 |
| War deeply entangles personal and collective concerns. |
One of the most
intriguing things about mundane astrology is that, no matter what collective events or phenomena we might research, if we dig deep, there are moving personal stories at the heart of it all.
A notable example of this dynamic splashes
across our media screens every news hour lately, with reports from multiple nations
about unrest on the streets. Citizens of Chile, Iraq, Lebanon, Hong-Kong, France,
Haiti, UK and more (even Canada), have hit the streets lately to express
frustration—usually with issues of economic and social injustice, but not always.
Whatever grievances protestors may
have, however, the common thread in all such expressions is that people feel personally driven to take collective action.
Another, less uplifting example of
this personal/collective dynamic, however, is the very consequential relationship
between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin: its optics, not to mention its
sketchy, ill-defined substance, are really being brought to the fore these
days, and not just because every U.S. intelligence agency concurs that Russia
meddled with our 2016 U.S. election on behalf of Trump, and appears to be doing
so again for 2020. It’s also top of mind in U.S. news because of Trump’s
recent actions vis-à-vis Syria.
Namely, that Trump has blatantly
handed over whatever influence the U.S. retained in Syria—perhaps even the Middle
East more broadly—to Russian and Turkish interests, and he’s done this at the
expense of the Kurdish allies who bore the brunt of the fight against ISIS in
the past few years. We’ll dig into this story more deeply ahead.
Putin’s priorities have been
well-known for years: he wants to dominate strategically critical
Syria-Iran-Turkey geopolitics, and Trump has now stepped aside to make that
possible, so check! Putin wants free
rein to continue re-absorbing border nation Ukraine into Russia’s sphere of
influence—Trump decided to play political games with nearly $400 million in
military aid that Congress allocated, so check!
Putin has long wanted to undermine and perhaps even deal fatal blows to
NATO—and Trump seems prepared to go along, even as he gives lip service to the
alliance.
There's been evidence of this since
day one of his administration, but never more clearly than in his willingness
to use and abuse our alliance with Ukraine—a nation that has literally been
under military assault by Russia since it expressed a desire for NATO
membership (Putin feels very threatened by this idea, apparently). Again, Trump
gives lip service to that alliance, but actions speak louder than words here.
 |
| Ukraine's young new president, Volodymyr Zelensky. |
In fact, Trump’s actions suggest that he’s fine
with Russia’s designs on Ukraine—he clearly wants nothing to do with upsetting
Putin, so why not dangle aid in front
of a young, inexperienced Ukrainian President Zelensky while extorting him for political dirt on a
rival—at the same time Russian troops are
attacking his country? If it wasn’t for the courage of the so-called
“whistleblower,” we may not have known about this betrayal of our ally for
months or even longer.
Little did we know, even so, that the
influence of right-wing nationalists on Trump in this regard extends beyond
Putin. This excerpt from Foreign Policy puts this into an
historical perspective that we might easily overlook:
“Donald Trump has long viewed Ukraine as hopelessly corrupt—or at least
that is the reason the U.S. president has reportedly given for his eagerness to
get Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to launch investigations that could
aide his reelection chances in 2020. But Trump’s attitude toward the country
may have been reinforced by his conversations with Russian President Vladimir
Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, according to the Washington
Post.
The role these two leaders played in hardening Trump’s views toward
Ukraine was described by U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent
during a closed-door hearing on Capitol Hill last week as part of the ongoing
impeachment investigation, the Post reported.
Putin’s efforts to salt the earth ahead of Trump’s July phone call with Zelensky
come as little surprise. Russia has long sought to undermine Ukraine’s
sovereignty and its relationship with the West. Less well known is Hungary’s
own simmering tensions with Ukraine, which the Hungarian leader has made his
own cause for complaint.
The dispute centers on the Hungarian minority in the western Ukrainian
region of Transcarpathia. The Treaty of Trianon, which ended World War I,
stripped Hungary of two-thirds of its territory, and the border areas of
Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Ukraine are now home to millions of ethnic
Hungarians.
Almost a century since the treaty was signed, it is still an open wound
for Hungary, and the fate of Hungarians living in neighboring countries has
long proved to be a sticking point between Budapest and its neighbors.
Preserving and enhancing the national identity of ethnic Hungarians in the
region has been a cornerstone of Orban’s policy since he was first elected prime minister in
1998. Since 2011, more than 1 million Hungarians in the near abroad have been
given Hungarian passports, and in turn they have overwhelmingly supported
Orban’s Fidesz [right-wing nationalist] party in the polls. The move angered
politicians in Ukraine, where dual citizenship is prohibited.”
So digging up old wounds and resentments is used
yet again for political gain—it’s a favorite ploy with nationalist regimes and both
Putin and Trump are adept with this playbook. For that matter, it shouldn’t
surprise us that Trump would resonate with Hungary’s aggressive politics under
Orban: that nation’s radix Jupiter (Cancer) conjoins Trump’s Mercury
(Cancer-see middle wheel, Triwheel #1 below) and opposes Hungary’s radix
Uranus-Saturn-Neptune conjunction (Capricorn).[1]
 |
| Hungary's P.M. Viktor Orban has installed a nationalist regime. |
The other major takeaway from all
this is that Trump has been very busy
shifting U.S. alliances away from
traditional European NATO members to a cadre of far-right-leaning Eastern
European nations—basically to those nations that Putin also favors and on which
he would like to reassert Russia’s influence. The more right-wing the
governments the better—a friend of Putin’s is a friend of Trump’s these days. Remember
that checklist of priorities Putin flashed at the cameras during that shocking July
2018 Helsinki meeting with Trump? From Washington
Post:
“’Trump tried to keep his talks with Putin at Helsinki last year secret
from his staff and the world, but Russia's president held up the checklist for
the cameras. Syria was on it,’ Julia
Davis recalls in the Daily Beast: ‘Trump is moving down
Putin’s wish list, fulfilling the Kremlin’s aims at a rapid pace. He is
chipping away at U.S. sanctions against Russia, deepening America’s internal
divisions on the basis of race, faith, sexual orientation and political
affiliation, vocally undermining confidence in our elections, intelligence
agencies and institutions, all the while empowering our foreign adversaries and
undermining NATO alliances. Trump’s claims that Ukraine—not Russia—is somehow
responsible for the 2016 election interference fall right in line with
conspiracy theories the Kremlin has been propagating for years.’”
So it's no surprise that
Trump could be talked into stepping aside and letting his new-found friends
Erdogan and Putin deal with the “problem” of the Kurds and—while they’re at
it—exploit the free hands they’ve been given in regards to Syria and the Middle
East. Trump has signaled, in fact, that he’s up for a sweeping
capitulation in that region—“Let someone else fight over this
long-bloodstained sand” he said yesterday, announcing that he’s now lifting
sanctions against Turkey because Erdogan promises a “permanent ceasefire” along
Turkey’s Syrian border. More on the credibility of this promise ahead.
The fact that ISIS is now emboldened
to re-emerge (and that many imprisoned militants have escaped Kurdish control) doesn’t
seem to faze Trump at this point. Nor does his upending of our Kurdish allies
who fought so bravely against ISIS in northern Syria: they are now on the run
for their lives, forced to go for help to Syrian leader Bashar Al-Assad—all
with the heavy taste of U.S. betrayal in their mouths. Trump may be making new
friends for his own purposes, but he’s clearly thrown our national honor under
the proverbial bus.
 |
| Putin and Syria's Assad, meeting in 2017. |
It's painful to ask, but we have to wonder if Trump is actively working to strengthen our
adversaries? According to The Daily Beast, even the Russian public is starting to wonder:
“Maksim Yusin, the editor of international politics at the leading
Russian business daily Kommersant, was amazed by the ongoing stream of
inexplicable actions by the American president that benefit the Kremlin. ‘All
of this benefits the Russian Federation,’ Yusin marveled. ‘You know, I’ve been
watching Trump’s behavior lately and get seditious thoughts: maybe he really is
a Russian agent? He is laboring so hard to strengthen the international image
of Russia in general—and Putin in particular...In this situation, Americans—to
their chagrin and our enjoyment—are the only losers in this situation.’
‘This is such a pleasure,”
grinned Olga Skabeeva, the host of Russia’s state television program 60
Minutes. ‘Russian soldiers have taken an American base under our complete
control, without a fight!’ Skabeeva’s co-host Evgeny Popov added: ‘Suddenly, we have
defeated everyone.’ Incredulously, Skabeeva pointed out: ‘This is an
American base—and they just ran away! Trump ran away!’”
It was hard to miss the twisted irony in Trump’s
announcement yesterday, claiming “victory!” Victory for whom?
 |
| BBC.com explores the long history of animosity between Turkey & the Syrian Kurds. |
Kurdish
back story
There are long back stories about
all of this, of course, but recent events on the ground confirm all of the
above pretty simply: Bowing to pressure from Turkish leader Erdogan, Trump
decided to pull U.S. troops out of an area of Syria where they were
instrumental in protecting an ethnic minority known as the Kurds from Erdogan’s
animosity. It should be noted that Trump
first announced his intentions to
take this action on December 19, 2018, at which time there was sufficient
outcry from those around him to delay implementation.
For its part, Turkey has a long
history of problems with ethnic minorities (their role in the WWI-era Armenian
genocide comes to mind), and according to Wikipedia, the Kurds—an
ancient Mesopotamian culture—have never been
treated very well in Turkey, or elsewhere,
for that matter.
According to Foreign Policy, the Kurds are “the largest ethnic group in the world not to have
a state of their own:” after WWI, they were essentially betrayed by Britain and
France (the super-powers of the day), who withheld the homeland they promised
the Kurds at that time. The Kurds were instead consigned to small slivers of
territory in four nations, Syria,
Iran, Iraq and Turkey. Sound familiar?
This history of oppression—of being
treated as “outsiders” who are eternally dependent upon the kindness of
strangers—might explain why a small faction of Turkish Kurds have been
radicalized over the years and formed the PKK, the group Erdogan regards as
“terrorist.”
From Erdogan’s perspective, of course, it’s handy to have a
scapegoat in tough times, and the Kurds seem to be providing that service, as
well. In all fairness, times have been
tough for Turkey recently, with millions of Syrians fleeing civil war and
seeking refuge within their borders in the past few years. Even so, is it
necessary to displace and victimize one community
to help another?
 |
| Syria's Kurdish military was instrumental in defeating ISIS. |
During Syria’s civil war years, in
fact, the Syrian Kurdish military allied itself with the U.S. to fight ISIS—and
more than 10,000 Kurds died in the process, compared to a small number of U.S.
troops. This is a victory that should be appreciated by all in that region, not to mention the U.S., but instead the Kurds
are now scrambling for protection against Turkish forces who want to clear out
their northern Syria territory for a “safe zone” for Syrian refugees.
So as usual, there are land and resource interests at the heart
of state-based aggression and betrayal, and it’s therefore not hard to see why
Trump decided to drop the show of resistance to Turkey’s aggression—Trump has
the Trump Towers Istanbul and other financial interests of his own in Turkey, so no need to ruffle Erdogan’s
feathers against those!
With all this, is it any wonder that
some Kurdish onlookers threw vegetables and stones at departing U.S. troops
this past week? Not our proudest moment, by any stretch, but the scene was
enlightening in that it captured the deep reality of capitulation that we’re
witnessing between Trump and his fellow authoritarians, Erdogan and Putin.
 |
| U.S. troops leaving northern Syria this past week. |
The
Astrology
So what does all this look like
astrologically? Clearly there’s no way to answer that in one post, but perhaps
we can examine how Trump has impacted the situation in the past year. For other
studies I’ve posted on this blog on the Syrian-Turkey-Trump situation, click here and here.
For this post, we’ll focus on the announcement
Trump made on a Sunday
evening earlier this month, on October 6, 2019, and we’ll consider that event
set against Trump’s nativity and the U.S. Sibly chart.
So why would now be an apt time for Trump to move ahead with these controversial
plans? There was considerable pushback on this withdrawal over the past year:
in fact, Gen. James “Mad Dog” Mattis (former Defense Secretary) resigned over Trump’s insistence on withdrawing troops at the Kurd’s
expense (not to mention the frustrations of serving a president who wouldn’t
listen). Although he’s careful not to criticize a sitting president, Mattis was
reportedly appalled at the thought that the U.S. would betray its courageous
allies.
Perhaps the so-called “guardrails”
around Trump have been lost, one-by-one? Mattis wasn’t the only Defense-related
resignation in the past year, in fact, and there were other aides who strongly
cautioned Trump against this action because they knew Republicans in Congress
wouldn’t support it. So Trump not only threw our allies under the bus, he also
betrayed GOP principles and priorities—at the same time he’s been pressuring
Republicans in Congress to protect him
against the impeachment inquiry when the evidence steadily amasses against him!
Is it any wonder GOP spokespeople are looking and sounding frustrated and panicky
these days?
As we’ll see ahead, these are tough
astrological times for the Sibly chart (and the nation it represents) for more
than one reason, but Trump’s consequential green-lighting of Turkey’s invasion
against the Kurds living across the Syrian border (despite
protestations to the contrary) is a definite low point that deserves a
cosmic snapshot.
 |
| Fmr. Amb. Bill Taylor gave tough testimony in the House impeachment inquiry this week. |
One point before we proceed: one of
the most damning bits of evidence surfacing in the ongoing House impeachment
inquiry against Trump suggests that he wanted Ukraine president Zelensky to be
put “in
a public box” on the issue of investigating Trump rival, V.P. Joe Biden. Think
about this for a second: demanding that another nation’s leader go to a
microphone to carry through on your
priority (honorable or not) is a
pretty loaded power play, and it puts
the target in question in a decidedly subservient position—something like a
“lackey” forced to carry out another’s dirty work, not the respect due a fellow
leader.
Something like Putin and Erdogan
have now achieved with Trump, perhaps? According to Foreign
Policy, as of October 22nd, these two have agreed about how
they’re going to carve up parts of northern Syria between them as part of
Turkey’s “Operation Peace Spring.” In other words, there were real, tangible gains to be made by Turkey
and Russia, at the expense of the Kurds who built a “fragile democracy” in that
region, and Trump has basically enabled their plans.
It’s all incredibly
complicated, but the bottom line is that Turkey and Russia are grabbing
Kurdish/Syrian lands, forcibly ejecting the Kurds, and the situation sure looks
like it could go from bad to worse for those displaced people.
Always determined to snatch victory
out of the jaws of humiliating defeat, however, Trump showed up yet again yesterday
at the microphone and declared
“victory.” Will we ever understand exactly what transpired during all this?
Not likely, but the planetary dynamics in play right now will shed some light
on why now was the time for this
Erdogan-Putin-Trump triumvirate to act
on their plans.
Let’s begin.
Triwheel
#1: (inner wheel) US (Sibly)
chart, July 4, 1776, 5:10 pm LMT, Philadelphia, PA; (middle wheel) Donald
J. Trump, June 14, 1946, 10:54 am, Jamaica, NY; (outer wheel) Trump-Syria
pull-out announcement, October 6, 2019, 7 pm DST (approx. time; Sunday
evening announcement reported in NYTimes), Washington, D.C.. Tropical Equal Houses, True Node.
Interchart
Cardinal T-Square: Oct 6 No. Node
(Cancer) conjoins Sibly Sun (Cancer) and opposes Oct 6 Saturn-So. Node
(Capricorn); this axis squares Oct 6 Sun-con-Trump Juno-Chiron-Jupiter (all
Libra)-Sibly Saturn (Libra). This complicated, stressful set of
dynamics reflects serious pressures on the U.S. presidency (Sibly
Sun), on Congress and the Judiciary (Sibly Saturn) and on
Trump’s wounded sense of entitlement (Juno-Chiron-Jupiter). To hear him
talk, he’s the world’s biggest victim; yet, his lawyers were in Federal Appeals
Court this past week arguing that he’s basically above the law—that if he “shot
someone on 5th Avenue,” not only could he not be prosecuted for
it while in office, but the police couldn’t even stop him!
 |
| Really?!! |
That argument will hopefully be broken open like the ugly pseudo-legal
piñata it is, but clearly, he’s no
victim. If he gets his way in terms of Executive power, the victims will be
our democratic checks-and-balances, and
for that matter, our entire
constitutional system.
As for the pressure on the U.S. presidency
and the nation, at large represented here, Trump’s actions in regards to the
Kurds in Syria are far from our proudest moment, but I suspect that many
Americans feel as if there are so many
concerns with the Trump presidency that it’s hard to even focus on this one, or
any of them, one at a time. This is
perhaps reflected in the fact that Trump’s Uranus/Pluto (midpoint, Cancer) conjoins
Sibly Sun (Cancer)—his very presence in the White House creates deep
disruptions.
Midpoints expert Michael Munkasey
characterizes this midpoint (as a mundane matter) in both positive and negative
concerns, as follows:
“Thesis (+)—Helps modernize and improve secretive agencies;
new devices to allow the collection or analysis of secret information;
revolutions in industrial management or practices to improve production, trade
or goods….
Antithesis (-)—Violent upheavals or rioting which bring changes
in government; intruders who cause disruptions of processes; strikes and labor
movements which are intent on forcing changes; sudden new criminal acts.”[2]
Clearly, both types of disruptions
(+ and -) have been in play—IMHO, we’re seeing more of the negatives at the
moment.
Interchart
Grand Cardinal Square: Oct 6 Venus (Libra)
opposes Oct 6 Eris (Aries); this axis squares Oct 6 Pluto-con-Sibly Pluto
(Capricorn) opposite Sibly Mercury-Trump Saturn-Venus (Cancer). Because
this stressful configuration cuts across the Sibly 2nd-8th
axis, it’s quite possible that there is an economic dimension to the
geopolitical intrigues reflected in Trump’s Oct 6th decision. This
is reinforced by the involvement of his natal Saturn-Venus conjunction,
a pretty reliable sign that his business priorities are an issue.
For instance,
the pressure that transiting Saturn and Pluto are applying by
opposition probably helped deep-six his plans to host the next G7 meeting at his
Doral resort in Florida: he was attempting to extract from the public treasury
(Sibly
Pluto) for his personal enrichment
(Trump
Venus), and he was (thankfully) constrained by the rules (Saturn).
 |
| Did Trump-branded properties play a role in Trump's Syria decision? |
As for the Syria situation, this
configuration perhaps reflects that Trump somehow has financial interests at
stake in the matter. As noted earlier, he does have several business interests
in Turkey that could be impacted if Erdogan is displeased, and if Foreign
Policy’s reporting about his financial dealings with Russian oligarchs
are true, there may be issues there as well.
One way or another, Saturn
and Pluto are clearly putting pressure on Trump’s financial confidence, which may explain why he’s
been bragging
about his “amazing” properties more than usual lately.
Interchart
Mutable Grand-Square: Oct 6 Jupiter
(Sagittarius) conjoins Trump Moon-So. Node (Sagittarius) and opposes Sibly Mars
(Gemini)-Trump Uranus-No. Node-Sun (Gemini); this axis squares Oct. 6 Neptune (Rx,
Pisces) opposite Sibly Neptune (Virgo). Here we see the rough waves of chaos that are rocking our national boat
at the moment, and unfortunately, our military (Sibly Mars) has been
brought into the fray by an increasingly unstable seeming Commander-in-Chief. First
he’s taking troops out and throwing over our allies (a repugnant idea to the
military honor code); then he’s leaving them in; then he’s shifting them here,
he’s shifting them there. Having vegetables and rocks thrown at them is the least of their problems!
What this is
all doing to our national morale is another story, but let’s keep our eye on
the real issue here. This chaos is also providing cover to the forces that are
moving into northern Syria, determined to clear out that territory for their
own purposes, no matter what.
Lack
of clarity is a key theme in this configuration, and that is certainly
reflected in Trump’s shifting military missions. He is reportedly
now leaving some troops in Northeastern
Syria to protect the oil reserves there from ISIS fighters—so now, he’s not concerned with ending the endless
wars?
 |
| Is Turkey's Erdogan launching an endless war of his own in Syria? |
Neptune’s impact (especially from Pisces, but factoring in the Neptune-Neptune
opposition more broadly) is clearly in play here, and it shouldn’t
escape us that Neptune (along with Pluto) also rules subterranean oil reserves! We probably shouldn’t
underestimate how important oil reserves are to the overall scheme of things in
that tortured region.
Jupiter is playing a key, multi-pronged role
in all this, of course: 1) to embolden Trump’s recklessness by conjoining his
volatile Moon-So. Node, 2) to inflate the hubris and impulsivity that he
brings to his control of U.S. military forces by opposing Sibly Mars and his Sun-No.
Node-Uranus complex, and 3) to trigger his natural bullying instincts
by trining
his Mars-ASC in Leo. Perhaps we’ll get a break from some of this
volatility when Jupiter moves on into Capricorn in December—again, hope springs
eternal!
Interchart
Fixed Grand-Square: Oct 6 Uranus (Rx,
Taurus) opposes Oct 6 Mercury (Scorpio); this axis squares Sibly Nodal axis
(Leo-Aquarius)-Trump Pluto (Leo). I can’t think of a more clear
representation of the shocking message (Uranus-opp-Mercury) that Trump
delivered on October 6th; this may explain why October 6th
presented an opportunity for the entire shocking campaign. The fact that his
announcement had an immediate impact
on America’s reputation and collective direction (nodal axis) is also seen
here. Since Uranus moves somewhat slowly, we can expect more pressure of
this sort, perhaps accompanied with more shocking revelations and/or disruptions
to power dynamics.
 |
| Trump and Putin at 2018 Helsinki Summit. |
This same Uranus sextiles Sibly
Jupiter-Venus (Cancer)-Trump Mercury (Cancer), suggesting that an
opportunity may also exist to seal a trade agreement, or for Trump to spin a
satisfying, if potentially delusional narrative (his Mercury squares Neptune).
Neither of these may have anything to do with the Syria situation, but if the
Justice Department’s announcement that William Barr has opened a criminal investigation into the origins
of Mueller’s Russia investigation today is any signal, it’s possible that the
next item Trump would like to check off Putin’s Helsinki wish-list is for
Russia to be exonerated from any
responsibility for meddling in our 2016 election. Barr seems willing to
travel the world in search of support for his boss’s quest.
Why this, why now? From the NYTimes:
“The opening of a criminal investigation is likely to
raise alarms that Mr. Trump is using the Justice Department to go after his
perceived enemies. Mr. Trump fired James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director under
whose watch agents opened the Russia inquiry, and has long assailed other top
former law enforcement and intelligence officials as partisans who sought to
block his election.
Mr. Trump has made clear that he sees the typically independent Justice
Department as a tool to be wielded against his political enemies. That view
factors into the impeachment investigation against him, as does his long
obsession with the origins of the Russia inquiry.”
There is perhaps no direct connection between this move on
Trump’s and Barr’s part and the Syria situation, but we might surmise that
after caving in to Erdogan and Putin—not to mention watching our former allies
throwing vegetables at our withdrawing troops—that Trump needs an ego boost and
to feel back in control. The impeachment inquiry is undoubtedly only triggering
his desire to punch back at those he sees as political enemies. A Washington
Post opinion piece today counsels that Barr’s actions don’t signal that
it’s time to “freak out,” however:
“[However,] it is at least possible that this
development isn’t quite as serious as it seems — and that this might be yet
another effort to calm the Audience of One, the Mad
King who is raging
at everyone for not shielding him from the impeachment inquiry closing in all
around him.”
This could well be the more
constructive way to view Barr’s fantasy pursuit, although we shouldn’t let our
guard down, either—an independent Justice Department is essential to our checks
and balances, and no, American
presidents are not supposed to use that department for personal purposes. If
nothing else, we’re learning a lot of
civics lessons these days, and it’s possible that a renewed appreciation for
the elegant machinery of democracy will be a silver lining in this situation in
the end.
In any case, however, we’re likely
to be in for a rough ride as all this unfolds over the coming months—there are
planetary reasons for that, as we’ve seen—but we’re also graced every day with
the committed efforts of so many who are working to preserve our “better angels”
as a nation.
This, too, shall pass.
 |
| Syrian refugees have faced unspeakable difficulties, and Turkey wants them gone. |
What
about Syrian refugees?
Meanwhile, life-and-death issues
abound in the Syrian territory Trump has left to Putin and Erdogan to carve up.
One dimension of their three-way “Syria victory dance” hasn’t gotten much play,
and that is, what happens to the Syrian
refugees who are forced to return to their homeland—especially if that means to
a Turkish-controlled “safe zone?” This may be where the real tragedy of the situation unfolds.
Questions abound: will Assad and
other forces in that region respect that “safe zone?” What assurance or
controls exist to assure that these refugees will be safe as they rebuild their
lives? Amnesty International has published a new report that paints quite
a precarious picture: the report claims that Turkey has been forcing the
deportation of Syrian refugees back into their war-torn homeland, in violation
of international law, for some time now. The following excerpt fleshes out that
claim. From Amnesty
International:
“This report reveals
that, contrary to the Turkish authorities’ claims that they do not deport
anyone to Syria, in mid-2019 it is likely that hundreds of people across Turkey
were swept up, detained, and transported against their will to one of the
world’s most dangerous countries. Many people were deported from Istanbul, and
were apprehended while they were working or walking down the street. Amnesty
International documented 20 detailed cases of forced returns between 25 May and
13 September 2019, with most in July.
The Turkish
authorities disguise these illegal deportations as so-called ‘voluntary
returns,’ and claim that over several years, more than 315,000 Syrians have
left of their own free will. Syrians, however, consistently say they are being
misled about the ‘voluntary return’ forms they are being told to sign, or
intimidated or beaten in order to make them sign. Some people say they were
also beaten on the journey to the border by the Gendarmerie. All the deportees
said they were sent to north-western Syria (either Idlib or Aleppo provinces),
with most entering through the Bab Al Hawa crossing.
Most of the deportees
were men, but some children and families were also deported. Even when it is
only the breadwinner who is deported, sometimes the family members left in
Turkey feel unable to survive, and subsequently leave for Syria themselves. If
people re-enter Turkey –almost invariably by paying large sums to smugglers
–they find that their Temporary Protection IDs have been cancelled.”
Perhaps over time the “safe zone”
will be turned into an acceptable homeland for these returning refugees (hope
springs eternal!), but the experiences noted above raise troubling doubts. For instance, what about the Kurds?
Too many questions, too few answers.
One thing is certain -- our truly honorable U.S. Representative, Elijah Cummings, will be deeply missed...thank you, Sir, for your lifetime of dedicated service!
 |
| Representive Elijah Cummings, 1951-2019. |
Raye
Robertson is a practicing astrologer, writer and former educator. A graduate of
the Faculty of Astrological Studies (U.K.), Raye focuses on mundane,
collective-oriented astrology, with a particular interest in current affairs,
culture and media, the astrology of generations, and public concerns such as
education and health. Several of her articles on these topics have been
featured in The Mountain Astrologer and other publications over the years.
She is
also available to read individual charts—contact her at: robertsonraye@gmail.com.
© Raye Robertson 2019. All
rights reserved.
[1]Data
for the Hungarian Republic’s radix chart: October 21, 1989, 12:00 noon (no
exact time known), Budapest, Hungary. Source: The Book of World Horoscopes, Nicholas Campion, The Wessex
Astrologer, Bournemouth, UK. Chart #150, pp. 154-55.
[2]Michael
Munkasey, Midpoints: Unleashing the Power
of the Planets, ACS Publications, San Diego, CA, p. 316.
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