For Syrians, a bitter, blood-soaked decade (Los Angeles Times)
“It started small. On a Tuesday afternoon a decade ago, a few dozen Syrians gathered in Damascus’ Old Quarter calling for an end to the 40-year Assad dynasty.
In the days that followed, the protest grew. Anti-government demonstrations had already engulfed Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Bahrain in a wave quickly dubbed the Arab Spring. Now it was Syria’s turn. As unrest fanned out to other cities, commentators seemed sure that another sclerotic military-backed regime would fall.” Read more
On narratives of the Syrian revolution
15 March 2021
The Syrian revolution and its ambiguity
17 March 2021
We’re still here (Al-Jumhuriya)
“As you count the small wrinkles that have surfaced on your face, someone comes to tell you ten years have passed. You feel you cannot quite distinguish between being awake and asleep; between being alive and dead. You check the calendar, and count on your fingers: two years; five; seven; nine; ten… In the first year, you were there; in the third year, you were somewhere else; in the fifth, you were in yet another place; and by the tenth, you no longer remember the places, as you have forgotten yourself, and time has forgotten you. In truth, you prefer it that way.
But where are you?” Read more
After 13 years in Syrian prisons, I knew Assad would win (Newlines Magazine)
“In late November 2011, I wrote an essay predicting the victory of Bashar al-Assad over the Syrian people at a time when many observers, political analysts, and even politicians agreed that the regime was on the verge of collapse. But I knew this regime from the inside. I knew its savagery and criminality. I pointed out its extreme cruelty and the ease with which it kills; its arrogance and constant resistance to any concession, no matter how small; its brutal revenge against those who did manage to force any change, no matter how tiny. Many could not understand my argument because they did not go through what I and others went through.” Read more
Razan Zaitouneh — The missing face of Syria's revolution (DW)
“Razan Zaitouneh was beaming as she swayed among the protesters. She was caught up in defiant revelry as she joined the crowds in chanting against the Syrian regime.
When the revolution kicked off, it was as if Zaitouneh had waited her entire life for it. She was among the first activists to call on the Syrian government to release political prisoners in an open letter published a day after the first major protests on March 15, 2011.” Read more
The Assad dynasty was hatched at my grandfather’s home. They later destroyed it (Newlines Magazine)
“The story of Yarmouk Camp, where I was born and raised, is in many ways the story of Palestinian politics in Syria and the region. My family was witness to the camp’s rise and fall for decades. In fact, Assad’s own relationship with the Yarmouk camp and its notables had grown through his frequent visits to my great uncle and grandfather. The camp was also the starting point for his long, tortuous relationship with the factions of the Palestinian movement.” Read more
Songs of nostalgia in New York City’s long-lost ‘Little Syria’
05 March 2021
Mourning Hassan Abbas
10 March 2021
From Halabja to Ghouta (Mangal Media)
“As if suffering nearly nine years of what the United Nations has deemed the “crime of extermination” at the hands of a totalitarian dictatorship wasn’t enough, Syrians still have to deal with Westerners determined to whitewash Bashar al-Assad and his regime’s barbaric use of chemical weapons.
Do you think we haven’t heard the whole Baathist-dictator-and-WMDs story before?” Read more
Syria: A decade of flight (The New Humanitarian)
“In recent years, the international community has tired of funding aid to refugees, while refugee poverty levels are rising and the hospitality of neighbouring countries is wearing thin. Consequently, pressure has been growing on those who have not been resettled to go back to Syria. Some have begun to come home, but Syria’s war is not fully over and the economy has also collapsed. For the vast majority, return remains a risky and unaffordable option.
Here’s a look – in maps, pictures, and our own coverage – at why Syrians have been forced to flee, the journeys they’ve taken, and where they’ve ended up, over 10 years of war.” Read more
Fourteen poems from ‘Loneliness Spoils its Victims’ (Asymptote)
“This might sound crazy, but isn't war nostalgic for singularity, loneliness, purity, and solitude? Isn't killing others considered ‘cleansing’? War is a mechanical rubbing between groups that are fighting to translate the collectivities' desire to be composed of individuals. War is the aggressive application of an instinctual longing for a purified heavenly world where the inhabitants are pseudo-elements, and quietness is an echo of loneliness.” Read more
Fleeing Syrians lament the loss of their final refuge in Sudan (The Guardian)
“When Syrian government troops seized Mahmoud al-Ahmad’s home town, he spent his savings and risked his life getting smuggled over the Syrian border into Turkey. His planned destination was Khartoum, where a former boss had opened a carpet factory and offered him work.
The only part of the journey he hadn’t worried about was the flight from Turkey to Sudan. Until the end of last year it was the only country in the world that Syrians could travel to without a visa, a unique haven for those seeking a new life away from their country and its brutal civil war.” Read more
Asma al-Assad risks loss of British citizenship as she faces possible terror charges (The Guardian)
“The British wife of Syria’s ruler, Bashar al-Assad, is facing possible terrorism charges and the loss of her British citizenship after the Metropolitan police opened a preliminary investigation into claims she has incited, aided and encouraged war crimes by Syrian government forces.
Asma al-Assad, 45, who was born and educated in London before becoming Syria’s first lady in 2000, is being investigated in response to legal complaints alleging her speeches and public appearances in support of the Syrian army implicate her in its crimes, including the use of chemical weapons.” Read more
