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Syrian entrepreneurs thrive in Turkey

In the Turkish city of Gaziantep, home to around half a million Syrians who fled the civil war south of the border, hundreds of Syrian businesses are thriving in a boost both for the displaced community and their host country. Over 3.5 million Syrians are registered in Turkey, far more than in...

Alternative energy enables Daraa people to defy siege, power outage

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Alternative energy has played an essential role in breaking the regime’s siege policy in Syria that depends on cutting off electricity and water supplies in opposition-held areas. Activists say people in Daraa province, the cradle of the Syrian revolution, have...

Syrian migrants bring traditional Arab dance to Berlin

With stomping feet, swinging hips, a drumbeat and lots of laughter, two Syrian migrants lead a group of Germans and others in traditional Arab dance at a Berlin studio to share part of their culture with the country that took them in. The workshops were initiated by Medhat Aldaabal and Ali...

Daraa province: cradle of Syrian revolt

Syria's southern province of Daraa, which could be the regime's next target after its bloody reprisal of Eastern Ghouta, is the birthplace of the uprising which erupted in 2011. This agricultural region lies south of Damascus and also shares borders with Jordan and the Israeli-occupied...

8 ways for Syrians to get into Lebanon, each comes with a cost

(Eqtsad)- Syrians experiencing restrictions in neighboring countries is hardly a new development in recent years. These restrictions manifest themselves, most notably, in the residency requirements in the asylum country and the means through which to enter that country. Fleeing Syria...

Satellite Internet: activists' gate to report atrocities

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Even with capture of eastern Ghouta by regime and displacing more than 60,000 people to northern Idlib province, the Assad regime has failed to mute the voice of activists that turned into global voices. With their Satellite Internet they...

Syria's gypsies take benefit from war as old habits continue

(Eqtsad)- “Oh good people, we are Syrians, we have no money to buy food to eat, we live on the street, we are a big family, and we have children with us, our homes have been destroyed and we have been displaced,” says a woman in her seventies dressed in rural style clothes on Metro No 13 in...

Young Syrians don’t remember home

Warda, a Syrian refugee, wishes she could erase her old life, so painful have the memories become. By contrast, as the conflict in Syria slides into its eighth year, her younger children have nothing to remember of their homeland – nor to forget.They are part of a new generation of Syrians...

Begging in name of Syrian refugees turned a profession

Syria starts rebuilding even as more destruction wreaked

In the Syrian city of Homs' landmark Clock Square, where some of the first anti-government protests erupted in 2011, stands a giant poster of a smiling President Bashar Assad waving his right arm, with a caption that reads: "Together we will rebuild." Four years after the military brought...

A ‘Profile’ of how Daesh recruits European brides

“Profile,” screening in the Panorama section of the Berlin International Film Festival, looks at how fighters from Daesh (ISIS) recruit young European women online. The lead actress in this feature-length fiction told Reuters the movie highlights the dangers of using the internet....

FSA seeks solution to detained ISIS militants

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Tens of former ISIS militants including Egyptians, Tunisians, Russians, Frenchmen, Uzbeks and even Syrians have been, with their families, in the custody of the Free Syrian Army, after uprooting ISIS from northern Aleppo province. Most of them reside in special camps...

Cannabis trade 'flourishes' in northeastern Syria

(Zaman Al Wasl)- The sell and use of drugs have become a public and widespread phenomenon among youths in northern Syria in general and in the Qamishli province especially. Drug traffickers have increased their activities because there is no effective force on the ground deterring them from...

Eastern Ghouta, Syria reduced to ruins by Assad regime

While fierce regime shelling of Syria's besieged Eastern Ghouta district continues, thousands of civilians have fled, with many of those remaining forced to live in shelters. Since last November, Eastern Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus, has continued to be the target of fierce attacks by...

Desperate to come home, Syrians brave IS mines in Raqa

RAQA (AFP) - Mohammed Kuraji returned to Syria's Raqa to prepare a homecoming but ended up organising a funeral. Stepping into his home, an unexploded mine detonated and killed his elderly father. "It was terrifying. The blast was so strong that I couldn't hear," said the...

Crossings Become 'golden Hen Laying Golden Eggs'

(Eqtsad)- Goods, food and building materials enter through regime forces and militias-controlled crossings into the besieged areas of northern Homs and southern Hama countryside. The goods are entered without being subject to any common customs laws between countries, but are...

Burglary mounts in opposition-held Daraa province

(Zaman Al Wasl)- The Syrian people’s calamities have continued without giving citizens a chance to catch their breaths. Syrians have been destined to swing between the trials of death, displacement and destruction as they watch a lifetime of effort disappear before their eyes. For...

Sick of exile, Syrians start to trickle back home

Desperate to escape Syria’s terrors, Ammar Maarawi bolted. In early 2016, he paid smugglers and endured a dangerous sea crossing to Greece and an exhausting journey by train, bus and foot through Europe. Two years later, the 36-year-old is back home in Aleppo. He returned last summer...