Orientul Mijlociu

The depreciation of the Turkish lira against the US dollar has resulted in worsening living conditions in Idlib and increased the people’s resentment against Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and the Salvation Government, which they hold primarily responsible for the economic crisis.

The depreciation of the Turkish lira against the US dollar has aggravated the cost-of-living crisis facing the population of Syria’s Idlib province, which is under the control of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in northwestern Syria. The prices of everyday food items, including bread, increased sharply amid overall rises in the cost of living, especially for the poor, who make up the largest segment of Syrians residing in the region. Last year local authorities adopted the Turkish currency for official transactions amid a decline in the value of the Syrian pound.

The regime will return to the areas under the control of the PYD, in a way similar to what happened in Daraa and under a decentralization formula, Fouad Alteiko writes in Nedaa Post.

The regime has never been far from the area under the control of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) since the beginning of the Syrian revolution, as a result of the understandings that took place between them at that time to hand over the area militarily to the PYD. The links and coordination between the two parties have not been interrupted so far in many areas, especially in the cities of Hassakeh and Qamishli, as well as in the regions of al-Shahba, Manbij, and some neighborhoods of Aleppo.

The Turkish regime of Erdogan continues to implement its policies of Turkification in the areas it occupies in northern Aleppo to change its demographic character, especially in the Afrin region.

According to local sources, the Government of the Turkish regime opened a new school in the Rajo district of the northwestern Afrin countryside. They held a large opening ceremony during which Turkish flags were raised mainly above the school. The opening was attended by a number of figures of the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s regime coming from the State of Kilis, along with a large number of leaders of terrorist organizations and armed militias loyal to Erdogan, in Afrin, according to Athr Press (pro-Syrian government, editor’s note).

The Syrian government exploits Turkish threats to take control over northeast Syria’s regions, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said in a statement on Monday.

“The Syrian government is not ready for any political settlement in Syria, and it exploits the deteriorating economic conditions of the people,” the SDF statement added.

Informed sources revealed that Iranian militias emptied the T4 military airport in the eastern countryside of Homs, and transported its equipment to the Shayrat airbase in the south of the governorate (in the center of the country).

Ain al-Furat (Eye of the Euphrates, anti-regime, editor’s note) quoted unnamed sources saying that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard militia transported heavy military equipment in four trucks, including “communications equipment, heavy artillery, electric motors, and ammunition boxes” from T4 military airport, east of Homs, to the Shayrat airbase.

Cymbals, prayers and Chaldean Catholic liturgy resounded in Mosul’s Saint George Monastery on Friday as Iraqi faithful marked the restoration of two churches destroyed by ISIS during their occupation of the city.

Dozens gathered in one of the monastery’s churches that have been rebuilt in stone six years after the extremists pulverised them.

It is the latest sign of a slow return to normality in Iraq’s second city and the home of one of the world’s oldest Christian communities.

Aleppo province: Syrian Observatory activists have reported that Turkish forces renewed artillery attacks on areas under the control of Kurdish and regime forces in the northern countryside of Aleppo, as they targeted the surrounding areas of al-Ouda camp, which accommodated displaced people from Afrin, nearby al-Ziyyarah village in the northern countryside of Aleppo. Meanwhile, shrapnel of the artillery shells hit the camp.

SOHR sources have reported violent clashes with heavy machineguns between factions of “al-Fath al-Mubin” operations room and regime forces on the frontlines of Deir Sonbol village in the western countryside of Maarrat al-Nu’man. The clashes erupted following an infiltration attempt by regime forces into posts of the factions. However, no casualties have been reported so far.