Earlier this week, the Assad regime proclaimed that Aleppo International Airport had been reopened to civilian flights, with its first landing in a year. Syrian State TV was on hand to proclaim, with appropriate video, that the airport was now secure after months of fighting.
The full story offers another perspective. A group of journalists became the unwitting witnesses — told that they were being taken by car near Damascus, they wound up being the passengers on the photo-opportunity flight.
Frederik Pleitgen of CNN was one of the “lucky” reporters:
Journalists often get invited on tours of battle zones during wars, but the one the Syrian government organized for CNN and several other media outlets Wednesday was more than bizarre.
We had been told we were going on a trip to the front line in Damascus. Instead, we were driven to an airfield and packed into an old Soviet-made Yakovlev YAK-40 aircraft. It wasn’t until we were in the air that government officials on the flight finally offered up some information.
“We are going to Aleppo,” one said with a smile. He told reporters that ours would be the first civilian aircraft to land at the city’s international airport since December 2012, when the airfield was shut because of heavy clashes in the area.
We sat still, slightly nervous about the guinea pig role we had been thrust into by the government, as our pilot performed a spectacular combat landing on a foggy day. As the aircraft taxied toward the terminal we finally realized that we were the news of the day. A live transmission vehicle and dozens of reporters were waiting to greet us as Syrian government TV carried the live banner proclaiming “The reopening of Aleppo Airport and the landing of a commercial flight.”
Mohammed Wahid al Akad, Aleppo’s provincial governor, was on hand to greet us, eager to show us the gains that Syrian forces had made in and around the city — and also talk about the ongoing negotiations in Switzerland between representatives of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government and various opposition factions.
“What we want from Geneva is to stop foreign money, fighters and weapons coming into Syria. We as Syrians can reconcile with each other, make our own government to rebuild our country,” he said. Three buses picked us up for a tour of areas the military had recently taken back from rebels.
