Syria does not care about their children's lives. This is the message that is transmitted every day abroad.
We leave Damascus and head north towards the coast.
Traffic on the roads is the same as we had seen in February: cars, vans, trucks, cisterns and military convoys.
Tartous is the city that has paid the highest blood tribute to the country. It is recognized by the fact that it is hung with photos of "martyrs" fallen for the country.
Every street, every street number, every school, every building of worship is covered with photos of men and boys, often very young, in camouflage. Here more than elsewhere there is no family that has not lost someone in war: a father, a brother, a son.
We have an appointment with a colleague. When we reach him he shakes our hand and asks what we want to document.
Lead us to a field of "displaced" (displaced) that we improperly call "refugees". It is the details that remind us that Syria is not Libya or Iraq. In the face of those who try to divide it, it is a united country, a unique piece.
Abdul Rahim, smokes and calls. After five minutes he tells us to follow him to the suburbs.
Low buildings and skeletons of tall buildings under construction. If life is seen from construction, it is here in full recovery.
At the entrance to the center, a three-storey white building, we find Yasser Al Abaas the waiting room supervisor.
Not far away there are children playing. In a few minutes they reach tens. They are attracted by the novelty: foreigners with a phantasmagorical camera.
Shouts of happy children echo in the chipped courtyard. Never seen so much free joy. They are far from the hatred that has torn them from a normal life. The war goes around and they turn inside the war.
Many of them address greetings and questions in English. The little ones, children who barely speak Arabic, already know phrases like "the cat is on the table" or "good morning teacher!". They scream for confirmation.
We are invited inside. We mainly see women and children. Men are few, old, dead or at the front ...
Each assignee has a room whose size varies according to the composition of the family unit. Each occupant has a story to tell mostly made of affections or places dear had to leave in a hurry because of the terrorists.
Each room corresponds to a world made of furniture, household appliances, everyday objects, books and memories, as each of these environments preserves the lives of these people.
From Aleppo's forehead a little boy in camouflage gets intimidated by the confusion. It has 19 years, shows 16. The father is a guest of the structure and tells me proud that he is his son, who fights for his country. He, unfortunately, no longer has the age to do it.
We approach the manager of the center to ask a few questions.
How many structures like this are there in the city?
Twenty three.
And how many displaced are you staying?
We have 83 families and a total of 400 people. I am a displaced person myself! I come from Homs. They burned my house the first year of the war and I ran away from my place of origin with my family. I am a peaceful person and I have not accepted the imposition of violent, extremist, Saudi, rebel ideas. Not having shared their ideas, they condemned me to death.
How many are in your condition and what are the areas of origin?
There are three million Syrians in the Tartous Governorate. They come from Aleppo, Idlib, Raqqa, Deir Ezzor ...
And there are three more in the Latakia Governorate! Six million people who have not come to terms with "Saudi" terrorists. The alternative offered by these was and is only death.
Only a small minority of Syrians accepted or shared the terrorist ideological impositions of foreigners: Saudis, Turks, Americans ...
84 different nationalities are fighting in Syria. Many come from Islamic countries.
Personally I am in favor of a peaceful solution to the conflict. We have repeatedly asked the so-called "moderate rebels" to come back and find an agreement.
The term we use is "terrorists". This does not differentiate between ISIS, Jabat Al Nusra or other groups. None of them is willing to find a non-violent solution.
If the Italian government is aware of a real moderate opposition, please let us know, we will gladly meet you also in Rome. Unfortunately we have never seen it before.
In Italy we have done the opposite: we have always called any "criminal" a moderate rebel.
Any opposition has the good of its country, of its people, at heart. No "moderate" can be the cause of the flight of millions of fellow citizens often forced to live with families in absurd conditions on the streets or under bridges.
Would you like revenge?
Absolutely not. As Syrians we can also forgive those who killed us and suffered so much suffering, just to end the war. This is because - I repeat - we are Syrians: peaceful and democratic people, the true moderates.
As a journalist he is hearing our intentions and our availability. Can you do the same from them?
Well, so many colleagues ended up kidnapped, I'd save it.
A crowd of children asks to be photographed. They are the product of more than five years of torture.
I ask one by one what dreams are for the future. There are those who want to become a doctor, a taxi driver, an engineer, a soldier, a teacher and a lawyer (even a military legal defender!). These are the ambitions of children who, according to the propaganda underway for years, the "regime" could murder without mercy if necessary.
Let us look at these children in the eyes, they are the fruit of a barbarism that continues in silence. Of a massacre that we too, just because we are Westerners, can not help but feel guilty.
Good vision!
text: Andrea Cucco, Giampiero Venturi, Giorgio Bianchi
photo: Giorgio Bianchi
