Syrians Reacted on Russian Orthodox Church’s Declaration of “Holy War”

Officially, Russia started military actions in Syria on September 30, on the same day air strikes were delivered against positions of terrorist organization Islamic State (banned in Russia).The Russian Orthodox Church also supported Russia’s involvement in the conflict on the side of Syrian government forces and called the air strikes "the Holy War on terror".



Reporter of Voennoe.RF mingled with Syrian people and learned what they think about actions of Russian armed forces and the war between Orthodoxy and Islam broken out in their country. Below we present their comment-free opinions.

Backers
Support and direct involvement in the military operation brought hope to civilians and revived spirits of Syrian Arab Army. There are Sunnite and Shiah Arabs, Orthodox Armenians, Kurds, Druses fighting shoulder to shoulder in Syrian army, and all confessions blessed their glorious warriors. This is not a war between religions, it’s a war of all against evil.

Opponents
The fact that Russia has become an open participant of the war will not allow it to leave the conflict so fast. Considering Russian troops involved in Syrian conflict, it is expected that all Islamic jamaats (Muslim unions) fighting each other will join together in one fist, and that will definitely make battles more fierce. Thirty millions Sunnites reside in this country, and surely, some of them will retaliate for their coreligionists. Attempting to attack mujahids (guerilla warriors), they drop bombs on civil people. Often there is only one mujahid’s family in an apartment house, and the rest are about 20 families of non-combatant locals with lots of children.

Other opinions
Perhaps, Russian forces may block expansion of ISIS in Syria. However, the question is whether Russia or any other force in the world is able to liquidate ISIS completely. ISIS or Al-Qaeda is not just warriors, but mainly is an ideology. We have to fight the ideology.

People actively discuss announcement of the Russian Orthodox Church that treats participation in the Syrian conflict as the "holy war". "Russians have a wrong idea about the situation as every resident of an extremists’ region is considered an extremist, too. It’s not correct, extremists intrude to civilians, and they are poor people so have no place to escape", said one of Syrian locals.

Earlier on, Voennoe.RF released a summary of local conflicts attended by Soviet and Russian armed forces, and learned from interviewed Russian military servicemen what may threaten pilots in the Syrian sky.