Sarah Essa
Yusef , a Syrian young man, was informed by the military recruitment office in Damascus, that his name was up ! a fate he had been trying to avoid for more than two years, like a lot of men in Syria .
The 18- year old young boy from Damascus , who is closer to adolescence than to manhood, his father was killed in one of the Syrian regime air strikes at the outskirts in Damascus ,and his family had been displaced in the capital ever since, living with relatives.
The compulsory military service is not new to Syria. Before the outbreak of the current war, all Syrian men were forced to serve in the (Syrian Arab Army) for two years, and those who come from a Palestinian origin, have to serve in The Palestine Liberation Army (PLA) , which is controlled by its host government , Syria.
Inside the regime-controlled areas of Syria, men – regardless of their beliefs or politics – face conscription at 18 years of age. A man can be exempted or designated to a certain type of service for a limited number of reasons, including if he is the only son in a family or if he has a serious health issue. Alternatively, a man can pay to be exempted from service; in 2013 the government raised the fee from $7,500 to $15,000. Studying at a university may result in a postponement and, if working in a government job or living outside the country, a man can submit an annual request for postponement for up to five years. However, since the conflict began, even men who have completed their military service have been called up to serve again, until the age of 42.
Adnan , a 34-year-old man from Damascus, was informed one weeks ago that his name was on a list of thousands of people who would soon be activated for reserve duty. Having completed his compulsory military service in 2008, he wants to flee Syria
The Syrian regime has intensified efforts to recruit manpower to compensates its losses with large-scale mobilizations of reservists as well as sweeping arrest campaigns, and although many try to evade conscription by any means possible—paying bribes, leaving the country, intentionally failing classes—many find themselves (removed from buses and cars) at checkpoints, arrested at their homes, then conscripted into the army and sent to the front, some (killed within a week or two) especially Sunni men , who are always sent to the front lines, and new conscripts of them- are thrown into battle with barely any training, according to local sources.
Sameer, another man from Aleppo , who was called for the military service says: I'm going to kill or being killed , and I have no choice but to leave the country ", therefore he chose to travel with smugglers to Turkey and then seek refuge in Europe like many young Syrian men do these days , because they have no other choice .
As for Yousef , leaving is not an option , due to financial reasons and out of fear, he might endanger his family and put them at risk , not to mention the difficulty of escaping the city without being arrested at one of the hundreds checkpoints distributed in and around the city, transforming it into a big prison .
And the Syrian government banned men who had not completed their two-year military service from leaving the country, in 2012 restrictions were extended to ban all men between the ages of 18 and 42 from travelling outside the country without prior .
Yousef says: “If the Syrian regime force us to serve, I will refuse … I prefer being killed than killing innocent people".
And according to local sources, some young men went into hiding or faked abduction or death so as to avoid conscription, and those who fled the military cannot return to regime-controlled areas of Syria at present ,or they will face punishment, imprisonment and death as deserters.
The number of the Syrian Arab Army forces before the war was more than 300.000 thousand soldiers, but the number has decreased massively due to the defections and the refusal of thousands of young men to participate in this war .
What considered a sacred duty to defend the country against any oppressor , in Syria has become a recruitment for death , a duty that stripped these men from their ethics and put them at the front lines against their own people.
