Confused About Syrian war? It’s OK!

Have you ever been friends with two people that don’t like each other and it forms and awkward triangle? Well, if you haven’t been in a situation like that, you can find a huge country-sized version of it in Syria.

Photo Credit: sputniknews.com

There are just so many things going on, and it’s really hard to understand the full depth of the situation (seriously, it hurts my head writing about it). One example of the friendship triangle I mentioned earlier is with Turkey and America. See, in Turkey there is this Kurdish terrorist group called the PKK, and in north Syria there is the YPG which isn’t the PKK, but they’re actually brothers. Turkey is America’s  ally in the region and they see YPG as a threat. Now, one might think that America would be against YPG as well, however, they are actually arming the YPG and saying that the YPG is not the like the PKK. So America and Turkey are friends, yet one is attacking the YPG and one is arming it (see what I mean when I say it’s really complicated?)

“When elephants fight, it is the grass that gets trampled” The true victims in this war are the Syrians..

Another confusing thing is with Russia and the YPG. A couple months ago Turkey downed a Russian jet, in response to this Russia started arming the YPG against Turkey BUT, the YPG also attacked the Syrian government, Russia’s biggest ally in the area. So essentially the YPG is attacking Assad (the head of the Syrian government) with Russian weapons, great!

Russia says I am bombing ISIS but mostly bombs Free Syrian Army
Turkey says I am bombing ISIS but mostly bombs YPG (The Kurds)
America says I am bombing ISIS but mostly bombs Assad’s Syrian Army.
Everyone’s attacking ISIS, but at the same time no one’s attacking ISIS! Everyone has their own plans in Syria.

To understand this situation more clearly I’m including this picture, it really portrays what’s going on in Syria really well.

My take on this matter is that this war won’t end soon, and even if Assad goes away I’m pretty sure there will be a fight for that land that will last even longer. With ISIS, Al-Qaeda, America, Turkey, Saudi Arabia (and other gulf countries), Iran, France, England, Lebanon and Russia. It is certain there will be a fight for Syria. One thing’s for certain though, there probably won’t be a stable Syria again, and whoever takes over the country will inherit an unstable and torn land.

“When elephants fight, it is the grass that gets trampled”

The true victims in this war are the Syrians..

 

Home Sweet Home!

Finally I’m home! I came back from Egypt a while ago and have been enjoying my summer vacation. After many days indoors I decided that I needed to go out and do something so I started thinking. Many long thinking sessions later I told  my dad that I wanted to buy a bike, so I could see the America that I missed and get some exercise. I looked online for some bikes and realized that if I wanted a good bike I’d have to “buck up” a lot of money, and if I knew myself I wasn’t looking to pay more than 50 dollars for a bike.  My next resort was to check online with websites like Craigslist and realized that this was more a fantasy than something I would actually do, I wouldn’t get my parents to drive all the way to some place 30 minutes away and meet up to buy a bike with somebody (the prices were also pretty expensive, a bit too much for my taste 😉 ). The next resort was one I had never gone to before: the flea market.

Just bought my bike. Another seller is packing up.

You can find anything at a flea market; weird, life-sized dummies, ancient weapons, knives and antique stuff like teapots and plates. It is very interesting that the parking lots of Flea Markets are full, and you can see Ferraris or Porsches parking. Some rich collectors visit flea markets to hunt for some antiques. Summer is the unofficial flea market season.

Now, I’ve never been to a flea market before, however, have heard that you can get many things at a cheap price. I asked my dad if he knew if there were bikes there, he said “of course”; apparently the flea market’s full of that sort of stuff. The flea market is a place similar to “Bazaars” in the Middle East, where you can buy almost anything directly or with a little bit of haggling.

It was a Sunday and we went to the flea market which was conveniently on the side of a road. There were many people who had set up shop with their trucks or with stands that were already there. We were a little bit late, It was almost the closing time. Most sellers were putting their stuff into the trucks. I saw many antique things like the first PlayStation and even older, the SNES (super Nintendo entertainment system). My dad and I took a walk around the flea market and arrived at the place that was selling bikes. Some chainsaws on the ground caught my attention, you could buy almost anything.

After looking at all of the bikes we chose two bikes that were great. The man said that the price was 100 dollars for both of them, which was good by my standards but my dad thought otherwise. After some haggling we got both of the bikes for 80 dollars, which was even better by my standards. After we got the bikes we rode them back to the car and loaded them in in the back and headed home.

Green all green!.

About a week after buying the bikes I went to a nearby trail and rode with my dad which was also a very fun experience (a tiring one too). I’m happy that I could have this much fun without wasting an insane amount of money and look forward to riding again. In the meantime I’ll be at home recovering from yesterday’s long and tiring ride.

It’s good being free from all the yellow and coming to a place that’s green…