Still, facts do matter. Not to xenophobic politicians and agitators. But they do matter.
Christoph Reuter et al prsent a count of Syrian refugees in "Die Logik der Sieger" Der Spiegel 33: 2018 (11.08.2018):
Doch zumindest die Verlierer des Kriegs stehen fest: all jene, die sich gegen das Regime Assads erhoben. Doch letztlich hat das ganze Land verloren. Unter den 400 000 bis 500 000 Toten sind auch Zehntausende Soldaten aus Assads alawitischer Minderheit. Fünfeinhalb Millionen Syrer sind in Anrainerstaaten geflohen, dazu kommen sechseinhalb Millionen Binnenvertriebene, insgesamt etwa die Halfte der Bevölkerung von 2010.War makes refugees.
[... at the least it is clear who the losers of the {Syrian civil} war are: all those who rose up against the Assads regime. Actually, in the end the whole country lost. Among the 400,000 to 500,000 dead there are also tens of thousands of soldiers from Assad's Alawite minority. Five and a half million Syrians have fled to neighboring countries, in addition to six and a half million internally displaced, altogether around half the population of 2010.]
Meanwhile, the Austrian government of Chancellor Sebastian "Babyface" Kurz continues to embarrass itself with it foreign policy that looks more all the time like subservience to Putin and Russia.
Here again the Russian state channel RT presentation of Putin dancing with the bride at the wedding of Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl, after which she bows and kneels to the Russian President, Putin dances, speaks German at Austrian FM’s wedding 08/18/2018):
The event called further attention to the deferential attitude Kurz' government has been taking toward Russia and pro-Russian parties in the Balkans, as Adelheid Wölfl reports in Die türkis-blaue Politik sorgt am Balkan für Irritationen 20.08.2018. Over eight months into the existence of the new government, it's pretty clear that Chancellor Babyface (ÖVP) is following the lead of his Vice Chancellor Hans-Christian Strache, whose party (FPÖ) has an Agreement on Joint Endeavors and Cooperation with Putin's United Russia party. Wölfl notes with in the FPÖ has an "ideological alliance" with hardline nationalists in Serbia and the "Republika Srpska," which is actually part of Bosnia but which Serbian nationalists regard as a legitimate part of their envisioned Greater Serbia.
Austria in the past has sought to position itself as a kind of disinterested party that could mediate between contesting countries and factions in the Balkans. But Kurz and Strache appear to be tilting to a more pro-Russia policy, which positions them more as a partisan actors there.
Kurz' government has also made it a practice to divert criticism from its other policies and missteps by posturing on the immigration issue. So it's not surprising after the humiliating performance before Putin this past weekend, Chancellor Babyface is singing the close-the-borders song again.
Michaela Kampl reports on the latest rescue ship that has picked up refugees and is looking for permission from some country to dock the Diciotti with 177 rescued people on board. (Italien fordert von EU Lösung im Streit um gerettete Migranten Standard 20.08.2018) Babyface, who is currently serving a six-month turn as President of the Council of the EU, let it be known that he would prefer that no EU country allow rescue ships to dock there. This is the immigration policy equivalent of NAMBY, i.e., we'll dump the problem on someone else and not worry about the consequences. Instead of "let them eat cake," this is more like "let them drown in the sea."
No wonder that even members of Kurz' Christian Democratic Party (ÖVP) are asking just where the "Christian" part is in this government's policies.
The opposition SPÖ is calling him out on this diversionary tactic:
Schweigen oder schließen? Für #kurz gibt es immer nur diese 2 Optionen. Während die Außenministerin #kneissl mit dem #kniefall vor #putin aufregt, lenkt Kurz mal wieder mit Asylpolitik ab. Wie lange will er die ÖsterreicherInnen noch hinters Licht führen? pic.twitter.com/vmQv408re0
— SPÖ (@SPOE_at) August 20, 2018
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