For three years, the districts of Sheikh Maqsoud (Şêxmeqsûd) and Ashrafiyah (Eşrefiyê) in Aleppo have been under a heavy embargo imposed by the Syrian regime. The two districts are a thorn in Damascus' side because they adhere to grassroots self-governance and self-defense structures, although access to fuel and flour in particular has become very difficult due to the embargo. The embargo has now become an existential threat to the more than one hundred thousand inhabitants of the neighborhoods. The two neighborhoods have a deep tradition of resistance and represented the crucial line of defense of Aleppo against the jihadist mercenary forces of the Erdoğan regime, which even used poison gas there under the eyes of the world public.

All vital resources are blocked

The ANHA news agency collected sound bites on the current situation on the streets of the two neighborhoods. Arab Yasmin Idlibi speaks of major supply problems in the neighborhoods and explains that this is nothing new, the regime has been blocking supplies for over three years. She recalls the neighborhood's tradition of resistance, saying, "Just as the people in these neighborhoods resisted in 2016 during the invasion attempts of the Turkish state's mercenaries despite being surrounded, today they are resisting the embargo. We overcame all difficulties and won, and we will win again." Idlibi points out that the regime is mainly withholding flour, vegetables and fuel, resources that are vital to the population. "We are all Syrians, we have the right to ask the government in Damascus for accountability," she stresses.

Solidarity and organizing as weapons against the embargo

Kurdish Fayrouz Haydar says resistance is the best response to the Syrian regime's starvation policy. She stresses that the people are not broken by the embargo. The people would not have surrendered to the Turkish mercenaries in the past either. To be able to resist, the people in the neighborhood support each other and are well organized, Haydar says. No attack could shake the people here.

Joint resistance and unity

Ibrahim Etalah, an Arab, emphasizes that Kurds, Arabs and Christians (Suryoye) live together peacefully in the city's neighborhoods within the framework of the project of brotherhood of peoples. The decisive factor against the embargo is common resistance and unity.