Activists start long march from Berlin to Aleppo

Hundreds of activists from around Europe have started a 3,000-kilometre march from Berlin to war-torn Aleppo, with the aim of sending out a message that unhindered humanitarian aid must immediately be provided to all besieged areas in Syria.

Polish journalist Anna Alboth, one of the organisers of the ‘Civil March for Aleppo’, urged people to join them to show European politicians how much they care about the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Syria.

“It’s time to act. We can’t sit in front of our laptops and do nothing. We can’t drink café latte and do nothing,” the organisers wrote on the Facebook event for the march. “We’ve had enough of clicking the sad or shocked faces on Facebook and writing ‘this is terrible’ and ‘we’re so powerless’. No, we are not! We are far too many!

“We are going to Aleppo. From Germany to Aleppo, along the so-called ‘refugee route’, just the opposite direction. We’ve been taught submission to war. We’ve been taught to be afraid of the powerful who pull the strings. We’ve been persuaded to take sides with ‘the good’ and blame ‘the bad’, to accept the division of people into the better and the worse, the ones who can sleep safely in their own beds and the ones who have to flee for their lives. ‘That’s just the way it is’ – we’ve been told.

“But we refuse to take it anymore. We’ve just withdrawn our consent. We’re ready to deny powerlessness. We want to go and help people like us, who were just not lucky enough to be born in Berlin, London or Paris. We will not tolerate the siege of Aleppo anymore. Civilians for civilians, we will walk hand in hand, from Berlin, through the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, Greece and Turkey, to Aleppo.”