Woman's work. Syria’s Third Grueling Summer: What Should One Write About? For the past several weeks in Beirut, I have been inundated with emails and comments from colleagues and observers about developments in Syria.
The same goes for Jadaliyya’s coverage. Why, the question goes, is coverage thin on Syria? I am also asked by the kinder variety if I am afraid of something, or if I am avoiding something.
Arab Nationalism, Islamism and the Arab Uprising. Professor Sadek Al-Azm spoke at LSE last week and reflected on the Arab uprisings, the current situation in Syria and what he called ‘good-for-business’ Islam.
The following is a snippet from his lecture which is available as a full transcript here. In addition to his talk at LSE, Al-Azm also recently wrote a piece which appeared in the online journal, Reason Papers.
Sectarianism and the uprising... The Free Syrian Army. Syria eyewitness: Damascus divided on Assad regime. 18 June 2011Last updated at 07:19.
Q&A: Nir Rosen on Syria's protest movement - Features. Journalist Nir Rosen recently spent two months in Syria.
As well as meeting members of various communities across the country - supporters of the country's rulers and of the opposition alike - he spent time with armed resistance groups in Homs, Idlib, Deraa, and Damascus suburbs. He also travelled extensively around the country last year, documenting his experiences for Al Jazeera. This is the second in a series of interviews he gave to Al Jazeera since his return. Syria's torture machine. Between bursts of machine-gun fire and the crump of explosions – unmuffled in crisp mountain air – the starry sky above the Syrian frontier offers ethereal distraction.
It's 3am and the town of Tal Kalakh, less than two miles to the north – just inside the Syrian Arab Republic – is under sustained attack, its residents reportedly refusing to hand over a small band of defectors who have holed up there, trying to bolt for Lebanon to join the insurgents. All around are mountains among which ancient armies have battled for millennia. And below, in besieged Tal Kalakh, a western outpost in the restive governorate of Homs, the Syrian army is once again hard at work, killing its own people.
Tal Kalakh has felt the full force of violent repression many times since the Syrian revolt erupted back in March. One day, Tal Kalakh will doubtless appear on the revolutionary roll of honour. "We don't kill our people," President Bashar al-Assad said last week in an American television interview. Syria's Opposition: What if We Offered Assad Immunity? It's going to be a decisive week for Syria.
The Kurds in Syria During the Crisis: Influences from Turkey. By Robert Lowe.
The Dynamics of the Uprising in Syria. Most people interested in Syrian affairs used to believe that the country was extremely stable.
The regime’s media fed this belief, constantly reiterating the assertion that Syria was the most secure and stable country in the world. In fact, however, this stability was merely a veneer. In reality, cracks and rifts appeared that damaged the Syrian society, undermined its cohesion, and created numerous social problems, generating frustration and anger that grew to unbearable proportions among broad sections of the population. A Tour Inside Syria's Insurgency - Paul Wood - International. Smuggled by anti-regime fighters across the Lebanon border and into the heart of the uprising, I found fearless protesters, calls for intervention, and the growing threat of civil war Still image taken from video shows purported members of "Free Syrian Army" firing at a convoy of government security buses in the village of Dael / Reuters Qutaiba, a 22-year-old engineering student, had never been arrested before Syrian security forces detained him at a checkpoint in a suburb of Damascus and dragged him to a military base.
At the time, he didn't know if he would survive: activists like him were disappearing, sometimes turning up later as mutilated corpses. But he did survive, and what he went through would later lead him to me. When Qutaiba arrived at the military base, at first he was left to stand outside, hooded, hands cuffed behind his back. The Syrian Revolution and the Question of Militarization. Live updates on Syria’s uprising. The Last Tourist in Syria - By Emma Sky. DAMASCUS — Is this your first visit to Syria, the passport control man asks me.
No, I tell him, I came here once before over a decade ago. He stamps my passport. I had been very lucky to get a Syrian visa this time. The travel advice was not to visit. The Syrian regime is very wary of foreigners, fearing that journalists and spies are inflaming the situation further. I jump in a taxi. Home / Headlines / Syrian women, backbone of the revolution - Media Monitors Network (MMN) "Syrian women have also been essential components of the now famous flash mobs that have so angered the regime with their speed and their efficient messages.
Often, women will join the group and start chanting while wearing a headscarf, then separate at the first sign of the infamous "shabbiha" and yank their hijabs off their heads as they melt into the crowd. " On January 10, while President Bashar Assad addressed his supporters in Damascus, Syrian authorities handed the tiny tortured body of a four-month old baby girl to her uncle in Homs. Arrested with her parents a few days earlier, one can only assume, knowing the Syrian regime's documented brutality, that baby Afaf had been thrown into a cell with her mother and submitted to horrific treatment, terrorizing her and her mother and leading to her untimely death.
BBC Interview with Bassam Haddad on the Question of "Sectarianism" in Syria. Syrians Under Siege by L. A. Over Easter weekend, the government of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad launched a brutal crackdown on the peaceful protests that have been gathering force across the country in the last five weeks. Around 120 protesters were killed in several different cities by security forces (bringing the total to some 400 since the protests began); and thousands more were arrested. On April 25, tanks moved to Daraa, the southern city where the protests first began in mid-March, triggered by the arrest and torture of teenagers who had scrawled anti-government graffiti on the city’s walls.
Near Damascus, the towns of Douma and Moadamiyeh have been similarly sealed off, as have Baniyas, Homs, Jableh, and Hama, and people I am in contact with tell me that there are soldiers on every street corner in the northwestern port city of Latakia. In areas where protests have occurred, hospitals were ordered not to treat activists—and some doctors who disobeyed have been arrested. 55 Dead in Syria's Weekend of Rage. Syrian security forces opened fire again on Saturday, killing 11 protesters in the central city of Homs. The protest began as a funeral procession for demonstrators killed on Friday, when 10 died in Homs and some 44 died at government hands throughout the country.
In Homs on Saturday, an AFP reporter and eyewitness said that tens of thousands were in the streets. Lebanese Banks Tighten Control on Syrian Account Holders. Lebanese banks have adopted strict measures to ensure compliance with international sanctions against neighboring Syria and are scrutinizing transfers of existing Syrian clients, banking officials said on Thursday. "Banks are taking extremely strong precautions to avoid bad surprises regarding people or institutions under sanctions," said one official who works at one of Lebanon's top banks.
"No one wants to expose himself to pressure or problems. "Banks are running away from anything that has to do with Syria like it's a disease because the U.S. is closely watching. " الحكومة السورية تقرر خفض عملتها مقابل الدولار 7% بشكل مفاجئ. Twisting Assad's Arm - By Andrew J. Tabler. A little over two years ago, I had to leave my eight-year career as a journalist in Damascus because of a report I had written on the Syrian opposition that the regime didn't like.
Since arriving in Washington, I've had the pleasure to share views on the Syrian regime with well-meaning U.S. officials charged with engaging my former home base. But it's become something of a mantra in Washington -- as the regime has perpetrated a brutal crackdown on opposition activists -- that the United States simply has no leverage in Syria. But after sitting through countless discussions about President Bashar al-Assad and his Alawite-dominated government -- especially since the protests erupted in recent weeks -- it is now clear to me that the problem isn't a lack of leverage, but the strategy being used.