Transcription of Eva Bartlett's answer to the Aftenposten correspondent
Kristoffer Rønneberg: I'm Kristoffer Rønneberg from the Norwegian newspaper "Aftenposten". I have two questions for Mrs. Bartlett here:
- As a journalist I'm sure you can appreciate getting other impressions than empirical impressions from the ground. When you talk about the "Syrian people" and what the Syrian people want, how can you quantify that? Do you have any independent surveys that can actually document that?
- And, secondly: You talk about the "corporate media", the western media, the lies and all of this. Could you explain what might be the agenda from us in the western media, and why we should lie, why the international organisations on the ground should lie, why we shouldn't believe all these absolutely documentable facts that we see from the ground; these hospitals being bombed, these civilians you were talking about; these atrocities they have been experiencing? How can you justify calling all of us liars?
Eva Bartlett: There are certainly honest journalists amongst the very compromised established media. Let's start with your second question: So, "international organisations on the ground". Tell me which ones are on the ground in Eastern Aleppo.
Silence...
OK, I'll tell you: There are none.
Silence...
There are none. These organisations are relying on the "Syrian Observatory for Human Rights", which is based in Coventry, UK, and which is one man. They are relying on compromised groups like the "White Helmets", which... Let's talk about the White Helmets. The White Helmets were founded in 2013 by a British ex-military officer, they have been funded by the tune of one hundred million dollars by the US, UK and Europe and other States, they purport to be rescuing civilians in Eastern Aleppo and Idlib, yet no one in Eastern Aleppo has heard of them. And I say no one bearing in mind that now 95% of these areas of Eastern Aleppo are liberated. The White Helmets purport to be neutral, yet they can be found carrying guns and standing on the dead bodies of Syrian soldiers, and their video footage actually contained children that have been recycled in different reports. You can find a girl named Aya, who turns up in a report in a month - let's say August - and she turns up in the next month - in two different locations, so they are not credible. The SOHR is not credible. "Unnamed activists" are not credible. Once or twice, maybe, but every time? Not credible. So, your "sources on the ground" - you don't have them.
As for your "agenda" - not "your", but the agenda of some corporate media - it is the agenda of regime change. How can "The New York Times", that I was reading this morning, or how can "Democracy Now", that I was reading the other day, maintain until this day that this is a civil war in Syria? How can they maintain until this day that the protests were unarmed and non-violent until say 2012? That is absolutely not true. How can they maintain that the Syrian government is attacking civilians in Aleppo, when every person that is coming out of these areas occupied by terrorists is saying the opposite. So, that's with regards to your question on lying western media.
How do I quantify the support of the Syrian people? The elections. In 2014 the Syrian people held elections. The voter turnout was 88% including people in Lebanon, where I was during the elections in Lebanon, which ran for two days, extended hours, people walking for kilometers to reach the embassy, including people who flew from their own countries like mine, which has criminally shut the Syrian embassy, so that Syrian people had no rights, and including people within Syria who braved a torrent of terrorist mortars and missiles on the election day. And yet, the voter turnout rate was something like 88% I believe.
Pauses...
OK, I might get the turnout wrong.
Voice from the off: 74% was participation, 88% was the result.
Eva Bartlett: OK. Anyway, the point being: Overwhelmingly the people support president Assad. That is based on elections, based on my own travels, OK, so that's subjective, but as I said earlier, I traveled around Syria, talked with people of all faiths, all walks of life, and there are people that want change in the government, we are not pretending they don't want change, everybody wants change, but in terms of the government the point is: They don't see president Assad as the problem. They see the problem is terrorism, they see elements of problems in the system that they have there, but president Assad, they don't see as a problem, they actually overwhelmingly support him. So, I'm basing it on their choice in their leader, and I'm basing it on my interactions with people in Syria and Lebanon.