(Zaman Al Wasl)- Men in coastal Tartus province have no option but to join brigade 145, voluntarily or by force, after informing all the governmental employees about the new decision.
The governor of Tartus, Safwan Abo Saadi has issued a decision informing all employees aged between 18-50 to either voluntarily join the brigade 145 for 6 months period and have all the financial incentives and benefits, or to wait for their turn for the mandatory recruitment according to lists put for all employees who fill the criteria for the military service according to the Syrian law.
Previously, many employees were exempted from mandatory conscription in the Syrian regime or the National Defense Forces (NDF) after paying briberies to their bosses, but this decision came to overcome this problem.
“Brigade 145 in front of us and behind, no way to run away, we hardly managed to escape the 5th regiment, now it is 145 brigade”, an employees from the Agriculture Directorate in Tartus talked to the activist Mustafa al-Banyasi on condition of anonymity.
A female employee in the Justice Palace expressed her worry to al-Banyasi about the low number of men in the city and the government’s attempts to empty it from the last men left, by including them to the brigade 145, to die for a failed president and government. She declared that she was worried about invading the city by armed groups as there is no men to defend it.
“I wish that an international intervention takes place to have some protection and secure our lives after overthrowing al-Assad which I feel has become close, and the army would no longer controlled by people from the coastal area”, she added.
She finds that all solutions taken by regime are temporary and aims to delay the fall of Bashar al-Assad, even if it took the lives of all loyalist and opposition people, and left his family only.
Al-Banyasi polled 60 employees opinions and asked them about about joining the brigade 145, all answers indicated that there was no escape from joining it before demanding them the rest to mandatory join, especially the brigade would stay within the province’s boundaries which is sort of safe compared to other areas in the country. They think that joining the brigade voluntarily is better than mandatory recruiting as the later would be taken to hot and war areas, as if they have to fight, they would fight to defend their people and villages, not to defend a fragile regime.
Some of the people expressed their denial to carrying arms in first place asking for peaceful solution which save lives without fighting.
Al-Banyasi confirmed that a state of anger and stress prevail the city and employees especially with the elevation of the military operation and the increase in the number of killed members of militias supporting al-Assad.
All people reject the way of forcing them to join the war which is restricted to the province of Tartus, as this decision is only applied in it. They demanded to either cancel the decision or generalise it to all other provinces under the regime’s control, especially Latakia, as they defend al-Assad, who is from Latakia. People of Tartus demanded to include displaced people with that decision as well.
Al-Banyasi reported that hundreds of young men escaped the country to Lebanon, leaving their family without security or protection or source of income.
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