Do you want ringside views of a cool Russian airstrike? Dinner at a sidewalk cafe in Aleppo amidst a stunning fireworks display of small arms, tank and artillery fire? How about the awesome “Game of Thrones” soundtrack as background music to stir the blood?
The video features aerial footage of broad tree lined boulevards and the sparkling blue swimming pools. Really nice panoramic views of an energetic city.
Obviously, what the video shows is a far cry from Aleppo’s eastern districts where 250,000 civilians and rebel fighters endure daily bombardment. In short – high explosive for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It’s where the UN reports whole blocks of residential areas blasted to rubble.
So what’s with the “Game of Thrones” soundtrack? The imaginative might bear in mind that the series’ fantasy world of Westeros is a place filled with bloodshed and also afflicted with an extremely violent civil war.
Intensive crusade for tourism
However, the Aleppo video is only part of an extensive tourism campaign by the government. Just a month ago, they released panoramic shots of the coastal resort city of Tartus by the Mediterranean.
Another one features a religious festival in the predominantly Christian mountain town of Maaloula. This is one of the few remaining places on earth where the ancient language of Jesus Christ, Aramaic, can be heard in normal conversation.
It was seized in 2013 by the al-Qaeda connected militant group, al-Nusra Front. Nevertheless, government loyalist forces have re-occupied the town since April 2014.
Last week, the country’s state-controlled news agency , scoffed at the world’s perception of Aleppo as a city on the throes of death. Instead, it tweeted a video of inhabitants enjoying the “thriving nightlife” of a vibrant city.
#Aleppo, now dubbed as the "World's Most Dangerous City", still boasts a thriving nightlife, as shown in one of this summer's events #Syria http://pic.twitter.com/kFUDtGvHME
— SANA English (@SANA_English) September 24, 2016
The post Syrian Tourism Ministry to Travelers: Please Come and Enjoy Beautiful Aleppo appeared first on Newsline.
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