War-torn Aleppo celebrates Christmas, shares stories of joy & loss

[Nevski]

This year, many people in the liberated city of Aleppo are celebrating for the first time since the war began. RT’s Lizzie Phelan talked with residents of the war-ravaged city now recovering from its wounds.

https://www.rt.com/news/371582-aleppo-christmas-celebrate-lizzie/

“We did not expect that this moment would ever actually come. We had four years of pain, of war and blood... We are so happy that we can celebrate once again. Aleppo has been returned to us. This is our homeland. We couldn’t even imagine that we would once again see all this joy and celebration,” a young woman named Maja said.

Most of the city’s residents, however, are mourning as well as celebrating – that’s just how life is right now.

For teenager Reem, this is the second Christmas without her elder sister Nour, an accomplished basketball player, who was killed by a sniper’s bullet while coming back home from a game.

“Life without her is very hard, but I think about her every minute and I feel like she is with us,” Reem told RT.

Many of those who suffered the death of their entire family are young children, and now live in orphanages. One of them is run by the Armenian Orthodox Church, and has been shelled quite a few times.

[Zelhar]

Spare us the Putin propaganda. I don't comprehend why supposedly right wing people in Europe are such groupies of Vlad Putin. He is not making you any favors. He is responsible to a good chunk of the rapefugees swarming your lands. His goal is to make Europe weak and subservient, a basket case easier to control. Not that Europe is not accomplishing his goal by their own misdeeds, but you still should be aware your interests are not well aligned with Putin's.

[Nevski]

Spare us the Putin propaganda. I don't comprehend why supposedly right wing people in Europe are such groupies of Vlad Putin. He is not making you any favors. He is responsible to a good chunk of the rapefugees swarming your lands. His goal is to make Europe weak and subservient, a basket case easier to control. Not that Europe is not accomplishing his goal by their own misdeeds, but you still should be aware your interests are not well aligned with Putin's.

Well, I do not ask you to care about the people in Allepo, but I do. Where the US is arming the terrorists in Syria, Putin is destroying them. I understand that this hurts your Yankee eyes.