As an opening question, Le Corf asked every individual in the group, which consisted of five boys and one girl, to describe the most difficult moment that they lived through during the war.
“The most difficult thing that we lived through in this war is when our close friends died for no reason. We used to live in a very peaceful way before. It is very hard to realize that we don’t have our close friends with us anymore,” 16-year-old Aladdin said.
“My house got bombed like eight times on the same day. We were very scared; my mom started crying. We were hiding in the basement and it was very nerve wrecking. That was a year and half ago. We are okay now,” said Shehed, a 16-year-old girl.
Talking about how the war had affected their education, whether they could keep going to school, the group said that they kept going to school because they had to survive.
An older boy from the group, 21-yearsold Amin, said that during the first year of war he was in his first year bachelor program at university.
“There was no food, no water, no electricity, no fuel, there was nothing. But eventually we started going to school,” Amin said.
Le Corf then asked the group to share what they think about their government.
“Our government is one of the best governments in the world. Most of the things you see about our government is totally wrong. There are good and bad things but our government won’t hurt us. We are not forced to stay here, if we want we can leave but we are still here. People who left, left because of terrorists not because of government,” Amin said.
Another boy named Hanan said, “Our government is trying to get everything back on track so we hope for the best.”
They further spoke about how western countries such as the US and France are promoting the rebel group called the Free Syrian Army but in reality according to the group the FSA is not helping the state but actually doing the opposite.
“The Free Syrian Army is trying to turn our country into a strict Islamic caliphate and before that in Syria we used to live altogether. Christians, Muslims and different religions lived together and nobody had a problem with that,” Amin said.
According to the group Syria was one of the few countries in the world that had no international debts.
“I think because our country was doing so well other countries wanted to destroy it, so that they could take our fuel and historical items,” 16-year-old Aladdin said.
Hanan said that Syria was a developing country but now with the war it looks like it has gone a hundred years back.
Le Corf spoke about how in France there is constant advertisement of the Free Syrian Army and how they are “helping” Syria. He also said that the United States is aiding the rebels who are invading the north of Syria.
In response to that, Aladdin said, “Enough is enough. They have taken our freedom they need to just leave us alone.”
“This war is a lie because we never asked for freedom. We already had freedom but some cheap people got paid, they got brainwashed with like religious thoughts. So if you see people asking for freedom they were either brainwashed or paid money to do that,” Amin said.
Le Corf brought up Russia and its support for Syria. He asked the group what they thought of Russia’s role in their country.
“Media outside shows that Russia is bombing us, but it’s quite the opposite, we live here and we are seeing where they are bombing. They are bombing areas which do not have civilians, it’s the places that have the terrorists,” Amin said.
He further said, “They are saying that Russia is bombing civilians but they don’t mention when the US or France bombs villages in the countryside in Aleppo.”
Le Corf added that if the Russian planes hadn’t come on time when he himself was present in the east of the city today al-Nusra Front would be on their doorstep.
Pierre Le Corf is the only Frenchman who has been living in the west of Aleppo for several months. He conducts interviews with local people and tries to inform the public using social media about the situation on the ground.
