But Yamen’s headache will only disappear for another nine months. In the meantime, he will make the necessary travel arrangements for his own disappearance from Syria before his time runs out.
In addition, Yamen’s nine month deferment came with a very high price tag.
"It cost us fifty thousand Syrian pounds as a deposit in the bank for the "Ministry of Defense", and two hundred thousand Syrian pounds for the mediator,” said Yamen.
Yamen’s story is just one of many tales about how young people in Syria, who are now being faced with a never-ending conscription, benefit from the regime’s propensity for corruption in their efforts to escape from death on one of the fighting fronts.
Administrative delays for university students used to be a given but motivated by the need to resupply the ever dwindling military forces of the regime, as well as greed for the supplementary income provided through bribes, educational deferment requests are currently most often met with rejection by the general recruitment division that meets twice a month in the capital city of Damascus to review the young Syrian’s requests.
Replacing corrupt employees of the recruitment division who hold administration positions does nothing to change the situation of continued postponement of military service for money since it has become a means of income that is now taken for granted by all the regime’s military officers.
Corruption is simply a way of life in Syria under Assad, and since anyone who has money does not serve in the military anyways, those who desire the extra income will not hesitate to do it.
Firas A. is imprisoned in Aleppo in his family’s house which is located in the al-Jamiliyah neighborhood, a regime controlled area of the city.
The fact that one of Assad’s many military branches is also located in the same area is a source of ever increasing stress for him and his family.
Firas says that he has not left his family’s home for the past one and a half years because he is overdue in reporting for his mandatory military service.
“I cannot even sit at the balcony, because Assad military checkup vehicles roam the streets day and night looking for any violation and male youth to join the Assad army,” Firas told Orient Net.
Syrian men over a certain age, and those who have already done their military service in their youth, used to be safe from the fears of recruitment in Assad’s army but even that has changed since the revolution began in 2011.
Damascus itself has seen more than one case of older men being abducted by the regime and forced into serving in the dwindling military forces.
Recently a 51-year-old man from the al-Midan neighborhood of Damascus was detained by Assad terrorists at a checkpoint barrier and dragged off to serve in a “backup” unit of Assad’s army.
Pro Assad social networking pages have talked about the age of reservists being raised from 42 to 50 years old which sparked much controversy among Assad loyalists.
While these unofficial pages confirmed the news, the Assad regime denied through their official media that this decision had already been made.
But the evidence on the ground appears to confirm that there is a backup service of 42-50 year-old men already in place.
“Syrian Corruption in the Time of Reformation” is a pro-Assad regime page on which incidents have been reported that are a source of sarcasm for many people such as military service notifications telegrams sent for the dead and those who are sole survivors of their families.
The same page talked about receiving a telegram addressed to a person who was killed in 2014, and out of mockery the page said: “Don’t the personnel officers in charge know that this person is deceased?”
Even though Syrians who support Assad do not typically speak out against him, polls show that a state of fear dominates even the pro regime streets in the midst of these campaigns waged by the Assad regime.
A number of loyalists in regime-controlled areas admit to being anxious and stressed by the situation facing their male family members fearing that, if they are recruited by the regime for military service, they stand a good probability of being returned to them “in closed boxes covered with a Ba’ath flag.”
In spite of all the claims of Assad victories, Syrians are still left to wonder “until when, and for how long?” will this intolerable situation continue to dominate their lives.
It is a question being raised by loyalists living on streets controlled by the Assad regime in particular.
التعليقات (0)