't think that among the readers there would be at least one person who would deliberately deprive their children of the future, depriving them of school, a certificate of completion, would put once again a pregnant wife in the area from where the militants fire the army and at which the army beats in response. Are there anyone like that? Are there anyone who would like to suffer from toothache due to the lack of dentists? And those who are ready for abdominal surgery in basements without anesthesia?

Only there where the territory is under the control of government forces, there are jobs, salaries and benefits. Only there, there is free medical care and free primary and higher education.

When I was in captivity, the militants told each other about a wounded ally who arranged demarche and insisted that he would handed over to… the soldiers of the regular Syrian army. He was not a fool and understood that only they would cure him. He was even ready to pay for saving his life by a few years a deserved prison sentence.

In 'our' gang a 'doctor' was… a pharmacist. That is, that person cut and sewed the people who at best knew what medicine you can take when you have diarrhea and what reduces high blood pressure. Would you like to be on the operating table of such specialist? Or would you prefer the evil regime in a hospital?

How much does a housing cost in Damascus?

In Damascus there is no unoccupied housing at all. Recently I was asked $600 per month for what is still is to let, and you have to pay the money for a year ahead. I was trying to rent something cheaper that rent at the moment. An apartment costs 10 monthly salaries for one month. Does it look like a city that residents are leaving en masse?

The apartment where I live in Damascus is considered to be small by local standards – 80 metres. Some time ago, the owners really were thinking to sell it and go to Europe for this money – to live on benefits.

Do you know how much not the most comfortable small apartment cost in the city from where everybody is fleeing? $200 000. Let's compare with the prices for which people were forced to sell their apartments who fled from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan at the time when nationalist gangs drove out of the country the Russians who lived there.

Children learn and pass exams. They can buy almost anything. Medical care is free of charge and quite qualified.

Enclave of 'freedom' vs. Prosperous Syria

Maybe there are those who wish to 'lock' yourself in a tiny, captured by bandits enclave? For the sake of a mythical 'freedom'. It is a complete isolation from the rest of the country – you just can't go anywhere and you sit in the same place for years. You can't buy goods that don't seep into your enclave from the outside world.

For example, you need pants or socks. And to buy all this happiness you can only 200 metres from your home, but you cannot get there already three years. Great? You have no light — wires are broken, and to fix it with the risk for life no employee of the state electric company would go.

You have forgotten what fresh bread looks like. You don't even know that the Central Bank has put into circulation banknotes of a new sample — for the last time you got paid a few years ago.

And not far from you an evil Syrian government opens Luna Park. With tennis courts, billiard room, bowling alley and food court. Students by showing their student cards watch the best foreign films at the film festival for free.

Children learn and pass exams. They can buy almost anything. Medical care is free of charge and quite qualified. When it's hot they can go and sit in the park near the fountain. They can take a bus and in a few hours visit relatives living by the sea. In the evenings they can go and sit in a cafe or a hookah, just visit friends. Or buy food at the market or supermarket. Yes, money is scarce and they are not enough, but it's practically the only drawback of the current state.

And not far from you an evil Syrian government opens Luna Park. With tennis courts, billiard room, bowling alley and food court.

'It's not a joke'

Now, tell me, and show the idiots who would flee aimlessly from a very normal quiet life.

Now on the Internet, there is circulating a comic video. A Lebanese border guard says to the standing in front of him crowd: 'If you go to Syria now, you will never get the refugee status in Lebanon!' The men reply that they are Lebanese. He asks: 'And why are they going to Syria? It's bad there.' On what they reasonably respond that, unlike Lebanon, Syria has electricity, water, schools, there is a President (in Lebanon they suspend elections for the 38th time). After some thought, the guard asks him to wait a bit – he also decided to go to Syria.

The funny thing about this joke is that it is not a joke. But you are free to believe in any stories.