SYRIA NEWS | ZAMAN ALWSL

Syrian Women: Pillars of the Revolution in Education, Relief, and Civic Work

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 19:26:00 +0300

Since the very beginning of the Syrian revolution, women were not mere witnesses; they carried multiple roles across humanitarian, political, and social spheres. Syrian women took to the streets, led demonstrations, documented violations, and conveyed the revolution’s voice to the world, defying both fear and societal and security restrictions.

Continuing Education Despite Bombing

Even under the siege and bombardment of Eastern Ghouta near Damascus during the years of the revolution, women exemplified determination and resilience. Teachers in Douma, for instance, continued their work despite damaged school buildings, setting up classrooms in basements so students could continue their education and maintain a sense of normalcy.

Teacher Manar Fawaz recalled: “School began at five in the morning after dawn prayer, and we ended classes before nine to protect students from the deposed regime airstrikes during the day. Despite the hardships, we continued our duty to the next generation, keeping hope alive for the future.”

Their role went beyond academics. Women also nurtured children in principles of freedom and dignity, helped ease the psychological impact of war, and developed alternative curricula aligned with the realities and goals of the revolution.

Women as First Responders in the Siege

Alaa Hamouria from the town of Arbin near Damascus exemplified women’s role in emergency response. Using her nursing background, she worked at the “Rahma Center” with colleagues, providing first aid to those injured during deposed regime airstrikes. They filled gaps in medical staffing, as transferring patients to government hospitals was often too dangerous.

Alaa Hamouria

Hamouria explained that their work extended to homes, treating severe injuries with limited supplies. They improvised medical tools—sterilizing sheets to make bandages and using containers as surgical drainage—to save lives under extreme conditions.

Resilience in the Face of Loss

Syrian women shattered traditional stereotypes, risking their lives to rescue others through direct work with the Syrian Civil Defense, including search-and-rescue and emergency medical teams.

Wedad Wehha, displaced from Ghouta to northern Syria, joined the Civil Defense in 2017. She faced dual challenges: direct threat from bombardment and the difficulties of fieldwork, while coping with the personal loss of her father in a regime bombing. The death of her husband, father, and witnessing chemical attacks motivated her to continue her work until the revolution succeeded.

Today, Wedad continues her work with the Civil Defense, focusing on campaigns to raise awareness about war remnants and humanitarian activities to bring smiles to children’s faces.

Civic Engagement and Community Support

Civil society activist Safaa Kamel from Jobar in Damascus began her journey after her husband was killed in a regime detention center, leaving her with an infant. She started by documenting families and orphans and, as more women lost husbands, her work expanded to supporting them and caring for the children of martyrs. She later helped establish a women’s network of 88 members to provide mutual support and tackle challenges collectively.

The revolution reshaped Syrian society, creating space for freedom and dignity. Women emerged in diverse fields—from education and medical aid to civic organization—becoming indispensable contributors to the Syrian story of resilience and endurance.

SANA

Syrian migrants in Germany face uncertain future as government floats repatriation

CNN — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 00:47:52 +0300

When Germany opened its doors to refugees escaping war in the Middle East, more people arrived from Syria than any other country – finding homes, getting jobs, starting families.

A question mark now hangs over their future, after Germany’s government – which has hardened its stance on immigration amid a surging far right – suggested it could be time for some to return home, voluntarily or not.

Some 1 million Syrians arrived in Germany at the height of the refugee crisis in 2015-2016, under former chancellor Angela Merkel. Approximately 1.3 million live in Germany currently, including 25,000 who were born there.

Now, Chancellor Friedrich Merz and other conservatives in his coalition cabinet are calling for their repatriation.

Merz this week said that Berlin would approach the issue in a “very concrete matter,” as he signaled that there are “no longer any grounds for asylum in Germany, and therefore we can also begin with repatriations.”

While the German government will first and foremost encourage voluntary repatriation, Merz said those who refuse “can, of course, also be deported in the near future,” as he said that the return of Syrians to their homeland would be key to rebuilding the war-torn country.

The German chancellor also revealed he has invited Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa to Berlin to discuss the issue.

What’s changed in Syria is that the Assad government is no more, bringing an end to years of civil war. And in Germany, Merz’s coalition is trying to fend off the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

Despite Merz’s rhetoric, it remains unclear at this stage how wide-reaching deportations would be. Germany has so far only announced plans to deport Syrians with criminal records.

Since the collapse of Assad’s regime, around 1,300 Syrians – or 0.1% - have voluntarily returned to their homeland, according to Germany’s interior ministry.

Syrians live in Germany under varying legal statuses – some have been granted German citizenship, while others hold permanent residence permits. Over 160,000 Syrians had obtained German citizenship by the end of 2023, Deutsche Welle reported. Those who fall into these categories will not need to leave Germany, CDU politicians said during a coalition debate on Tuesday, according to Reuters.

Hundreds of thousands more hold temporary residence permits, which they are granted after receiving a protection status, such as asylum, refugee or subsidiary protection, which applies when neither of the former can be granted and serious harm is threatened in the country of origin.

Temporary residence permits allow foreigners to live and work in Germany, as well as receive government benefits, but mean their ability to remain there is uncertain.

The issue of repatriation is contentious and comes with significant legal hurdles. Meanwhile Syria remains scarred by years of conflict and nationals in Germany are looking on at the debate with mounting worry.

“Merz’s comments are heading in a direction that fuels right-wing desires to deport anyone who doesn’t fit their so-called idea of who belongs in Germany and that’s terrifying,” said Rafif Dawoud, a 33-year-old architect living in Berlin, who migrated from Syria over 12 years ago and is now a German citizen.

Dawoud said that while she knows people who have willingly returned, “talking about sending back people who have been trying to integrate, who see Germany as their second or even first and only home, who actively contribute to this society and economy, well that’s an absolute disgrace.”

Others are concerned about a volatile political situation back home. A retired engineer, who currently lives in Germany but does not hold citizenship, described the overthrow of Assad’s government as a “historical necessity” while questioning its replacement.

“We must ask whether the country is moving toward a state that mirrors European and specifically German values, respecting freedoms and human principles, or whether dictatorship and a new totalitarian religious system are simply being reproduced under a different name,” the man, who wished to remain anonymous, told CNN.

Since Assad’s ousting, Syria has seen flare-ups of deadly sectarian violence, with clashes erupting between security forces and those loyal to the former president, including in Syria’s coastal Latakia region in March.

Speaking to CNN, Akram al-Bunni, a Syrian political activist who was jailed under Assad’s regime, said the German government must take into consideration the nature of the country’s new authority, which he believes could expose many Syrians to new persecution. The security situation must also be considered, al-Bunni said, stating that weapons remain “uncontrolled in the hands of extremist factions.”

Johann Wadephul, Germany’s foreign minister and a politician in Merz’s center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), hinted at some of the problems awaiting Syrians on a recent visit to Damascus, when he compared the country’s devastation to “images we saw from Germany in 1945 after World War II” and expressed doubt that large numbers of Syrian migrants would return voluntarily.

But after receiving backlash from within his own party over the comments, Wadephul has sought to stress that his overall view remains in alignment with his party.

Other politicians, particularly on Germany’s left, have criticized the plans. In an interview with German news magazine Der Spiegel, Lamya Kaddor, of Germany’s Green Party, said “to believe that mass deportations (to Syria) are now possible underestimates the reality on the ground.”

The Association of German-Syrian Aid Organizations has spoken out against the government’s plans, with its chairman Nahla Osman saying the debate represents a huge blow for Syrians who have integrated into German society, including skilled workers, in a recent interview with Deutschlandfunk radio.

Germany’s health sector, for example, employs over 6,000 Syrian doctors, according to official figures – making them an integral part of the country’s healthcare system. Late last year, then-Interior Minister Nancy Faeser warned “whole areas” in Germany’s healthcare sector would fall away if the Syrians who worked there currently were to leave.

Countering the far right

Despite the opposition, it is clear that the days of “Wilkommenskulture” or “welcoming culture” regarding immigration to Germany under Merkel are gone.

The AfD came second in Germany’s federal election in February, securing an unprecedented number of votes after campaigning on an anti-migration platform and a manifesto that states that “Islam does not belong in Germany.”

Since the collapse of the Assad regime, the AfD has been calling for Syrians in Germany to return to their homeland. Meanwhile, the party has continued to enjoy strong popularity, even temporarily surging ahead of the CDU in some polls, leaving Merz’s government fighting to retain ground.

Merz – who had long been a critic of Merkel’s open-door policies – has taken a tougher stance on migration, in part to counter the AfD.

While his predecessor welcomed migrants into Germany under the slogan “Wir schaffen das” – “We’ll manage it,” Merz and his government announced sweeping revisions to migration policy after taking office.

“We clearly did not manage it. That is exactly why we’re trying to fix it,” he said of the situation.

By Sophie Tano

Syria’s oil heartland poisoned by decades of war, neglect, and inaction

Al Jazeera — Sun, 14 Sep 2025 20:46:41 +0300

Deir Az Zor, Syria – The first thing that strikes you about the desert of eastern Syria is the vast still landscape: its silence, the unrelenting heat, and dry hot gusts of wind. The journey to Deir Az Zor feels like travelling back in time, with few markers of modernity evident as you look out from the road.

But then a vast, shimmering body of sludge emerges, a black scar through the beige desert. The smell is a thick, chemical tang of petroleum that coats the back of your throat. It looks almost beautiful, until you remember – it is a river of death.

We reached the al-Taim oilfield in Deir Az Zor province to see one of the few oil facilities in Syria controlled by the government in Damascus.

After years of war, some damage to the oilfield was to be expected, but not this – a toxic expanse testament to one of the Syrian conflict’s most poisonous and lasting legacies.

The oil spill is not the aftermath of a single battle, but the product of decades of neglect and war. What spills here is a carcinogenic mix of produced water – a byproduct of the oil and gas extraction process – and crude oil, which used to be deposited safely underground.

But years of war have destroyed the infrastructure that did that, and it has never been repaired. The mixture therefore flows unchecked, 24 hours a day, seeping into the desert soil, where it inches towards the aquifer below and snakes its way closer to the Euphrates River, the lifeblood of Deir Az Zor.

The province – located in Syria’s far east and separated from the country’s populous and fertile west by miles of desert – has long been on the margins of the Syrian state, neglected for decades even before the war.

Today, that lack of governance is evident in broken bridges, gutted villages and oilfields left to rot. Few journalists make the trip due to the drive from Damascus. It can take up to half a day – through a few checkpoints and stretches of empty road where security is never guaranteed – and journeys should be complete before it gets dark.

At the decades-old pumps that pull the oil from the ground, we found a few guards seeking refuge from the heat in their tarp-lined security post. They approached us with rifles slung casually across their shoulders, one riding a gleaming Chinese-built motorcycle, the black logo of ISIL (ISIS) emblazoned on the headlight.

One of the men laughs when I point it out.

“We bought it like that,” he says with a shrug. “No one bothered to scrape it off.” It’s a chilling reminder that the ghosts of the recent past remain etched not just in memory but into the machinery of daily life.

Mohammed al-Touma, one of the safety engineers at the pump, steered things back to the crisis at hand.

“It kills the birds instantly,” he said, as he approached to tell us about the black, hazardous sludge that we had seen. “No one cares, please tell the world about this toxic, radioactive waste.”

The oilfield’s workers had left between 2012 and 2013, when ISIL began infiltrating into Deir Az Zor before fully taking over the province in 2014.

The workers returned once the group had been defeated in the area in 2017, only to find this expanding river of oil residue no longer being pumped back into the oil table deep underground. Nothing has changed since then, even after the fall of President Bashar al-Assad in December and the end of Syria’s war.

The new Syrian government faces security and governance challenges across the country, as it attempts to turn the page after 13 years of conflict. Fighting has periodically taken place involving government forces and local militias, leading to hundreds of deaths, and Israel continues to bomb the country and seize more territory.

And with reconstruction needed across the country, this oilfield in Deir Az Zor is not at the top of the government’s priority list.

Symbol of war

Walk around the field, and the damage is like a tapestry woven by every faction that fought here.

There are bullet holes in pipelines, gaping holes in massive fuel tanks, and the mangled remains of steel structures and instruments.

ISIL drained the field to bankroll its state. The United States-led coalition and Russian jets bombed the oilfield to starve that funding.

Assad-regime forces, Iranian-backed militias and local tribes fought bloody battles for its control. The result: a poisoned inheritance for all the civilians of Deir Az Zor.

To grasp the scale of the disaster, we launched a drone. As it climbed in the air, it became clear that the oil spill was no pond.

It is a vast, dark river, stretching relentlessly. A 10-kilometre-long (six-mile) scar that is still growing. From above, the scale is staggering, so we asked for satellite imagery. And from space, the time-lapse is even starker; what began as a puddle after the first strikes has metastasised into a lagoon visible from the satellite’s orbit.

“You have to understand, before all this, that wasn’t here,” Firas al-Hamad, al-Taim oilfield’s operations manager, told me. “This water mixed with oil, we used to inject it deep underground. Protocol. [But] for years now it just poured out 24-7.”

His explanation was simple, and the science seems pretty straightforward. This is the produced water, a toxic byproduct of oil extraction. The solution is also simple: new disposal wells need to be drilled.

But this is Syria, and we’re in neglected Deir Az Zor, where hospitals run without stretchers and electricity is a few-hours-a-day luxury. Environmental repair does not even register on the list of priorities.

“We’ve asked,” one local official admitted, referring to both the current and former Syrian governments. “We’ve been promised. Nothing happens.”

When contacted, the central government in Damascus gave no response.

The greatest fear is just 15 kilometres (nine miles) away: the Euphrates River, a lifeline for millions across Syria and Iraq.

For now, the toxic slick has not reached it. But the desert is unforgiving. One heavy storm, one flash flood, and the poison could flow into the river, contaminating crops, wells and drinking water downstream.

Out in the open yet hidden, it is a lingering cost of war.

Here, in the silence of Syria’s oil heartland, a river of poison spreads unchecked.

Oil, the resource that once sustained this region, providing jobs and prosperity, now threatens to destroy it. And the people of Deir Az Zor are left waiting, caught between the ruins of yesterday and a growing catastrophe in front of their eyes.

A catastrophe that the world is paying little attention to, and a flowing testament that serves as one of the Syrian war’s unspoken legacies.

Syrian primary school teacher breaks barriers and teach in Germany

Tue, 26 Aug 2025 11:15:00 +0300

Despite the administrative and linguistic obstacles that often prevent refugee teachers from integrating into the German education system, Syrian teacher Intisar Karkoukli managed to pave the way and return to the profession she loved.

A report by zdfheute indicated that Karkoukli arrived in Germany in 2015 with extensive experience in elementary school teaching. Although the employment office deemed her desire to return to the profession "unattainable," she did not give up on her dream.

Her success was further enhanced by a special program at the University of Potsdam, launched in 2016, aimed at quickly and easily integrating refugee teachers into the local school system.

It gave her the opportunity to retrain. She used to spend six hours a day commuting from her home in Wittenberg to the university, but she persevered until she graduated.

The program aims to quickly and easily integrate refugee teachers into the local school system.

The report added that after completing the program, Salma was hired as a substitute teacher at an elementary school, where she helped integrate refugee children and communicate with their parents. The school's principal, Christine Schultz, described her role as "a necessary bridge with parents."

Her journey wasn't without setbacks.

However, her career wasn't without setbacks. Her job funding ended after two years, and she was demoted to teaching assistant. She was required to improve her German with additional courses. Although many refugee teachers stopped at this point and dropped out of the education system, Karkoukli continued to fight with the support of colleagues and friends.

The next major milestone in Karkoukli's journey came in 2021 when she secured a formal position at the Wittenberg School, becoming the first Syrian teacher in its classrooms.

In the spring of 2025, she achieved a new milestone by being promoted to the position of "civil servant," which she considered "the culmination of years of struggle."

Karkoukli is now calling for practical steps to support refugee teachers, most importantly providing specialized language courses and facilitating easier entry into teaching, emphasizing that her experience proves that success is possible despite the difficult path.

According to data from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, of the 1-8 million refugees registered as asylum seekers in Germany in 2021, approximately 2-2% worked as teachers in their countries of origin. Given the acute teacher shortage, this means that 36,000 trained teachers could be available in schools in a short time. However, the path to teaching for migrant teachers remains fraught with obstacles.

Faris Al-Rifai - Zaman Al-Wasl

Barren fields, dry wells: Post-war drought ravages Syria’s farms

Reuters — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 17:42:28 +0300

When Bashar al-Assad ruled Syria, the farmers of al-Nashabiyah, once a hotbed of opposition to then president, struggled to water their crops because army officers diverted rivers and canals to their own farms.

The farmers hoped for some reprieve after Assad’s 24 years of autocratic rule ended in December, but a devastating drought and continued water theft mean their crops are still dying, their pears and plums withering on the branch.

“The regime fell and we were hoping that our share (of water) would come, but it did not come,” said Mahmoud al-Hobeish, al-Nashabiyah’s deputy mayor standing beside a dirt-clogged, garbage-littered irrigation canal.

He said people and companies were diverting flows from shared waterways for their own use, leaving al-Nashabiyah’s farmers wanting.

This is critical as Syria’s worst drought in decades takes a devastating toll on this agricultural region east of the capital city Damascus.

Hobeish said the area being farmed had decreased tenfold in the past year, while production was down 90 percent compared to last year. Farmers are having to spend more money to dig wells, but even then they do not get enough to water their crops.

Hobeish is around $4,000 in debt.

“People are asking for it and they know I cannot pay,” he said.

The drought, which the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform says is the worst since 1958, is a devastating blow to a country already brought to its knees by more than 13 years of civil war, diplomatic isolation and Western sanctions.

Droughts have plagued Syria for decades, but few have been as dramatic as this year.

Water reserves are down by more than 60 percent compared to previous years and levels in dams in March were lower than the last two years, the ministry said. Some regions lost more than 70 percent of their groundwater reserves.

The drought could lead to the failure of around 75 percent of wheat crops this year, threatening the food security of millions, the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Syrian representative told Reuters in May.

In al-Nashabiyah, Mati Mohammad Nasser said he expected to lose his whole harvest of wheat, pears, plums and other fruits and vegetables.

“We were ruined this year,” Nasser told the Thomson Reuters Foundation as he surveyed his barren fields. “We have lost hope. We sold everything we had and invested it into the land.”

Generational trauma

The European Union and the United States said in May said they would lift sanctions on Syria. The country’s new government said this could allow fertilizers and irrigation technology to be imported.

But this will not help Nasser now. He fears he will have to sell some of his land and livestock to make ends meet.

He usually picks around 200 kg of pears a year from trees he has raised from seedlings. But this year, he plans to chop down the dead trees and use them for firewood.

He has already paid almost $2,000 to dig a deep well, but the water was just a couple of centimeters deep.

“What are we supposed to do with that?” he asked.

Farmers are not the only ones struggling.

In the capital Damascus, people are rationing their consumption of water, even in affluent neighborhoods after the government restricted supply this year.

In Douma, a town on the northeastern outskirts of Damascus, Abu Yassir, who runs a farm supply store, said the drought meant business was down about 30 percent this year.

Even during years of siege by government forces, Yassir said he never had to import seeds as he was able to source everything from the surrounding region, an agricultural hub.

But this year, local markets are depleted and he has had to import agricultural supplies like barley and increase prices by around 25 percent.

“Things have become expensive,” he said in a telephone interview. “People who used to be keen to buy and had a lot of livestock are now forced to drive down their spending.”

In al-Nashabiyah, Kassim Ibrahim al-Saghir has been forced to scale back work on his farm, and if rains do not come soon he said he would have to sell some of the land that has been in his family for generations. He has lost more than 90 percent of his crops this year.

“We have daily losses,” the 67-year-old. “There is no harvest this year.”

Amira, From housewife to sustainable agriculture pioneer

Sun, 08 Jun 2025 00:27:00 +0300

Amira, an ambitious young Syrian woman from the Damascus countryside, grew up in a simple agricultural environment and completed her secondary education. She was a housewife before taking her first steps in the world of specialized agriculture, specifically mushroom cultivation.

Her journey began in 2015, when she saw an advertisement for a training course in mushroom cultivation, a completely new concept in Syria at the time.

Amira told Zaman Al-Wasl that her love of agriculture and her desire to be an active woman in her community motivated her to take on this challenge. After studying the basic requirements for mushroom cultivation—such as securing an isolated location and providing energy sources to control temperature and humidity—she began her project in 2016, growing oyster mushrooms in a small, modest area.

Oyster mushrooms are a genus of gilled fungi (Pleurotus). They are considered one of the most widely cultivated edible mushrooms in the world.

Overcoming Difficulties

Ameera faced many difficulties, but she didn't give up. She learned from experience, studied the diseases that affect mushrooms, and says she tried several methods until she was able to produce them for the first time. The mushrooms tasted delicious, but it didn't taste as good as the success she experienced.

With the support of her family and team, and with determination to achieve her goals, Ameera reached a production rate of 2 tons per month, although the full production capacity has not yet been fully invested. The project's current area is 500 square meters, and it is expandable.

She noted that her project does not consume large amounts of water, as each square meter requires only one liter of water, and produces approximately 25 kg of mushrooms in a two-month cultivation cycle.

The room is then washed and sterilized to apply a new mixture. She explained that the room covers approximately 65 square meters, with a height of 10 meters. 3-5 PM.

Benefits of Mushrooms

In the coming years, Amira aspires to achieve a continuous production cycle to meet local market demand and export the surplus, ensuring no shortage of mushrooms. She also seeks to train young people and women in mushroom cultivation, empowering them economically and socially, contributing to improving living standards and creating new job opportunities.

In addition, Amira seeks to spread health awareness about the benefits of mushrooms, given their significant medicinal properties. They reduce fat, fight tumors and viruses, regulate blood pressure, and strengthen immunity. In doing so, she hopes to contribute to building a healthier and more independent society through a health, environmental, and sustainable project.

Faris Al-Rifai - Zaman Al-Wasl

Gold Rush in Syria: The Illusion of Salvation or Treasures Under the Ground?

Mon, 26 May 2025 17:47:01 +0300

In a country exhausted by war and poverty, citizens are emerging from the oppression of the Assad regime—and are using metal detectors.

Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime in December, residents of Damascus have noticed new faces roaming the streets at night, their owners carrying metal detectors that flash in the dark.

In the countryside, men have also begun arriving on private farmland, carrying pickaxes and maps that they claim reveal the locations of buried treasure. Syrians have been freed from the fear that dominated life under Assad, but they still suffer from extreme poverty and the legacy of war, and a "gold fever" has spread among them, according to a report published by the Financial Times and reviewed by Al Arabiya Business.

Abu Wael, 67, a treasure hunter who describes himself as a "professional," says, "Under the regime, it was impossible to go out on a moonlit night to look for gold, for fear of being caught by security forces."

But that has changed. Metal detectors were previously banned in Syria, according to several sellers. However, this year, several shops specializing in these devices have opened in the capital, displaying models priced at up to $10,000. Their windows are decorated with Syrian flags, gold coins, and images of men carrying the latest devices.

A Boom in Prospecting Activity

One seller says that a small number of people had been secretly searching for treasure for decades, but after the fall of Assad, this activity has seen a boom "thanks to the ease of purchasing these devices." Most of those interviewed declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.

In a country suffering from high unemployment and a comprehensive economic collapse, the "gold rush" is no longer a form of madness, but a last-ditch effort to survive. Some see treasure in the dirt, while others see this madness as salvation.

He believes Many Syrians firmly believe in the existence of buried treasures, because "our region was the cradle of many civilizations," the vendor said, noting that some customers believe their land contains buried riches, based on family stories passed down through generations.

He added, "But many people practice this as a hobby. Campers find it a fun pastime." There are even devices for children, and we sell small sizes in green and pink.

Metal and Water Detectors

Another vendor said he sold dozens of devices from his small shop in Damascus, which was adorned with large posters of metal and water detectors. The store stocks German, Chinese, and American handheld devices, as well as expensive long-range devices. He noted that some Syrians have come from neighboring countries to participate in the searches.

The appeal of treasure hunting for Syrians has deep historical roots. From generation to generation, Syrians have passed down stories of buried gold and archaeological treasures left behind by vanished civilizations, or of Silk Road caravans and pilgrims who passed through them.

Amr Al-Azm, a professor of history and anthropology at Shawnee State University in Ohio, who previously worked for the Syrian Department of Antiquities, said, "Everyone in our region knows a relative who was digging in his house one day and found a jar filled with gold. These stories are part of the region's mythology."

But under Assad, such excavations were prohibited under the pretext of protecting archaeological sites, and those who dared to dig did so at night and in complete secrecy.

Digging in gardens and tearing down walls in search of treasure

As the regime's grip crumbled and a security vacuum emerged, Syrians—90% of whom live below the poverty line, according to the United Nations—rushed to archaeological sites, digging in their gardens and tearing down walls in search of treasure.

"The war destroyed the economy and people's livelihoods, so they started looking for alternative incomes," says Al-Azm. He pointed out that this was not unusual, as "most Syrians live above, next to, or very close to an archaeological site."

A rumor circulated in Damascus that a group of men had found an archaeological treasure and become rich overnight—with varying accounts of their number, the location, and the type of treasure. Experts interviewed by the Financial Times cast doubt on this story, suggesting that any gold found was on the ground. Most likely looted from museums or homes of regime officials who decorated their palaces with antiquities.

Rumors Spark Imaginary Get Rich Quick

No discovery has been confirmed yet. But the rumors have sparked people's imaginations, especially after years of watching regime soldiers loot and steal everything they can get their hands on.

A source in the government media office said these excavations "are still technically illegal."

Equipment companies were quick to seize the opportunity, even on Facebook. One store specifically promoting equipment to Syrians offered shipments of devices it said were suitable for Syria's rocky, basalt soil. Another sold a device that displays a 3D image of what's buried and determines its depth.

A recent trend: waterproof devices for those who want to dive underwater in search of gold.

Al-Azm said some hunters target the areas surrounding the Hejaz Railway, which connected Damascus to Medina in the early 20th century, believing it to be rich in gold. Some believe that the retreating Ottoman forces in 1917, after their defeat in Jerusalem, buried chests of gold on their way north.

Massive Looting

Syrian museums are home to hundreds of thousands of artifacts and manuscripts, including Greek statues and murals dating back to the second century. It is believed that some 300,000 items were hidden in secret locations after the outbreak of war in 2011, and some were returned to the National Museum in 2018.

No one knows the extent of the looting or what was destroyed during the war. Reports from archaeologists and local news sites indicate that stolen gold crowns, crosses, and coins have reached the homes of wealthy individuals around the world via Turkey.

Abu Wael said that such illegal sales do not take place online. However, predators have taken advantage of the opportunity to sell their "finds." Al-Azm said, "Most of what is offered for sale, whether on social media or through word of mouth, as Ottoman or Roman gold coins, are fake." He attributed this to "people's overactive imagination."

He added that some of the displayed items are likely stolen: "I was shown and personally seen real artifacts from various parts of Syria. This activity increased dramatically after the fall of the regime, due to the security vacuum that followed."

Abu Wael spoke of the dangers of "real" searches, including attacks by local residents who notice the digging and chase the searchers to seize their finds.

Finding Treasures Is Not Easy

He keeps videos on his phone sent to him by other searchers, showcasing their discoveries in the hope of finding buyers. One shows the uncovering of a fragile parchment scroll inscribed with gilded Hebrew letters, echoing legends of treasures buried in Jewish cemeteries.

In a hushed tone in a crowded Damascus café, Abu Wael said that his 40 years of experience has taught him that finding treasures is not easy. He accused detector vendors of tricking people into spending their savings on an "illusion."

He added that "sorcerers" and "knowers of the unknown," led by a figure known as "The Red Sheikh," demand money to read ancient symbols and inscriptions believed to indicate the locations of treasures.

Abu Wael has never found a treasure throughout his four-decade journey. But he came close once, he says: "Years ago, after reading certain signs for days and digging in several places, I returned to the main site to find it completely excavated." Villagers told him that a group of men had dug at night and found a chest of gold.

He concluded with a sad smile: "But maybe this is better. We have a proverb that says: 'Whoever finds gold loses his mind.'"

(Arabia Business; Translation by The Syrian Journal)

Druze residents near Damascus resist demand to turn in arms as tensions boil

Reuters — Tue, 06 May 2025 15:16:00 +0300

Druze residents near Syria’s capital are resisting a demand by the government to hand in their light weapons, saying authorities have yet to address fears of new attacks by militants after days of sectarian violence.

Clashes last week pitted fighters against armed Druze residents of the town of Jaramana southeast of Damascus, later spreading to another district near the capital and then south to the predominantly Druze province of Sweida.

Such violence threatens the new government’s control of Syria, where armed gangs are attacking religious minorities and Israel is stepping up its military intervention under the banner of protecting the Druze community.

Syrian authorities have negotiated deals to allow Druze fighters to protect their own areas as enlisted members of Syria’s security forces, but this week asked that all weapons held by residents of these areas be turned in to the state.

“We told them, as soon as there is a state capable of regulating its forces, we’ll have no problem handing in our weapons,” said Makram Obeid, a member of the Jaramana committee that is negotiating with the Syrian government.

Obeid said his committee had told government officials it would be better for them to focus on disarming the gangs now harassing minorities.

“It’s our right to be scared, because we saw what happened in other areas,” he told Reuters, an apparent reference to killings in March of hundreds of civilians from the Alawite minority to which former President Bashar al-Assad belongs.

It was the deadliest episode of sectarian violence in years in Syria, where a 14-year war ended last December.

“People want to feel safe. It’s enough to have (more than) 11 years of killing, strikes, and worries,” Obeid said. “And we’re coming to another phase that we thought, with the collapse of the regime, would leave us in a much better place. But until now, we don’t feel reassured.”

Fahad Haydar, a resident of Jaramana, echoed those fears.

“These weapons that are turned against us - that’s what we’re afraid of. If those weapons get handed in, then we’ll hand in ours,” he told Reuters.

Seeking guarantees

Mowaffaq Abu Shash, a Druze cleric in Jaramana, said the Druze had already compromised enough.

“We take one step, they ask for a second. We take the second step, they ask for a third,” he said. “We ask for a guarantee that what happened on the coast will not happen to us.”

One influential Druze spiritual leader, Sheikh Hikmat al-Hajri, has called for international intervention to protect his community from Syria’s leaders, whom he has branded “terrorists.”

The Druze, an Arab minority sect who practice a religion originally derived from Islam, live in Syria, Lebanon, Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Israel has vowed to protect Syria’s Druze militarily if they face threats.

Last week’s violence was ignited by a voice recording purportedly cursing the Prophet Mohammad, which militants suspect was made by a Druze. More than a dozen people were killed in Jaramana before the violence spread west and south.

It also drew in Israel, which carried out a drone strike on what it said were fighters preparing to attack Druze in the town of Sahnaya, west of Jaramana. A Syrian security source told Reuters one member of the security forces was killed in the strike.

As the clashes reached Sweida province, Israel bombed near the presidential palace in Damascus - the clearest sign yet of its hostility towards Syria’s new leaders.

From socks to sarcasm: How Syrians are mocking the al-Assad dynasty

AFP — Tue, 06 May 2025 13:21:00 +0300

At Basel al-Sati’s souvenir shop in a central Damascus market, socks bearing caricatures that ridicule ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and his once feared family now sell like hot cakes.

“I want to bring joy to people who’ve been deprived of happiness for so many days and years,” said Sati, 31, displaying pairs of white ankle-length socks.

“Everyone who comes from abroad wants to buy the socks -- some to keep as a souvenir, others to wear mockingly and take pictures,” he told AFP.

“There are even some who buy them just to stomp on them,” he said.

Stamping on someone’s image is considered deeply insulting in the Arab world, so the socks allow wearers to trample the al-Assads underfoot as they walk.

Pictures of the al-Assad clan have gone from being ubiquitous symbols of repression to objects of derision and mockery since his December 8 ouster by anti-government forces after nearly 14 years of devastating civil war.

Some socks showing al-Assad in sunglasses read “We will trample them”, while others depict him with heavily exaggerated features.

Others bear a caricature of Hafez al-Assad who ruled Syria before his son, depicted in his underwear and chest puffed out.

They bear the phrase “This is what the al-Assads look like” -- a play on the family’s last name, which means lion.

Al-Assad’s once feared younger brother Maher labelled “the captagon king” also features. Western governments accused Maher and his entourage of turning Syria into a narco state, flooding the Middle East with the illegal stimulant.

‘No better’ gift

Sati’s shop, brimming with other gift items, is decorated with images from Syria’s revolution.

An image of al-Assad is on the ground at the entrance so people can walk on it.

“It’s another kind of celebration, for all the Syrians who couldn’t celebrate in Ummayad Square after the fall of the regime,” Sati said.

The Damascus landmark filled with huge crowds from across the country and hosted days of celebrations after al-Assad’s ouster, with people raising the now official three-starred flag symbolising the revolution.

Afaf Sbano, 40, who returned after fleeing to Germany a decade ago, said she had come to buy “Assad socks”, which sell for around a dollar a pair, for friends.

There is “no better” gift for those “who can’t come to Syria to celebrate the fall of the regime”, she told AFP.

“I bought more than 10 extra pairs for my friends after I shared a photo on Instagram,” she said.

“We had never dared to even imagine making fun of him” before, she added.

‘People hate him’

Manufacturer Zeyad Zaawit, 29, said the idea of socks to mock the al-Assads came to him after the former ruler was deposed and fled to Russia.

Zaawit started with a small number and then ramped up production when he saw they were selling fast.

“People hate him,” Zaawit said of al-Assad.

“I took revenge on him this way after he fled,” he said, adding that the socks were so popular that some customers even paid in advance.

Zaawit said he produced around 1,000 pairs in the first week and has since tripled production, making more than 200,000 pairs in three months.

Images of the socks have been shared widely on social media and they have even been used in satirical television programs.

Al-Assad’s own words have also been turned against him -- including a refusal to meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a foe who is close to Syria’s new authorities.

Erdogan made repeated overtures to al-Assad in the period before his overthrow.

In August 2023, al-Assad famously said: “Why should I meet Erdogan? To drink refreshments?”

The pronouncement, now the subject of jokes on social media, appears on posters in food and juice stalls, sometimes accompanied by mocking images of al-Assad.

Syrians spend first Ramadan in a post-Assad country amid nostalgia, relief and loss

AP — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 19:11:00 +0300

When Mariam Aabour learned of the ouster of Syrian leader Bashar Assad, she shed tears of joy. But as the time came to return to her homeland from Lebanon – where she fled years earlier – Aabour felt torn.

She was happy about the homecoming, but sad to leave behind a son and a stepson who remained in Lebanon to work and pay off family debts. Months before her return, Aabour’s father died in Syria without her seeing him. Her Syrian home has been destroyed and there’s no money to rebuild, she said.

Thus, it’s been bittersweet experiencing her first Ramadan – the Muslim holy month – since her return.

“We’ve all lost dear ones,” she said. “Even after our return, we still cry over the tragedies that we’ve lived through.”

As they spend their first Ramadan in years in their homeland, many Syrians who’ve recently trickled back in from abroad have been celebrating the end of the Assad family’s rule in December after a fast-paced offensive. They are relishing some new freedoms and savoring some old traces of the lives they once knew.

They enjoy family reunions but many also face challenges as they adjust to a country ravaged by a prolonged civil war and now grappling with a complex transition. As they do, they grieve personal and communal losses: Killed and missing loved ones, their absence amplified during Ramadan. Destroyed or damaged homes. And family gatherings shattered by the exodus of millions.

A time for daily fasting and heightened worship, Ramadan also often sees joyous get-togethers with relatives over food and juices.

Aabour – one of the more than 370,000 Syrians the United Nations’ refugee agency, UNHCR, says have returned to the country since Assad’s ouster – delights in hearing the call to prayer from mosques signaling the end of the daily fast. In her Lebanon neighborhood, she said, there were no nearby mosques and she relied on phones to know when to break the fast.

The hardest part, she added, is sitting for the fast-breaking meal known as “iftar” without some loved ones, including her father and a son, who she said was killed before the family fled Syria.

She bitterly recalled how her child, who she said was about 10 when killed, liked a rice and peas dish for iftar and would energetically help her, carrying dishes from the kitchen.

“I used to tell him, ‘You’re too young,’ but he would say, ‘No, I want to help you,’” she said, sitting on the floor in her in-laws’ house which her family now shares with relatives.

Faraj al-Mashash, her husband, said he’s not currently working, accumulating more debt and caring for an ill father.

The family borrowed money to fix his father’s home in Daraya. It was damaged and looted, but still standing.

Many Daraya homes aren’t.

Part of Rural Damascus and known for its grapes and its furniture workshops, Daraya was one of the centers of the uprising against Assad. The conflict devolved into armed insurgency and civil war after Assad crushed what started as largely peaceful protests; this Ramadan, Syrians marked the 14th anniversary of the civil war’s start.

Daraya suffered killings and saw massive damage during fighting. It endured years of government besiegement and aerial campaigns before a deal was struck between the government and rebels in 2016 that resulted in the evacuation of fighters and civilians and control ceded to the government.

Today, in parts of Daraya, children and others walk past walls with gaping holes in crumbling buildings. In some areas, a clothesline or bright-colored water tank provides glimpses of lives unfolding among ruins or charred walls.

Despite it all, al-Mashash said, it’s home.

“Isn’t Daraya destroyed? But I feel like I am in heaven.”

Still, “there’s sadness,” he added. “A place is only beautiful with its people in it. Buildings can be rebuilt, but when a person is gone, they don’t come back.”

In Lebanon, al-Mashash struggled financially and was homesick for Daraya, for the familiar faces that used to greet him on its streets. Shortly after Assad’s ouster, he returned.

This Ramadan, he’s re-lived some traditions, inviting people for iftar and getting invited, and praying at a mosque where he has cherished memories.

Some of those who had left Daraya, and now returned to Syria, say their homes have been obliterated or are in no condition for them to stay there. Some of them are living elsewhere in an apartment complex that had previously housed Assad-era military officers and is now sheltering some families, mostly ones who’ve returned from internal displacement.

The majority of those who’ve returned to Syria since Assad’s removal came from countries in the region, including Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, said Celine Schmitt, UNHCR’s spokesperson in Syria.

A main security fear for returnees is unexploded mines, Schmitt said, adding UNHCR provides “mine awareness sessions” in its community centers. It also offers legal awareness for those needing IDs, birth certificates or property documents and has provided free transportation for some who came from Jordan and Turkey, she said.

The needs of returnees, so far a fraction of those who’ve left, are varied and big – from work and basic services to house repairs or construction. Many, Schmitt said, hope for financial help to start a small business or rebuild, adding that more funding is needed.

“We’re calling on all of our donors,” she said. “There’s an opportunity now to solve one of the biggest displacement crises in the world, because people want to go back.”

Many of those who haven’t returned cite economic challenges and “the huge challenges they see in Syria” as some of the reasons, she said.

In January, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said living conditions in the country must improve for the return of Syrians to be sustainable.

Umaya Moussa, also from Daraya, said she fled Syria to Lebanon in 2013, returning recently as a mother of four, two of whom had never seen Syria before.

Moussa, 38, recalls, at one point, fleeing an area while pregnant and terrified, carrying her daughter and clutching her husband’s hand. The horrors have haunted her.

“I’d remember so many events that would leave me unable to sleep,” she said. “Whenever I closed my eyes, I would scream and cry and have nightmares.”

In Lebanon, she lived for a while in a camp, where she shared the kitchen and bathroom with others. “We were humiliated..., but it was still better than the fear we’ve lived through.”

She’d yearned for the usual Ramadan family gatherings.

For the first iftar this year, she broke her fast with her family, including brothers who, she said, as fighters against the Assad government, had previously moved to then rebel-controlled Idlib province.

Missing from the Ramadan meal was her father who died while Moussa was away.

Like Moussa, Saeed Kamel is intimately familiar with the pain of a joy incomplete. This Ramadan, he visited the grave of his mother who had died when he was in Lebanon.

“I told her that we’ve returned but we didn’t find her,” he said, wiping away tears.

And it wasn’t just her. Kamel had been hopeful that with Assad gone, they would find a missing brother in his prisons; they didn’t.

Kamel had vowed never to return to a Syria ruled by Assad, saying he felt like a stranger in his country. His home, he said, was damaged and looted.

But despite any difficulties, he held out hope. At least, he said, “the next generation will live with dignity, God willing.”

Kamel fondly recalled how – before their worlds changed – his family would exchange visits with others for most of Ramadan and neighbors would send each other iftar dishes.

“Ramadan is not nice without the family gatherings,” he said. “Now, one can barely manage.”

He can’t feel the same Ramadan spirit as before.

“The good thing,” he said, “is that Ramadan came while we’re liberated.”

Syrian Jews hope for revival of ancient heritage

Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:09:16 +0300

Damascus (AFP) – Syria's tiny Jewish community and Syrian Jews abroad are trying to build bridges after Bashar al-Assad's ouster in the hope of reviving their ancient heritage before the community dies out.

This week, a small number of Jews living in Damascus, along with others from abroad, held a group prayer for the first time in more than three decades, in the Faranj synagogue in Damascus's Old City.

"There were nine of us Jews (in Syria). Two died recently," community leader Bakhour Chamntoub told AFP in his home in the Old City's Jewish quarter.

"I'm the youngest. The rest are elderly people who stay in their homes," the tailor in his sixties added in a thick Damascus accent.

After Islamist-led rebels finally toppled Assad in December last year after nearly 14 years of conflict, the country's dwindling community has recently welcomed back several Syrian Jews who had emigrated.

Syria's millennia-old Jewish community was permitted to practise their faith under Assad's father, Hafez, and had friendly relations with their fellow countrymen.

But the strongman restricted their movement and prevented them from travelling abroad until 1992. After that, their numbers plummeted from around 5,000 to just a handful of individuals, headed by Chamntoub, who oversees their affairs.

AFP correspondents met with Chamntoub, known to neighbours and friends as "Eid", after he returned from burying an elderly Jewish woman.

"Now there are seven of us," he said, adding that a Palestinian neighbour had looked after the woman during her final days.

'Tree uprooted'

The 1967 Arab-Israeli war cast a heavy cloud over the Jewish communities in several Arab countries.

Syria lost most of the strategic Golan Heights to Israel, which later annexed them in a move never recognised by the international community as a whole.

Chamntoub said the community did not experience any "harassment" under Bashar al-Assad's rule.

He said an official from the new Islamist-led administration had visited him and assured him the community and its properties would not be harmed.

Chamntoub expressed hope of expanding ties between the remaining Jews in Syria and the thousands living abroad to revive their shared heritage and restore places of worship and other properties.

On his Facebook page, he publishes news about the community -- usually death notices -- as well as images of the Jewish quarter and synagogues in Damascus.

He says nostalgic Syrian Jews abroad often make comments, recalling the district and its surroundings.

At the Faranj synagogue, Syrian-American Rabbi Yusuf Hamra, 77, led what he said was the first group prayer in decades.

"I was the last rabbi to leave Syria," he said, adding that he had lived in the United States for more than 30 years.

"We love this country," said Hamra, who arrived days earlier on his first visit since emigrating.

"The day I left Syria with my family, I felt I was a tree that had been uprooted," he said.

'Family ties' abroad

His son Henry, travelling with him, said he was happy to be in the synagogue.

"This synagogue was the home for all Jews -- it was the first stop for Jews abroad when they would visit Syria," the 47-year-old said.

When war erupted in Syria in 2011 with Assad's brutal suppression of anti-government protests, synagogues shuttered and the number of Jews visiting plummeted.

In the now devastated Damascus suburb of Jobar, a historic synagogue that once drew pilgrims from around the world was ransacked and looted, with a Torah scroll believed to be one of the world's oldest among the items stolen.

Chamntoub said his joy at publicly worshipping in the Faranj synagogue again was "indescribable".

He expressed hope that "Jews will return to their neighbourhood and their people" in Syria, saying: "I need Jews with me in the neighbourhood."

Hamra said that like many emigrants, he was hesitant about returning permanently.

"My freedom is one thing, my family ties are another," he said, noting that many in the 100,000-strong diaspora were long established in the West and reluctant to give up their lives and lifestyles there.

Chamntoub said many Jews had told him they regretted leaving Syria but that he doesn't expect "a full return".

"Maybe they will come for trips or to do business" but not to stay, he said.

He expressed hope of establishing a museum in Syria to commemorate its Jewish community.

"If they don't return or get married and have children here, we will end soon," he said.

Over a million Syrians return home, but major challenges lie ahead

MEE — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 02:45:31 +0300

When former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad was toppled in a surprise rebel offensive in early December, Faisal al-Turki Najjar was one of the first people to return to his home country.

Merely two weeks after the government fell, Najjar had already packed his bags, ready to return to Aleppo with his wife and children the next day.

The United Nations said on Tuesday that more than one million people have since returned to their homes in Syria, including 800,000 internally displaced Syrians and 280,000 Syrians who came back from abroad.

However, two months into his new life in Syria, Najjar speaks of challenges that may need time to be overcome.

"I haven't worked since my return," he told Middle East Eye, adding that the education his children are currently receiving is "very poor".

Despite this, he remains determined to contribute to the new phase in Syria and notes that the security situation has at least improved.

"While the security situation is stable, living conditions and the lack of job opportunities are the main issues," he said.

Enthusiasm to return despite the struggles

According to the UN's refugee agency (UNHCR), more than 14 million people were forced to flee their homes during the civil war in Syria. Around 7.4 million of those were internally displaced, while the rest went to neighbouring countries and beyond.

"It has been said for years by refugees in surveys and by analysts and policy people that the primary barrier for people returning to Syria was the security situation, primarily the regime," Emma Beals, a nonresident fellow at the Middle East Institute, told MEE.

Indeed, in a survey carried out by the UNHCR in 2024, only 1.4 percent of Syrian refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt said they intended to return to Syria within the next 12 months. That number rose to 27 percent in early 2025, following the fall of the Assad government.

"Now, that huge barrier has been lifted," Beals said. "This isn’t to say that there aren’t other barriers that exist but for some people, but that was the main reason they were not going back home."

Additionally, among those who said they wouldn’t or were not sure if they would return in the next year, 53 percent said they would return in the next five years.

UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi said on X that despite the eagerness of Syrians to return, "early recovery efforts must be bolder and faster, though, otherwise people will leave again: this is now urgent!"

‘How will one come back?’

In the UNHCR’s survey, key barriers to return included "concerns over available housing and status of refugees’ own properties, safety and security, economic challenges inside Syria and concerns about available basic services".

Additionally, 60 percent of respondents considered it important to make "go and see" visits before deciding to return, which some countries may not allow due to refugee regulations.

Najjar says that while some reconstruction works have begun around him, it remains slow. Most IDPs have chosen to stay in refugee camps until the winter season ends and their children's school year concludes.

While his area of Aleppo receives water and electricity, others are not nearly as fortunate.

"I saw some villages that are completely empty," he said. "How will one come back if there is nowhere to live, no electricity and no services? There is no infrastructure, even electricity cables were taken away. That is why people cannot come back."

Najjar said that some Syrian families who settled in the region are sending one of their members back to Syria, providing him with money to repair their homes in case they decide to return.

Since Assad's fall, Syria's reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts have been slow, partly due to the limited aid entering the country and the ongoing western sanctions against the former government, which continue to prevent any investments from flowing in.

"So, you have a new administration who have a huge task ahead of them trying to repair a country that has faced 14 years of conflict, and that won’t happen overnight, even in the best of situations," Beals said.

"It certainly won’t happen if there is not a concerted effort from the international community to help facilitate that through public, private and policy instruments."

Beals also echoes Grandi's words that Syrians who returned home only to find an unfavourable situation for a decent life and leave again are unlikely to return. She urged both regional and western states eager to deport Syrian refugees to exercise more patience.

"It is in the interest of politicians across the region and Europe to take a little time to ensure that the situation in Syria is supportive of mass returns in terms of social reconciliation, rehabilitation and reconstruction of houses, property and legal concerns, livelihood, so that when people choose to go back, they can rebuild their lives, wish to stay there and contribute to the new Syria," Beals said.

By Nader Durgham

Syrians stuck in camps after finding homes destroyed

AFP — Sat, 08 Feb 2025 10:24:48 +0300

Mehdi al-Shayesh thought he would quickly resettle in his central Syrian hometown after Bashar al-Assad was ousted, but like many others stuck in camps, he found his home uninhabitable.

“We were unbelievably happy when the regime fell,” the 40‐year‐old said from his small, concrete‐block house in Atme displacement camp, one of the largest and most crowded in the Idlib area in the northwest.

But when we reached our village in Hama province, we were disappointed,” said the father of four, who has been displaced since 2012.

“Our home used to be like a small paradise… but it was hit by bombing.” Now, after years of abandonment, it “is no longer habitable,” he told AFP.

Al-Assad’s December 8 ouster sparked the hope of return to millions of displaced across Syria and refugees abroad. However, many now face the reality of finding their homes and basic infrastructure badly damaged or destroyed.

Syria’s transitional authorities are counting on international support, particularly from wealthy Gulf Arab states, to rebuild the country after almost 14 years of devastating war.

Shayesh said he was happy to see relatives in formerly government-held areas after so many years, but he cannot afford to repair his home so has returned to the northwest.

In the icy winter weather, smoke rises from fuel heaters in the sprawling camp near the border with Turkey. It is home to tens of thousands of people living in close quarters in what were supposed to be temporary structures.

Homes “razed”

Shayesh expressed the hope that reconstruction efforts would take into account that families may have changed significantly during years of displacement.

“If we go back to the village now… there will be no home for my five brothers, and no land to build on,” he said, as rain poured outside.

“Just as we held out hope that the regime would fall – and thank God, it did – we hope that supportive countries will help people to rebuild and return,” he added.

Before al-Assad’s overthrow, more than five million people were estimated to live in opposition-held areas in the northwestern Idlib and Aleppo provinces, most of them displaced from elsewhere in Syria.

David Carden, UN deputy regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syria crisis, said that “over 71,000 people have departed camps in northwest Syria over the past two months.”

“But that’s a small fraction compared to the two million who remain and will continue to need life-saving aid,” he told AFP.

“Many camp residents are unable to return as their homes are destroyed or lack electricity, running water or other basic services. Many are also afraid of getting caught in minefields left from former front lines,” he added.

Mariam Aanbari, 30, who has lived in the Atme camp for seven years, said: “We all want to return to our homes, but there are no homes to return to.”

“Our homes have been razed to the ground,” added the mother of three who was displaced from Hama province.

Pitch a tent

Aanbari said her husband’s daily income was just enough to buy bread and water.

“It was difficult with Bashar al-Assad and it’s difficult now,” she told AFP, her six‐month‐old asleep beside her as she washed dishes in freezing water.

Most people in the camp depend on humanitarian aid in a country where the economy has been battered by the war and a majority of the population lives in poverty.

“I hope people will help us, for the little ones’ sakes,” Aanbari said.

“I hope they will save people from this situation – that someone will come and rebuild our home and we can go back there in safety,” she added.

Motorbikes zip between homes and children play in the cold in the camp where Sabah al-Jaser, 52, and her husband Mohammed have a small corner shop.

“We were happy because the regime fell. And we’re sad because we went back and our homes have been destroyed,” said Jaser, who was displaced from elsewhere in Idlib province.

“It’s heartbreaking… how things were and how they have become,” said the mother of four, wearing a black abaya.

Still, she said she hoped to go back at the end of this school year.

“We used to dream of returning to our village,” she said, emphasizing that the camp was not their home.

“Thank God, we will return,” she said determinedly.

“We will pitch a tent.”

Syrian Christians in Aleppo express relief, hope after city's stabilization under opposition forces

AA — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 17:31:21 +0300

Syrian Christians in Aleppo have voiced their happiness following the return of stability, peace, and a sense of unity to the city, now under the control of opposition forces.

Residents are preparing to celebrate Christmas after years of conflict and fear.

During a visit to Aleppo's Aziziyeh neighborhood, a predominantly Christian area, Anadolu photographers captured scenes of life returning to normal. Shops have reopened, and people are once again strolling through the streets.

Since Nov. 27, clashes have erupted between anti-regime groups and regime troops in several areas across the country. On Nov. 29, the anti-regime forces entered Aleppo.

Smiles and relief

“Look at my face. I’m smiling. Why? Because I’m happy. I was terrified before, but now there’s love, and God is with us,” Joseph Fannon, a local shop owner, expressed his relief and joy while talking to Anadolu.

Fannon recalled the initial fear but emphasized the kindness shown by the opposition forces. “They came with roses and bread. How could I resist them? I embraced them,” he said.

“Since yesterday, a thousand people hugged me and kissed my head and shoulders. They called me their fellow Syrian, their brother. These are not strangers; they are my people.”

Speaking about displaced Aleppo residents, Fannon added: “Many have called me, asking for a safe return. We need to open the roads for them. Look at these empty buildings—they should come home.”

He highlighted the hardships endured during the siege, including shortages of electricity, fuel, and gas. “Bread was scarce, rationed through a smart card system. Today, I’ve distributed 500 bundles of bread for free because there’s now enough for everyone. With full stomachs comes love,” he said.

Christmas celebrations after years of conflict

Regarding Christmas celebrations, Fannon remarked: “Christmas represents the coming of Christ—love and peace. We celebrate with our Muslim brothers during their holidays, and they celebrate with us. Christ brought us love, and we set a Santa Claus symbol which represents the gifts it will give.”

He concluded with a heartfelt appeal to Syrians: "I say, come back. Aleppo is safe now and to those who are abroad: Everything has returned—peace, work, and faith. I used to live in fear, but now I say, welcome home.”

'Bonds between Christians, Muslims here are strong'

Other residents also echoed this optimism.

Umm Aziz Bahou, who recently returned from Italy, said: “The opposition members who entered Aleppo are like our own children. The bonds between Christians and Muslims here are strong.”

She also pointed to the ongoing needs in the city, adding: “Right now, we need clean water, sanitation, and other basics. But we are very happy.”

Manu Kyushkaryan, another resident, spoke of challenges such as high living costs and disrupted communications. “We can’t easily contact relatives to let them know what’s happening.”

“Water shortages persist, even for drinking, though electricity supply has improved significantly,” he explained.

He also called attention to rising prices. “The cost of living is too high. We need better regulations on prices to make life easier for everyone. Despite these challenges, we feel more comfortable and are returning to normal routines,” he said.

Reflecting on Christmas, Kyushkaryan added: “Aleppo endured bombings and hardship during the war. But with the return of friends, we can begin a new chapter. Our hopes for a peaceful and quiet life grow stronger every day.”

'We want to live and die here'

He also delivered a message to the international community, saying: “We don’t need money. We need our schools, churches, and heritage preserved. We are Syrians Aleppans. We want to live and die here.”

Clashes between Syrian regime forces and anti-regime groups first erupted on Nov. 27 in the western countryside of Aleppo.

By Nov. 30, the armed forces had taken control of most of Aleppo’s city center and established dominance across Idlib province.

On Dec. 5, following intense fighting, anti-regime forces captured the city center of Hama.

Meanwhile, on Dec. 1, the Syrian National Army launched Operation Dawn of Freedom against the PKK/YPG terror group in the Tel Rifaat district of Aleppo's countryside, liberating the area from terrorist elements.

Leaving Syria's civil war to be a mercenary in Africa

BBC — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 13:45:06 +0300

For more than 10 years, Abu Mohammad has been living in a tent with his family in northern Syria, displaced by the long-running civil war. Unable to earn enough to support them, he, like hundreds of others, has decided to travel via Turkey to Niger to work as a mercenary.

Abu Mohammad (not his real name), who is 33, and his wife have four young children - they have no running water or toilet and rely on a small solar panel to charge his phone. Their tent is sweltering in summer and freezing in winter, and leaks when it rains.

“Finding work has become extremely difficult," he says. He is a member of Turkish-backed opposition forces that have been fighting President Bashar al-Assad for more than a decade.

The faction he works for pays him less than $50 (£40) a month, so when Turkish recruiters appeared offering $1,500 a month to work in Niger, he decided it was the best way to earn more money.

He says Syrian faction leaders help facilitate the process and after “faction taxes and agents” he would still be left with at least two-thirds of the money. “And if I die in battle [in Niger], my family will receive compensation of $50,000," he adds.

Violence in West Africa's Sahel region has worsened in recent years as a result of conflict with jihadist groups. Niger and its neighbours Mali and Burkina Faso have all been affected - and all three countries have experienced military coups in the past few years, partly as a result of the instability.

Abu Mohammad is not alone in wanting to go to Niger.

Ali (not his real name), who lives in a tent in rural Idlib, joined Syria’s opposition forces 10 years ago when he was 15. He says he is paid less than $50 a month too, which lasts him five days. He has had to borrow to support his family and sees Niger as the only way to pay off his debts. "I want to leave the military profession entirely and start my own business," he says.

And for Raed (not his real name), another 22-year-old opposition fighter, going to Niger feels like the only way to build up enough money to “achieve my dream of marriage and starting a family".

Since December 2023, more than 1,000 Syrian fighters have travelled to Niger via Turkey, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which monitors the conflict in Syria through a network of sources on the ground. They tend to sign up for six months, but some have now extended the contract to a year.

The Turkish connection

Before they go, the official line is that the men will be protecting Turkish projects and commercial interests in Niger.

Turkey has extended both its political influence and business operations in the region, selling equipment such as drones to Niger to help it combat militant jihadist groups. It is also involved in mining the country’s natural resources, which include gold, uranium and iron ore.

But the recruits know that despite what they are told, when they arrive in Niger, the reality can be very different.

The SOHR and friends of mercenaries who have already worked in Niger told the BBC that Syrians had ended up under Russian command fighting militant jihadist groups in the border triangle between Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso.

Niger's democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum was overthrown a year ago, and since then the junta has cut Western ties.

“Niger started looking for new allies and found a suitable alternative in Russia," explains Nathaniel Powell, a researcher on the Sahel at Oxford Analytica. “Russian weapons are cheaper than Western ones. Russia also offers military resources and training and shows a willingness to adapt to local requirements without imposing strict conditions, unlike its Western counterparts.”

The prospect of fighting under Russian command poses a dilemma for Syrian fighters who are opposed to the Syrian regime because Russia has been a staunch supporter of President Assad.

“We are mercenaries here and mercenaries there,” says Abu Mohammad, “but I am on a Turkish mission, I will not accept orders from the Russians.”

But he may not have a choice, as Raed acknowledges. “I hate these forces but I have to go for economic reasons,” he says.

They are all still waiting to sign their contacts which they will do “just before or during travel”, says Raed. He explains that the process is secretive and he knows one man who was imprisoned by a Syrian opposition faction “for leaking some details of the operation in Africa and the registration mechanism”.

The recruits we spoke to said their faction leaders had told them that a Turkish company called SADAT would look after them once the contracts were signed and would be involved in arranging their travel and logistics.

About five years ago, Abu Mohamad went to Libya where he worked as a mercenary for six months and says that was also arranged by SADAT.

The SOHR also claims that, based on information from other mercenaries who have already been to Niger, SADAT is involved in the process.

We have not been able to independently verify these claims. We contacted SADAT, which vehemently denied recruiting or deploying Syrian fighters to Niger, saying the claims “had no connection with the truth… we do not carry out any activities in Niger”. It also said it had no activities in Libya apart from a “military sport” project more than a decade ago which it had had to withdraw from because of the crisis there.

The company added that it did "not provide services to non-state actors" but rather provided “consultancy, training and logistics services to armed forces and security forces in the field of defence and security according to the Turkish Commercial Code”.

But private companies are used by the government in Ankara to recruit and send Syrian mercenaries to Niger, according to the SOHR. The organisation’s director, Rami Abdul Rahman, accuses the Turkish state of exploiting Syrians with no money and dire economic prospects.

The BBC put these allegations to the Turkish ministry of foreign affairs, but we have not received a response.

This is not the first time the Turkish government has been accused of sending Syrian fighters abroad. Several reports, including one by the US Department of Defence, have documented Turkish-backed Syrian fighters in Libya - Turkey previously acknowledged that Syrian fighters were present there but did not admit recruiting them. It has also denied that it recruited and deployed Syrian mercenaries to the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region in the Caucasus.

Life in Niger

Conditions in Niger mean that staying in touch with families in Syria can be very difficult. When the recruits arrive their phones are confiscated, according to Abdul Rahman of the SOHR. And Abu Mohammad says that his friends in Africa “can contact their families once every two weeks, sometimes less”.

He adds that they can’t speak to their wives or parents themselves, and communication has to go through their superiors in Niger “who reassure the fighters' families that they are fine”.

Ali adds that some of his friends who travelled to Niger told him they spent most of their time “inside military bases, waiting for orders to fight”.

And not all of them make it home. According to the SOHR, nine have been killed in Niger since December 2023. The bodies of four of them have been returned to Idlib but have not yet been identified.

Raed and Ali say their families do not want them to go, so they may end up lying and pretending that they are going to Turkey to train for a few months.

Abu Mohammed’s family is not keen on the idea either. “If I had the means to live a decent life, I wouldn’t do this kind of job if you offered me a million dollars,” he says, but adds: “If my son asked me for a bike, I could never afford it - it’s these things that are pushing me to go.”

The names of Abu Mohammad, Ali and Raed have been changed for security reasons.

War on Gaza Strains Relations between Iran, Syria

Asharq Al-Awsat — Tue, 07 May 2024 16:28:35 +0300

It appears that the war on Gaza has impacted Iran’s military deployment in Syria. Local sources said Tehran has started to put in place plans for the relocation of Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) headquarters from the Damascus countryside to regions close to the border with Lebanon after the killing of several of its prominent members in Israeli strikes in recent months.

Syria has notably taken “neutral” and even “cold” stances towards Iran in wake of these developments, amid Iranian suspicions that Syrian security agencies could have leaked information about its officers who were later targeted by Israel.

Iran also appears to be alarmed by Damascus’ openness to overtures to return to the Arab fold, which could be interpreted as distancing itself from Tehran.

Asharq Al-Awsat was in Syria where it witnessed how the deployment of gunmen at the Sayyeda Zainab region has become limited to Lebanese Hezbollah members when Iran’s presence used to be felt in the past. The area is a destination for Shiite visitors from Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Local sources in the town of Hujeirah north of Sayyeda Zainab told Asharq Al-Awsat: “This is the headquarters of Iranian religious and military leaders. Ever since Israel intensified its strikes on the region, we have started to see very little of them. We have hardly seen them as of late. They have disappeared.”

Israel struck in April the Iranian consulate in Damascus, leaving seven people dead, including Mohammad Reza Zahedi, commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force in Syria and Lebanon. The development was a blow to Iran who after a decade of conflict in Syria, had sent tens of thousands of Iraqi, Afghan and Pakistani militia members to back the Damascus regime.

Fears and evacuation plans

A source close to a high-ranking Iranian “adviser” in Syria spoke of the deep fear over his life the latter is experiencing in wake of the repeated Israeli strikes. He quoted the adviser as saying that he was being forced to “sleep in the open over fears for his life”.

Sources from pro-Iran militias in the Damascus countryside said Tehran has come up with plans to evacuate IRGC members from Syria given “the mounting Israeli pressure.” They are expected to leave through Damascus International Airport and across the border with Iraq.

The IRGC had already evacuated its known headquarters in the Damascus countryside and relocated to areas to close to the Lebanese border, said local sources that observed their movement.

Israel had intensified its strikes against Iranian targets in Syria since the eruption of the war on Gaza on October 7.

Sayyeda Zainab

Sayyed Zainab is viewed as the main headquarters of the Iranian forces in Syria. Now, it has become devoid of Iranians or militias loyal to them. The forces quit the area in wake of an Israeli strike that killed Reza Mousavi, a top commander, in December.

Asharq Al-Awsat toured the area and noted that gunmen deployed in the area are limited to Hezbollah members.

In spite of the situation on the ground, Iranian Ambassador to Syria Hossein Akbari stressed that his country will not withdraw militarily from the country.

Commenting to Syria’s Al-Watan newspaper on reports that the Iranian advisers were leaving, he said: “We are present in Syria, and we will never withdraw from it.”

Iran was Syria’s top backer from the early days of the Syrian conflict that broke out in 2011. It has supported it on the political, military and economic levels. Around 3,000 IRGC members are deployed in the country, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Influence

Hezbollah is the most powerful Shiite militia in Syria and it comes only second to the IRGC in terms of influence, a source close to the party told Asharq Al-Awsat.

The party is focusing on managing communication with regular Syrians, it added. The party leaders are “very keen on avoiding provoking Syria’s Sunni majority.” They have forged good relations with society figures in areas where they are deployed, such as al-Qusayr in Homs and al-Qalamoun in the western Damascus countryside.

In many instances, they have protected locals against the practices of the Syrian security forces, said the source.

For the Syrian authorities, the discipline of Hezbollah members and leaderships is seen in a positive light, contrasted with the Iraqi militias that are undisciplined, said another source.

On relations between Damascus and Hezbollah, a source close to the Syrian authorities told Asharq Al-Awsat that Hezbollah leaderships “always intervene to ease tensions that may arise with Iranian or Iraqi militias.”

“We enjoy a long history of cooperation with them. They understand our way of thinking,” he added.

Moreover, he said Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah has long used his personal influence with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to “resolve several disputes”. He recently played a role in easing tensions between Syria and Iran, leading him to defend during a recent televised address Syria’s decision to not become involved in the war on Gaza.

Syria distances itself

Contrary to Iran’s allies in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen, the authorities in Syria chose to remain on the sidelines in the war. For example, the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights has seen little unrest.

Sources in Damascus said: “The Iranians fail to understand Syria’s neutral position on Gaza and its refusal to open the Golan front.”

The Iranians believe their country “has paid dearly in defending the Syrian regime, which in turn, is luring dialogue offers from the West that are seen as a reward for its decision to distance itself” from the war. “This is something the Iranians will not accept,” they added.

They explained: “Some Syrian officials believe that any Iranian regional gain will inevitably come at Damascus’ expense as evidenced by how terrified the regime was at the beginning of the war on Gaza of Iran and the United States possibly striking a deal.”

As tensions between Damascus and Tehran continue, Iranian advisers in Syria have said they no longer hold the same respect among the people.

“We have no value here in Syria. No one cares about us. Back home, I was in charge of an entire province and the people were grateful to me. Here, no one even respects us,” a source quoted an Iranian general in Syria as saying.

Jaramana: The Iraqi ‘capital’

The situation is viewed differently by the leaders of various Iraqi militias. They believe they know the Syrians better than the Iranians and Lebanese militants.

“Hezbollah officials believe we must cater to the Syrian officials. The Iranians share the same view, but our experience has shown that the Syrians may openly adopt a hard line, while in fact they are actually much weaker than they appear,” a source quoted a medium-ranked Iraqi militia member as saying.

Damascus officials have criticized Iraqis for their excessive involvement with the Syrians, most notably in Jaramana city in the eastern Damascus countryside. The city has become known as the Iraqi “capital” given the heavy presence of the militias there.

The source said the fighters spend their time at the nightclubs in the city, “which poses high security risks.” He also spoke of doubts harbored by the Iranians that the militias may have leaked information about the Iranians and Hezbollah in Syria.

Hezbollah has been informed of several leaks that can be traced back to its own members.

Relations turn cold

Syrian security agencies have also been suspected of leaking sensitive information about the Iranians to Israel that led to the killings of Iranian officials, “who died in defense of the Syrian regime.”

President Assad has also referred to retirement several security and military officials who were in charge when Iran was deepening its influence during the war and so understand all it has offered the country, further straining relations between Tehran and Damascus.

Sources following the course of Syrian-Iranian relations told Asharq Al-Awsat that the developments took place as Iran is secretly alarmed by the Arab openness towards Damascus and the regime turning towards the Arab fold.

The shift is seen as a response by Damascus to agreements reached between Iran and the US that did not sit well with the regime. One such deal was the 2022 agreement reached between Lebanon and Israel over their joint maritime border, said the sources.

The tensions continue. Iran has been exerting more pressure on the Damascus government to pay debts owed to it, in a bid by Tehran to impose more restrictions and extract more commitments from it so as to limit is ability to maneuver in the region.

In August 2023, a classified Iranian government document was leaked to the media. It spoke of how Tehran spent 50 billion dollars on the war in Syria in ten years. The sum is viewed as a debt it wants Damascus to pay in the form of Iranian investments in phosphates, oil and other resources in Syria.

The Syrians at the time approached the Iranians for a denial of the document, but they refused, saying they do not comment on media claims. This was interpreted as an Iranian move to lead Syria and Arab countries to believe that Damascus was shackled by Iranian debts, informed sourced told Asharq Al-Awsat.

The sources following the Syrian-Iranian ties quoted a Syrian official as saying: “We went along with the Iranians, but we realized that they have not fulfilled several of their commitments. We are now trying to get out of this situation. This is our chance and we must explore it for the sake of the future of our country.”

Gaza rift

The war on Gaza has revealed a rift between Tehran and Damascus. The informed sources said Damascus sensed there was a possibility to normalize relations with the West because it refused to become involved in the war.

Signs have emerged that Syrian-Iranian relations have grown cold. No Iranian officials were invited to the Quds Day commemoration that was held south of Damascus in April. Posters of the Iranian president, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Hezbollah’s Nasrallah were noticeably absent at the event in contrast to previous years.

Meanwhile, a fuel shortage in Syria appears to have deepened, another sign of strains with Iran, which is the country’s main supplier.

And on the advent of the holy fasting month of Ramadan earlier this year, Assad exchanged cables of congratulations with several Arab leaders. His exchange with Iranian officials was notably not covered by the media. Congratulations on the Eid al-Fitr holiday with Iran were also left out of the coverage.

Teaching refugee women to drive goes farther than their destination

AP — Fri, 12 Apr 2024 13:24:05 +0300

In a large, empty parking lot outside Atlanta, one car slowly careened around parking spaces. From the passenger seat, driving instructor Nancy Gobran peered over large sunglasses at her student, a 30-year-old Syrian refugee woman who was driving for one of the first times in her life.

“Turn the wheel and then accelerate,” Gobran, the owner of Safety Driving School, said softly in Arabic. Gripping the wheel tightly, the student cautiously rounded the corners of the parking lot for nearly an hour.

Gobran has been working for nearly five years with a program called Women Behind the Wheel, which offers 14 hours of free drivers’ education to mostly refugee and immigrant women. Many of the women who enroll come from countries that discourage women from driving or working outside their home.

It's not a new concept, but Women Behind the Wheel is unique to Georgia. Similar programs exist across the country, such as Refugee Women Rising in Omaha, Nebraska, which offers driver's education, seat belt safety and car seat installation help, and Driving Opportunity in Denver, which offers classroom and road instruction to refugee women.

“Helping a lot of refugees is not easy,” Gobran said. “At the beginning, it’s kind of awkward for some people for their first time being behind the wheel, but by the end of the program, they gained the benefit they’ve been looking for.”

Students sign up for the driving program through Ethaar, an Atlanta-area nonprofit organization that aids refugee families through their resettlement. Its name is an Arabic word meaning altruism and affection.

Ethaar co-founder Mona Megahed said she started Women Behind the Wheel to fill a glaring need many refugee families have that partially stem from cultural differences.

“We named it Women Behind the Wheel for a reason,” Megahed said. “We really wanted to empower our female clients. A lot of these women were struggling because they were fully dependent on their spouses.”

She noted some husbands held beliefs from their home countries that their wives shouldn’t drive or work.

“We quickly explained, well, you can’t really provide if you’re making minimum wage and you have six mouths to feed in addition to helping with your wife,” Megahed said. “So she also needs to kind of learn how to drive and find a job and get out there.”

The stress can be compounded for families in metro Atlanta, where many people rely on cars to get around. Most of the refugee families Ethaar works with settle in Clarkston, a suburb 15 miles (24 kilometers) northeast of Atlanta.

“Most of the time because of lack of access to transportation, it’s hard for them to get to their jobs,” said Sarah Karim, Ethaar's executive director. “It’s hard for them to go study anywhere except for what is close by, and there aren’t that many options, unfortunately.”

Their clientele depends on the shifting global landscape and conflicts, Karim said.

“Lately, we’ve observed various nationalities among our clients, including families and individuals from Afghanistan, Burma, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Pakistan, Iraq, and Eritrea,” Karim said.

So far, there have been 230 graduates of the program, including a few men. The driving program typically has a three-to-four-month waitlist because of the demand. The U.S. government gives refugee families up to 12 months of financial and medical assistance, so there is limited time to become autonomous.

“The point is for every refugee to reach self-sufficiency or self-reliance,” said Dorian Crosby, a Spelman College professor who is an expert in refugee migration.

“Learning how to drive and getting access to a license is critical to refugee women reaching that level of self-reliance,” Crosby said. “It’s not just to meet the government regulations of the cutoff, but they now can sustain themselves. It is also such an emotional boost.”

Instructors like Gobran are fluent in Arabic, which makes students more comfortable. She watched her client slowly gain confidence over her hourlong session. A smile crept across her face. A month later, her student passed her driving test.

“This is their new home, and they have to understand how this country works,” Gobran said. “It starts with the very little thing as driving to build a future.”

Mustafa Suleyman: the new head of Microsoft AI with concerns about his trade

The Guardian — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 13:19:01 +0300

Like many artificial intelligence pioneers, Mustafa Suleyman has expressed concerns about a technology he has played an important role in developing.

Speaking at the global AI safety summit last year, the 39-year-old Briton said there might have to be a pause in development towards the end of the decade. “I don’t rule it out. And I think that at some point over the next five years or so, we’re going to have to consider that question very seriously,” he said.

Suleyman will now be mulling that question as the head of a new AI division within Microsoft, a superpower in the field because of its multibillion-dollar investment in OpenAI, the developer of the ChatGPT chatbot. In his new role, he will have to balance his caution with the drive to innovate and commercialise.

Andrew Rogoyski, of the Institute for People-Centred AI at the University of Surrey, says Suleyman’s rationale for joining Microsoft is probably straightforward. “If you’re really concerned about the safety of AI, you can shout from the sidelines and hope that somebody listens to you, or you can be in the thick of it, influencing the critical decisions in arguably the world’s leading AI company,” he said.

But like other practitioners who warn about AI’s threats, Suleyman also extols its potential. His award-nominated book The Coming Wave says emerging technologies such as AI and synthetic biology will offer “extraordinary new medical advances and clean energy breakthroughs, creating not just new businesses but new industries and quality of life improvements in almost every imaginable area”.

The flipside is that they could “present an existential threat to nation-states – risks so profound they might disrupt or even overturn the current geopolitical order”. Suleyman added: “They open pathways to immense AI-powered cyber-attacks, automated wars that could devastate countries, engineer pandemics, and a world subject to unexplainable and yet seemingly omnipotent forces.”

Suleyman will be chief executive of a new organisation called Microsoft AI, focusing on the US company’s consumer products and research, which includes the Copilot chatbot and the new Bing browser that uses the technology underlying ChatGPT. Several senior employees at Suleyman’s Inflection AI startup – which is developing generative AI tools for companies – will also join the new Microsoft division.

Suleyman was raised in north London, the son of a Syrian taxi driver and an English nurse. He dropped out of Oxford Universityat 19 and in 2010 he co-founded the AI lab DeepMind with his friends Demis Hassabis and Shane Legg.

DeepMind was bought by Google for £400m in 2014 and is now the core of Google’s AI efforts, having merged with another unit to become Google DeepMind under Hassabis’s leadership.

It was at the centre of several breakthroughs in AI – the term for computer systems that perform tasks typically associated with intelligent beings – including creating the AlphaGo AI program that defeated the world’s best player at Go, a Chinese board game, and the AlphaFold project that predicts how proteins fold into 3D shapes, a process that has paved the way for breakthroughs in areas including tackling disease.

Suleyman was placed on leave from DeepMind in 2019 after complaints about his management style – he later apologised, admitting he was “very demanding and pretty relentless” – and left Google in 2022, founding Inflection in the same year and driving the business to a $4bn valuation in 2023.

His arrival at Microsoft reflects the UK’s standing in the AI talent market. According to a report by Zeki, which researches the global AI job market, the UK itself is now importing more AI talent than it exports.

“The hiring of Mustafa Suleyman fits the longstanding trend of big US tech hiring top UK AI talent,” says Tom Hurd, Zeki’s chief executive. “But in the last two years, the UK has started to attract more top AI talent than it loses, especially top female AI scientists and engineers.”

Dame Wendy Hall, regius professor of computer science at the University of Southampton, says the news about Suleyman shows that “at the executive level there is demand for British AI talent” but complacency must not set in.

“There needs to be constant focus on early development stages and that means fostering AI and related skills such as mathematics at the school, apprenticeship, university and PhD levels.”

Necessity is mother of invention: ‘Gaza’s Newton' brightens darkness of shelters with wind energy

Sat, 17 Feb 2024 06:56:00 +0300

Palestinian teen Hussam al-Attar has literally brought light to a displacement shelter in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip after he and his family fled from the ongoing Israeli offensive on the enclave.

The fifteen-year-old, nicknamed “Gaza's Newton,” uses old wind turbines to generate electricity.

“The displaced people inside the camp nicknamed me ‘Gaza's Newton,’ appreciating my role in lighting it up,” Al-Attar told Anadolu.

“After 20 days of our displacement to Rafah and the electricity being cut off and no available source of energy to illuminate the tents of displacement, I thought of creating a windmill to illuminate the darkness of the camp,” he said.

Since the destructive war against Gaza began Oct. 7, Israel has cut off water, electricity and fuel to 2.3 million Palestinians suffering from extremely dire conditions due to a 17-year blockade.

After international pressure, Israel allowed very limited humanitarian aid into Gaza, including fuel for humanitarian needs but not for electricity, through the Rafah crossing -- designated for individuals.

“I thought of how to illuminate the place, so I brought a fan and installed it to convert the kinetic energy from the wind force into electrical energy,” Al-Attar said while inspecting his project in the camp near the border with Egypt.

His initial attempts to light the camp failed and it took three attempts and time for the idea to succeed.

The turbines used by the teen to generate power are mounted on one of the metal poles inside the camp.

“I managed to light up the place intermittently, as the place lights up when there is wind, and when the wind slows down, darkness prevails in the camp,” he said.

Rafah is one of the most densely populated areas in the Gaza Strip, after the Israeli army forced Palestinians from the northern, central, and southern areas of the enclave to flee there, where about 1.4 million Palestinians reside, according to a previous statement by Rafah municipality's Mayor Ahmed al-Soufi.

Al-Attar hopes to obtain supplies to develop the project, especially batteries, that will allow him to store energy and use it during times when there is no wind.

He said Rafah markets lack the batteries for the project, but he insists on continuing to develop the project even if the operating period is limited to times with strong winds.

“I directly connected the electrical installations until the rest of the supplies and batteries are available to complete the project and have the ability to store electricity,” he said.

Al-Attar noted that before the outbreak of the war, he was able to invent an underwater light and a safety zipper for a wireless door closure, in addition to a fan to cool the hot summer atmosphere.

Since Oct. 7, Israel has been waging a devastating onslaught on the Gaza Strip, causing thousands of civilian fatalities, mostly children and women, as well as an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe and massive infrastructure destruction.

Israel’s onslaught has led Tel Aviv to appear before the International Court of Justice on charges of "genocide."

War on Gaza: Palestinians forced to mix animal fodder with flour to make bread

MEE — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 12:32:20 +0300

Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to resort to extreme measures amid growing starvation as a result of Israel's relentless bombardment and a full siege imposed since October.

Many families across the besieged enclave had to mix various ingredients into flour to make bread using traditional methods, due to the scarcity of food.

Families have been forced to use animal fodder and bird feed baked into their bread, sometimes causing medical problems, particularly in young children.

Abu Alaa, an owner of a mill in central Gaza, said that the food available to people is inedible.

“Something should be done about this urgently,” he told Middle East Eye.

“People are mixing bird feed and animal food into their food. This is not right, it's not healthy. People are grinding this and mixing it into their bread.”

He explained that this is happening due to a lack of aid deliveries as well as the sharp skyrocketing prices of goods that are available.

Abu Alaa says that he has been forced to reduce the price of wheat due to the dire circumstances, despite rising costs hitting everyone.

Families wait in line for hours every day to get just a few pounds of flour. However, often, by the time families get to the front of the queue, the flour would have already run out. Meanwhile, on many occasions, people are forced to scatter due to Israeli bombardment.

Adverse effects on health

According to a report by the UN in December, 93 percent of the people in Gaza are facing “crisis levels of hunger,” and a quarter of the population of the strip faces “catastrophic hunger and starvation.”

Mixing animal feed into bread has already started to have adverse effects on people’s health, however, despite this, families say they have no other alternative.

Abu Anas, a local who lives near a mill, said that any food available in Gaza is no longer affordable, particularly after nearly all bakeries and supermarkets in the Strip have been bombed.

Instead, families are using “stone age” techniques and makeshift ovens to make food, and, if they have the means, sell it.

Residents are also pumping water from wells, and mixing sea water and wastewater amid a shortage of clean water.

Jaber, another local in Gaza, says that even if the taste is bad, he and others are mixing different types of flour and ingredients to make bread.

“Sometimes the bread is made and it comes out red or yellow because of the ingredients mixed in it,” he said, adding that this is not healthy.

Ground barley and corn are also being mixed into the flour.

In some cases, Palestinians have been forced to trawl through the ground to find scraps of food.

Skyrocketing prices of food

Mazen al-Terk, 50, said the situation has now become critical.

“We have stopped differentiating between donkey food and human food. We are eating anything, and no one is helping us. We call on all countries around the world to stand with us, because we can’t find food,” he said.

“We haven’t had access to pure white flour for three months now, since 9 October when Israel imposed the full siege. People are picking things up from the floor to eat them. Any flour that can be found is for around 700 shekels ($189),” he added.

According to Terk, before the war, a 50kg bag of flour only cost 100 shekels ($27).

The residents in Gaza say that using animal fodder in their bread, as well as certain other ingredients, has harmed their health, in addition to the lack of clean water and sanitation facilities.

“All of my children have stomach pains and diarrhoea, because of the food, water, and rubbish in the streets,” Terk said.

“We are all ill now in Gaza…no one is feeling what we’re going through.”

Starvation

Human Rights Watch has said that starvation is being used as a weapon of war in Gaza, calling it a war crime.

“Israeli forces are deliberately blocking the delivery of water, food, and fuel, while willfully impeding humanitarian assistance, apparently razing agricultural areas, and depriving the civilian population of objects indispensable to their survival,” the organisation said in a report.

The extreme levels of starvation come as Israeli protesters, including relatives of those taken captive to Gaza on 7 October, have been blocking emergency aid from reaching the enclave through the Kerem Shalom border crossing.

Palestinians waiting for aid inside Gaza have also been attacked by Israeli bombing in the past week.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday renewed calls for Israel to protect civilians, after a deadly Israeli strike on a UN facility a day earlier killed at least 12 Palestinians and wounded dozens of others.

The two tank shells that struck the UN shelter also left widespread devastation.

The US condemned the strike but avoided assigning blame, while Israel said it was probing the incident, according to Israeli media.

During a visit to Angola, Blinken told reporters that the UN shelter “is essential and it has to be protected".

More than 26,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war on 7 October, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said on Friday. Israel launched an air and ground offensive in Gaza following a Hamas attack that killed 1,200 Israelis.

Years of waiting, a miracle of four babies, one deadly strike

Mon, 23 Oct 2023 20:04:47 +0300

After 15 years of failing to conceive, Wafaa and Fadi al-Baba, a married couple from the Gaza Strip, thought they would need a miracle to have children.

Wafaa had long had a profile picture on her Facebook account featuring a woman in prayer with the caption: "God, give me what I wish to have."

And on 9 September, the miracle Wafaa and Fadi had prayed for happened when Maha, Khaled, Abdul-Khaleq, and Mahmoud - a quadruplet set of a girl and three boys - were born.

Despite over a decade of waiting, the couple had not given up hope and finally resorted to in vitro fertilisation treatment.

Their story became known among the people of Gaza, and many shared their congratulations to the happy couple on social media after the birth was reported on local news.

Tragically, however, the dream would prove to be short-lived. Exactly one month later, Wafaa and her four babies would be killed in an Israeli air strike on their home in Gaza City, leaving Fadi the sole survivor of his new family.

The 19 October attack also killed 10 more members of the al-Baba family. They are among the 5,087 people, the majority of whom are women and children, who have been killed in over two weeks of Israeli bombing.

The Israeli military has carried an unrelenting bombing campaign on the besieged Gaza Strip since Hamas launched a surprise land, air, and sea attack on Israel on 7 October. Around 1,400 people have been killed in Israel, the majority were civilians.

Fadi and Wafaa had chosen to name two of their children after their fathers, Khaled al-Baba and Abdul-Khaleq al-Swerki, a relative told Middle East Eye.

The tragic ending of Wafaa and Fadi’s story saw Palestinians and people around the world grieve the family on social media, with most highlighting the couple’s long journey to conceive children.

“Following a long life of trying, they finally had quadruplets. But after a month, Israel decided that this happiness must not continue, and killed Wafaa and her four children,” an X user wrote on the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Wafaa's sister, Duaa, also took to social media to express her grief over the loss of her sister and her babies.

She shared a photo of the family's home, now reduced to ruins, with the caption: "O’ visitor, be gentle when you knock, for there are no longer any people in the house."

(MEE)

Farmers turn to solar power in Syria's former breadbasket

AFP — Wed, 04 Oct 2023 12:37:13 +0300

Al-Haddadiya (Syria) (AFP) – At his farm in Syria's northeast, Abdullah al-Mohammed adjusts a large solar panel, one of hundreds that have cropped up over the years as farmers seek to stave off electricity shortages in the war-ravaged region.

Solar energy has offered a lifeline for the farmers amid drought and power shortages, but some warn the boom also has environmental costs in the once-fertile region.

"We are trying to revive our land," despite dwindling groundwater reserves, said Mohammed, 38, as he oriented the panel towards the sun near his cotton fields.

In his village of Al-Haddadiya in Hasakeh province, farmers are using solar energy to power irrigation systems for all kinds of crops, from vegetables to wheat, barley and cotton.

The father of three said he needs a reliable power supply to pump groundwater around 60 metres deep (nearly 200 feet) now -- compared to just 30 metres a few years back.

Northeast Syria is about 0.8 degrees Celsius (two degrees Fahrenheit) hotter today than it was 100 years ago and likely to experience drought every three years, according to a report last year by iMMAP, a Washington-based, data-focused non-profit.

The area was the country's breadbasket before 2011, when the government repressed peaceful protests, triggering a conflict that has killed more than 500,000 people and displaced millions.

The war has battered the country's infrastructure and industry, and the state barely supplies a few hours of electricity per day.

'Saved from extinction'

Farmers in the now Kurdish-held region used to rely on state electricity and subsidised generator fuel for water pumps and irrigation, but power outages and rising fuel costs have compounded the climate-related challenges.

"Solar energy has saved agriculture and farmers from extinction," Mohammed said, near a patch of waist-high plants and sunflowers swaying gently in the wind.

From the rebel-held northwest to government-controlled areas, solar panels have become common in Syria, providing power for homes, public institutions and even camps for the displaced.

Between 2011 and 2021, Syria's state electricity production "dropped significantly to almost 57 percent" and power generation capacity plunged to 65 percent, according to a 2022 United Nations report.

Across Hasakeh province, solar panels have become indispensable for agriculture.

Around 10 kilometres (six miles) from Al-Haddadiya, farmer Hamid al-Awda began using solar power six years ago.

He has now installed 272 solar panels across his vast farmlands.

"Most people started selling their generators and replacing them with solar energy," said Awda, 60.

"Farmers who cannot afford solar energy and generators have seen their crops wither and dry out," he said, sweat trickling down his face.

Downsides

Further north near the city of Qamishli, farmer Mohammed Ali al-Hussein said shortages of generator fuel once kept him from irrigating his crops for days.

"But now, we can water the lands from sunrise to sunset thanks to solar panels," said the 22-year-old, using a massive hose.

However, the iMMAP report also warned of a downside of the area's solar boom.

"Water pumps working on solar power... are also blamed for increased extraction and resulting in declining water table," the report said.

The rising use of groundwater wells also results in increased salinity, it added.

Didar Hasan from Wanlan, a local company involved in solar energy, said demand has boomed in northeast Syria in recent years amid power outages lasting up to 20 hours a day.

Demand will keep rising and "people will continue to rely heavily on solar energy, not because it is renewable... but because they need electricity," he told AFP.

While solar power has kept many farmers from abandoning their land and moving to the city, it comes with a future environmental cost, he warned.

Much of people's solar infrastructure is either "used, worn-out panels, imported from Europe where they are deemed electronic waste" or low-grade solar systems mostly made in China, he said.

Such materials have a lifespan of just a few years, Hasan added.

"After that, we will be left with tens of thousands of unusable solar panels -- essentially waste" -- in an area with no adequate facilities to process it, he said.

Syrian lawyer takes on mission to save books from war

Wed, 04 Oct 2023 12:35:53 +0300

ALEPPO, Syria, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- In the heart of the bustling city of Aleppo in northern Syria, Alaa al-Sayyed, a lawyer by profession and a historical researcher by passion, has spent more than 10 years on the rescue of the old books of Syria.

Al-Sayyed began to collect books and documents in Aleppo in 2012, when the city was burning from the Syrian civil war that broke out in 2011. Three years later, he launched a project to document the old books and publications under the name of Aleppo National Archive.

In 2018, Al-Sayyed started making digital copies of the books and uploading them online out of a passion for preserving history and a great affection for both books and his city. He continued to find rare and antiquated books and spent many hours making digital copies of them.

"We tried to salvage what we could through creating digital copies," the 52-year-old man recalled, regretting that many valuable books, magazines, and documents were burnt in Aleppo during the civil war.

As peace began to return to Aleppo, Al-Sayyed realized that there was a need to place his books on bookshelves for readers who prefer physical books in today's fast-paced digital world.

Six months ago, he founded the Paper Documents House, a brick-and-mortar bookstore, in order to share his enormous collection of vintage books, magazines, newspapers with readers.

"When we read books, we touch and smell the paper, and read the content. The process is a multi-dimensional interaction that retains the magic of books, which has been arguably overshadowed by the senseless online alternatives," he said.

Karam Al-Zibaq, an Aleppo-based engineer and researcher in Syrian history, said the move "is a pioneering step at a time when books have been neglected."

"It is a step towards reconsidering physical books and reviving paper culture," he said.

Thanks to Al-Sayyed's hard work and perseverance, the bookstore has become increasingly popular and more people could read the old books that he saved from the civil war.

"Children have started coming here to borrow magazines, old newspapers, and kids' stories. University students borrow research materials from us for their studies. I consider this a significant achievement," said Al-Sayyed.

Al-Sayyed believes another achievement of the bookstore lies in "its magic to evoke nostalgia and wonder by helping people find the old books they used to read."

"The older the books, the more enchanting they become," he said, adding that he hopes more people will recognize the value of old books and that more people will follow his lead to keep used books and disseminate the knowledge they contain.

Syrian baby born under earthquake rubble turns 6 months, happily surrounded by her adopted family

Sun, 06 Aug 2023 10:56:06 +0300

JINDERIS, Syria (AP) — A baby girl who was born under the rubble of her family home destroyed by the deadly earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria six months ago is in good health, loves her adopted family and likes to smile even to strangers.

The dark-haired baby Afraa survived 10 hours under the rubble after the Feb. 6 earthquake crushed to death her parents and four siblings in the northern Syrian town of Jinderis. When she was found, her umbilical cord was still connected to her mother.

Her story captivated the world at the time, and people from all over offered to adopt her.

After spending days at a hospital in north Syria, Afraa was released and handed over to her paternal aunt and her husband, who adopted her and are raising her along with their five daughters and two sons. Afraa was handed over to her aunt’s family days after a DNA test was conducted to make sure the girl and her aunt are biologically related, her adopted father, Khalil al-Sawadi, said.

On Saturday, baby Afraa was enjoying herself, swinging on a red swing hanging from the ceiling while al-Sawadi pushed her back and forth.

“This girl is my daughter. She is exactly the same as my children,” said al-Sawadi, sitting cross-legged with Afraa on his lap.

Al-Sawadi said he spends the day at an apartment he rented but at night the family goes to a tent settlement to spend the night, as his children are still traumatized by the earthquake which killed more than 50,000 people in southern Turkey and northern Syria.

According to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, more than 4,500 deaths and 10,400 injuries were reported in northwest Syria due to the earthquakes. It estimated that 43% of the injured are women and girls while 20% of the injured are children aged five to 14 years old.

The devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck in the early hours of Feb. 6, followed by multiple aftershocks. Among the hardest hit areas was rebel-held northwestern Syria that is home to some 4.5 million people, many of whom have been displaced by the country’s 12-year conflict that has killed half a million.

When Afraa grows up, Al-Sawadi says, he will tell her the story of how she was rescued and how her parents and siblings were killed in the devastating earthquake. He said that if he doesn’t tell her, his wife or children will.

A day after the baby arrived at the hospital, officials there named her Aya — Arabic for “a sign from God.” After her aunt’s family adopted her, she was given a new name, Afraa, after her late mother.

Days after Afraa was born, her adopted mother gave birth to a daughter, Attaa. Since then she has been breast-feeding both babies, al-Sawadi said.

“Afraa drinks milk and sleeps most of the day,” al-Sawadi said.

Al-Sawadi said he has received several offers to live abroad, but he said he refused because he wants to stay in Syria, where Afraa's parents lived and were killed.

Afraa’s biological father, Abdullah Turki Mleihan, was originally from Khsham, a village in eastern Deir el-Zour province, but left in 2014 after the Islamic State group captured the village, Saleh al-Badran, an uncle of Afraa’s father, said earlier this month.

“We are very happy with her, because she reminds us of her parents and siblings,” al-Sawadi said. “She looks very much like her father and her sister Nawara.”

___ Mroue reported from Beirut.

They fled Syria's war. Now, Syrian refugees in Jordan fear being forced to return

AP — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 19:22:23 +0300

As Jordan hosted regional talks this spring aimed at ending Syria’s isolation after more than a decade of civil war, Syrian refugee Suzanne Dabdoob felt a deep pressure in her brain and in her ears, she said, a fear she hadn’t felt since arriving to Jordan 10 years ago.

Ahead of the meeting, Syrian President Bashar Assad agreed that 1,000 Syrian refugees living in Jordan would be allowed to safely return home — a test case for the repatriation of far greater numbers. Jordan’s top diplomat spoke only of voluntary returns. But panic spread through working-class east Amman, where Dabdoob and many other Syrians have built new lives in multistory, cement-block buildings.

“I would rather die right here than go back to Syria,” said Dabdoob, 37, whose home was razed by airstrikes in the Syrian city of Homs.

She fled to Amman with her five children, her accountant husband, who dodged military service, and her sister, who she said is wanted for abandoning her civil service job.

“We are scared that, even indirectly, the Jordanian government will pressure us to leave,” she said.

As Middle East countries strained by vast numbers of refugees restore relations with Assad, many Syrians who fled are now terrified by the prospect of returning to a country shattered by war and controlled by the same authoritarian leader who brutally crushed the 2011 rebellion.

Even as public hostility and economic misery in neighboring countries has squeezed Syrian refugees, few are clamoring to return. The number of registered Syrian refugees in Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon has remained roughly the same for the last seven years, according to U.N. figures.

Hoping to speed up their exodus, Lebanon and Turkey have deported hundreds of Syrians since April in what rights groups consider a violation of international law.

Now Jordan, a close American ally generally praised for its acceptance of millions of Palestinian, Iraqi and Syrian refugees, is also changing.

The “Jordan Initiative” unveiled in May to encourage cooperation with Assad on refugee returns and illicit drug trafficking capped the country’s painful transformation, advocates say, from one of the world’s most accommodating hosts to one of its biggest proponents for sending refugees home.

“Jordan long has said that refugees are welcome. But now the official rhetoric has moved toward supporting their return,” said Adam Coogle, deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch. “It’s a cause for significant concern.”

Human rights groups say it’s still too unsafe for refugees to return to Syria given the risks of arbitrary detention, disappearance and extrajudicial killings there. Even the most fortunate returnees encounter bread lines, a currency collapse and electricity shortages after a dozen years of a conflict that has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half of its pre-war population of 23 million.

“My family tells me there is no more war, sure, but there is also nothing left,” said Mohammed, a 34-year-old carpenter who fled Syria in 2013 and opened a hand-carved wooden furniture shop in Amman identical to his father’s workshop in Damascus.

Giving only his first name for security reasons, Mohammed said he hoped never to return, citing stories of Syrian security forces arresting returnees to squeeze thousands of dollars in bribes out of their families. His two daughters, 4 and 10, know no other home.

“Here, I know what it’s like to live with dignity,” he said.

With its reputation as a humanitarian hub — an oasis of relative stability in a volatile Middle East — the kingdom currently hosts an estimated 1.3 million of the 5.2 million Syrian refugees spread across the region, according to government figures.

While Jordanian security forces have not ramped up deportation raids in recent months, the government has expelled tens of thousands of Syrians over the years, mostly for alleged crimes or for failing to register with the authorities. As soaring unemployment and inflation stokes anti-refugee feeling among Jordanians and the government speaks more openly about returns, that history now alarms the country’s Syrian refugees.

“Almost all of us know someone who was kicked out for a reason we don’t understand,” said Dadoob, whose friend, she said, was shot and killed by government forces in the southern Syrian city of Daraa after being deported in 2016. Jordanian security forces accused him, and many others, of communication with extremist and opposition groups in Syria, according to rights groups.

“With the overreach of security services in Jordan and in the region, there’s a lot of distrust now,” said Samer Kurdi from the Collateral Repair Project, which provides aid to refugees in Amman. “The re-embracing of Assad doesn’t make sense to Syrians here.”

Since Assad attended his first annual Arab League summit in 13 years this spring, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi has described his country’s hopes for refugee returns as an inevitable result of Assad’s rehabilitation.

For Jordan, a large displaced population lingering in the country for generations raises the sobering prospect of the country’s 2.2 million Palestinians.

The experience of those refugees, whose families fled or were pushed out during the war surrounding Israel’s creation in 1948, has taught Jordan that the longer refugees stay, the less likely they are to return, said Hassan Momani, professor of international relations at University of Jordan.

“There’s this fear in Jordan’s collective memory,” he said.

Jordan’s foreign and information ministries declined to comment on the issue of Syrian refugee returns, pointing only to recent public statements.

“We are way above our capacity. We ring the alarm,” Safadi told a conference on Syria in Brussels last month.

Earlier this month, he visited Damascus and held talks with Assad. “What we are sure of is that refugees’ futures lie in their country,” he said.

Few Syrians who fled the war for Jordan appear to agree. Just a small number of Syrian refugees in Jordan are voluntarily returning home: 4,013 people in 2022, down from 5,800 in 2021, according to United Nations figures.

A U.N. refugee agency survey of some 3,000 Syrian refugees across the region in February found that just 1.1% of refugees intend to return to Syria in the next year even as most say they harbor hope to return one day. Among respondents in Jordan, just 0.8% said they intended to return in the coming year.

“This is an important indication that right now, today, conditions are not conducive for returns,” said Dominik Bartsch, the UNHCR representative to Jordan.

Even as the Jordanian government insists that all refugee returns will be optional, the line between voluntary and forced return can be blurry.

After 2016, when Jordan shut its border with Syria following a cross-border suicide attack, authorities refused to let Syrians who had left briefly enter back into Jordan. In other cases, refugees were deported for alleged work violations, and then their relatives who followed them to Syria because of their loss of income were registered as voluntary returnees.

“What we see now, 12 years on, is that most of the Syrians in Jordan who really want to return are elderly,” said Kurdi, the local advocate. “They return to die.”

Arab Americans are a much more diverse group than many of their neighbors mistakenly assume

Wed, 12 Apr 2023 21:20:38 +0300

(THE CONVERSATION) Marking April as Arab American Heritage Month – a time to learn about the history, culture and contributions of our nearly 4 million strong community – is gaining traction across the country.

In 2022, Joe Biden made history as the first U.S. president to recognize the month, which he did again in 2023. States such as Illinois and Virginia have passed legislation to make the celebration an annual event, and dozens more have commemorated it.

This recognition is important, given the simplistic ways Arabs are often portrayed in American culture. From TV stations to entertainment media, people of Arab descent are often stereotyped as violent, oppressed or exotic. Nevertheless, as an anthropologist who studies religious and racial dynamics in Arab societies, I am concerned that as the celebration of “Arab American heritage” becomes more mainstream, the diversity and complex stories of Arab Americans’ many different communities may be papered over. In short, Arab Americans are not a monolithic group.

Arab Christians

In 2023, Arab American Heritage Month overlaps with the second half of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting. For many in the United States, this overlap seems natural, given how often Islam is conflated with Arab identity. But just as most Muslims around the world are not Arab, not all Arabs are Muslim.

While the 22 countries that make up the Arab League all have Muslim majorities, Christian communities predate Muslim ones in the region. Indeed, Christianity began in the Middle East, with the Palestinian city of Bethlehem, which is revered as Jesus’ birthplace, an important pilgrimage stop for Christians from all over the world. During the first significant wave of Arab immigration to the U.S. in the late 19th century and early 20th century, families more often than not were Syrian, Lebanese and Palestinian Christians.

Today, most Americans of Arab descent identify as Christian. While the Arab community in the greater Detroit area, a short drive from where I live and work, is majority Muslim, that sets it apart from many other Arab communities in the U.S.

Arab American Christians are themselves diverse, identifying as Protestants and Catholics, and with a variety of Eastern Christian traditions, such as Antiochian and Coptic Orthodoxy.

Furthermore, some sects of Christianity have become intertwined with specific ethnic identities. For example, some Coptic Christian Egyptian Americans refuse the label “Arab,” even if they grew up speaking Arabic at home or learn the language to connect with their family roots. This refusal is often rooted in Copts’ collective experiences of marginalization in Egypt, where they face many restrictions, including on repairing and building churches.

From Mizrahi Jews to Shiite Muslims

Just as Christianity is an integral yet complex part of Arab heritage, so is Judaism. Arab Jews, often called Mizrahi Jews, have existed since ancient times and helped shape Arab heritage through their philosophical, poetic and political contributions across centuries.

To be sure, Israel’s establishment and its occupation of Palestinian territories has complicated Arab Jewish identities, with new forms of antisemitism becoming more common within many Arab communities. Still, there is growing interest among scholars and Arab American Jews themselves in learning more about this history, as well as the Jewish background of beloved pan-Arab celebrities such as Layla Murad, an iconic midcentury Egyptian actress.

The San Francisco Bay area for generations has been home to the Egyptian Jewish Karaite community. Karaites reject the authority of the rabbinic oral tradition used by more mainstream branches of Judaism such as Reform, Conservative and Orthodox groups in the U.S. Here in the U.S., as in Egypt, members struggle for recognition as a religious minority within a religion that is itself a minority, Judaism.

Arab American Muslims are not a monolithic group, either. Over half identify as Sunni, 16% as Shiite and the rest with neither group, according to a 2017 Pew poll. Of course, the diversity of beliefs and practices within Sunnism and Shiism, the largest two branches of Islam, are themselves present within Arab American Muslim communities as well.

Finally, many Arab Americans identify with no religion at all, or with other faiths beyond the Abrahamic traditions.

Many nations, one box

Arab heritage not only includes a variety of religious traditions, but encompasses a wide range of ethnic and racial identities. It is difficult to make generalizations about Arabs, whose skin tone, facial features, eye colors and hair textures embody the rich histories of human migrations and settlements that characterize western Asia and northern Africa.

The U.S. census erases this internal diversity, however, by categorizing Arabs and other Middle Easterners as “white.” Arab American advocacy groups have long argued that the form’s categories do not reflect the actual experiences of the vast majority of Arab Americans, who are not treated as white in their everyday lives. And Arab identities in the U.S. are becoming only more complex, given the diversity of national backgrounds reflected in the more recent waves of Arab immigration from the 1960s to today.

Complicated identities

Asking that Arabs check the box as “white” also marginalizes Black Arabs. The term Afro Arab is growing as a term of self-description for Black Arab Americans seeking to make space for their multifaceted identities and heritage. Black communities are a part of every Arab country, from Iraq to Morocco.

These dual identities are still fraught, given the pervasiveness of anti-Black racism within some Arab communities, which often stems from the legacies of the trans-Saharan and Ottoman slave trades. An estimated 15% of Tunisians, for example, are descendants of enslaved Black people from sub-Saharan Africa. Tunisia abolished slavery in 1846, two decades before the U.S., yet it passed a law prohibiting racial discrimination only in 2018, making it the first Arab country to do so. Still, Tunisia’s president recently provoked outrage after he gave a racist speech targeting African migrants and Black Tunisians.

Around the world, Black Arabs have consistently criticized such racism, especially after the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in the U.S., which sparked a regional reckoning with anti-Blackness.

As the Sudanese-American museum curator Isra el-Beshir put it, “I am an African person, who speaks Arabic and who as a result of speaking Arabic has Arab cultural tendencies. But I do not racially identify as an Arab. It’s still murky territory for me that I am trying to navigate.”

500-year journey

In her historical novel “The Moor’s Account,” which won the Arab American Book Award in 2015 and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, Laila Lalami recounts the experiences of Al-Zammouri, more commonly known as Estebanico. Based on true accounts, Lalami narrates how he was enslaved and brought to current-day Florida by 16th-century Spanish colonizers. Al-Zammouri’s name reflects his Moroccan hometown: Azemmour, a city famed for its ocean breeze. His identity – Black and Arab; Muslim, then Catholic – reflects the complexity of the Arab world while bringing to light the complex origin stories of America itself.

Ideally, heritage month celebrations will create more opportunities to reflect on stories like Al-Zammouri’s, which portray how rich and diverse Arab American identity is – really, many different identities rolled into just two words. If heritage months are an opportunity to celebrate the diversity of America, the diversity of the Arab community itself should not be overlooked.

The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. The Conversation is wholly responsible for the content.

Yasmin Moll, University of Michigan

‘He strangled me. I saw black’: the Syrian woman who fled war to find violence at home

The Guardian — Tue, 28 Feb 2023 12:20:39 +0300

The warning signs were there from the beginning, now she thinks about it. Rima* was 18 and studying at a Syrian university when her family arranged for her to marry a man several years older than she was.

“From the moment we were married he controlled me,” she says. “I actually agreed to marry him because I wanted to run away from my father’s violence. My brother told me later: you ran from your father’s violence to even worse violence. If I had been more mature I would have waited a bit before getting married. But I was 18.” She sits cross-legged on the floor of a cold house, cradling one of her young sons, half laughing, half crying.

Not long into her marriage, Syria was plunged into civil war, and Rima and her family, like hundreds of thousands of others, fled to neighbouring Lebanon. Not long after they arrived, the problems in their relationship intensified and continued for years, reaching a peak last year, when Rima’s husband nearly killed her in a brutal assault in front of their children.

“He attacked me. He tried to strangle me. I saw black,” she recalls. “He was beating me on the back, on the shoulders. He strangled me to the point there was blood on my neck and I felt I was going to die.”

The catalyst for violence appeared to have been Rima’s threat to report her husband to UN officials for hoarding the cash card which many refugee families depend on for basic goods, and for demanding their son hand over his income to his father.

He himself had given up trying to find employment, she says, citing the economic crisis that overwhelmed Lebanon in 2019 and created an enormous gulf between people’s living costs and incomes. He had grown at once dependent on, but resentful of, the money brought in by his son and wife: Rima had started working as well.

“He didn’t work. He told me, ‘whatever I do, the money will not be enough’,” says Rima.

It was then, she says, that he “lost his senses.” The attack was witnessed by all her sons, including the youngest, aged three. Had it not been for her eldest coming to her aid and alerting her neighbours, Rima is certain she would have died. Despite the severity of the assault, she was too scared to go to the police, she says: “Because I’m a Syrian refugee. And I didn’t know what to expect. I was living in my bubble.”

Immediately after the attack, her husband was still angry. “He called [a neighbour with whom she was staying] and said, ‘You tell Rima to come back and if she doesn’t come back with the kids I will kill her. I will go to your place and kill her.’”

Once he realised it was over, he left for Syria, but not before he had scoured their home for the things he wanted to take with him. Rima now lives in a poorly heated apartment on the edge of a small Lebanese town with her sons. She is consumed with worry about them, their life chances and the impact of their father’s violence: “I feel that I brought them into this life only for them to suffer.”

And she remains afraid. Because her husband left the country soon after assaulting her, she was not able to divorce him. She would need his consent, and he told a neighbour he would not grant her that: “I’m just going to leave her attached to me without being attached to me,” he said, according to Rima. “I’m not going to give her her freedom.”

She dreams of being able to leave Lebanon and travel abroad; of building a life for her and her children out of his long shadow. But that seems unlikely and, in the meantime, she will continue living in fear that one day he will come back to kill her or take their children. Possibly both. “I’m always worried there will be a knock on the door,” she says. “And when I open it, it will be him.”

*Name has been changed to protect her identity

After more than a decade of war, earthquakes are a catastrophe on top of a crisis for millions of people in Syria

Tue, 21 Feb 2023 11:40:18 +0300

LATAKIA, Syria – Nuha gave birth to baby Huda on 5 February in Lattakia, in western Syria. The young mother remembers feeling so much hope, so much promise, for her daughter.

But Huda has yet to sleep a full night in the bedroom her mother had so carefully prepared for her. At four o'clock the following morning, everything fell apart. Walls shook, ceilings caved in. Terrifying sounds were coming from all directions. Latakia is one of the areas in Syria hardest hit by two violent earthquakes last week, with some 1.3 million people affected and tens of thousands displaced.

Most of the buildings turned to rubble almost instantly – among them Nuha’s. “Our house just collapsed,” she said. Running from her home, bleeding profusely and clinging to her day-old daughter, she made her way to a shelter hastily set up in a school. It was crowded, injured people were everywhere. She searched the room for help, but found only chaos.

At just 20 years old, Nuha has lived more than half her life embroiled in the protracted crisis in Syria: From a brutal, drawn-out civil war to climate shocks and now the region’s worst natural disaster in recent memory. The earthquake affected at least 8.8 million people in Syria, killing more than 5,700 and injuring over 10,000. These grim numbers are only expected to mount as the days and weeks go by and the chances of finding survivors dwindle.

A catastrophe on a crisis

Amid this catastrophe, UNFPA estimates there are more than 130,000 pregnant women in Syria, around 14,800 of whom will deliver in the next month. Some 6,600 women will have pregnancy and childbirth-related complications over the next three months and need access to emergency, potentially life-saving health care that for now is almost totally lacking.

As winter temperatures plummet, UNFPA teams and partners in Aleppo, Hama and Latakia are providing winter clothes, blankets, maternity kits and dignity kits. Deliveries of reproductive health kits, including supplies and equipment to manage obstetric emergencies, have arrived in Aleppo, where more than 30 mobile teams are also bringing reproductive health and gender-based violence response services to displaced people. The teams include a gynaecologist, midwife and psychosocial support worker.

One of the teams treated Nuha’s wounds and checked her new daughter’s health at the shelter, giving her a maternal health kit with the essentials she and Huda would need in the coming weeks, from a blanket and clothes to soap and diapers.

For Huda, as for so many children in this catastrophe, the start of her life has been a traumatic one: Survivors are in acute need of psychological support, with children, women and the elderly particularly vulnerable to severe shock and panic. UNFPA is supporting the launch of a helpline for women experiencing violence, with referrals to psychological and medical support as people struggle to come to terms with the tragic effects of the earthquake on their lives and their communities.

Soaring needs and dwindling resources

The huge number of casualties is overwhelming hospitals that have limited medical and surgical capacities and scarce access to intensive care units. For those facilities not destroyed by the earthquake, major power outages have led to fuel shortages and forced many to suspend their services.

In northwest Syria, which already had more than 4 million people in need of humanitarian assistance before the earthquake, UNFPA was part of the first cross-border convoy since the crisis to arrive with much needed relief items. Working with partners on the ground, thousands of dignity kits are being distributed and reproductive health kits will be provided to meet the needs of some 150,000 people.

The supplies can assist more than 800 Caesarean sections and more than 30,000 normal deliveries, while nine health facilities are being supported to provide essential sexual and reproductive health services. In addition, 12 safe spaces for women and girls continue to ensure access to critical gender-based violence prevention and response support.

The chronic shortage of supplies in hospitals across Syria – especially the northwest – even before this latest crisis means that those who survived the earthquake but are injured risk not getting the treatment they urgently need. Hospitals are drastically under-supplied and overcrowded, many are damaged or destroyed, and fuel and medicine are desperately lacking.

The full scale of the damage and of the crisis is still unfolding. Already reeling from almost 12 years of war, the earthquake hit at a time when humanitarian needs in Syria are at their highest since the conflict began. UNFPA is urgently appealing for $24.8 million in fast, flexible and sustained funding to deliver assistance to millions of people in dire need in Syria.

(Relief Web)

Colorado Springs Army specialist reunited with dog from Syria for Christmas

Sat, 24 Dec 2022 11:36:01 +0300

When Rocket was reunited with Army Spc. Alexis Cross earlier this week, just in time for Christmas, the 9-month-old puppy from Syria was giddy with excitement.

"I think he remembered me," said Cross, who adopted Rocket while deployed this summer.

Cross, a Colorado Springs resident, bonded with Rocket pretty much immediately and she had him sleep with her the first night of her arrival in Syria. Rocket, who was smaller at the time, typically snoozed on her chest or her pillow.

"He has a very spunky, goofy attitude and so do I and ... I think our personalities clicked," she said.

When Cross would yell "Rocket man" to call him from the Syrian market, he would come barreling up to her and shoot between her legs, she recalled.

Rocket arrived with Missy, his half sister, who was adopted by another soldier deployed to Syria, Ryan Salmons earlier this week. The two arrived just in time for Christmas after spending several months at a kennel in Iraq run by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals International. Cross decided to work with the nonprofit to bring Rocket back because it provides more certainty around the timing of a dog's return than another similar nonprofit she considered.

Previously, soldiers based in the same place had tried to get Rocket back to the U.S., Cross said, but it hadn't worked out. This time, both dogs were authorized by an officer to fly out of Syria in August to Iraq with Cross and Salmons on a Chinook helicopter.

SPCA International doesn't work in Syria because of the safety concerns, said Lori Kalef, director of programs for SPCA International. So if a service member wants to bring a dog or cat home from Syria, the animal needs a ride out on a military truck or aircraft.

Once in Iraq, Rocket and Missy stayed in a kennel with air conditioning, regular exercise and opportunities to play. Cross got photos and videos of her dog regularly while she waited four months for his arrival.

In Iraq, SPCA International has a longstanding presence because that's where its work to reunite dogs and cats with service members started, Kalef said.

In 2008, a soldier wanted to bring home a dog named Charlie that had been a major morale booster and so he contacted the SCPA and the staff there figured out a way to make it happen. That first effort grew into SPCA International's Operation Baghdad Pups: Worldwide it has reunited about 1,250 dogs and cats with U.S. military members and U.S. , Kalef said.

The requests for help to bring animals home run in cycles, but right now the highest number of requests are coming from Syria and Iraq. In the last month, Kalef said, the nonprofit has seen "many many more requests than we are used to." The cost to bring a dog home can range between $4,500 to $9,000, including abiding by federal rules around vaccinations and quarantine, she said.

Dog owners are asked to contribute $700 to help cover costs. So the program relies heavily on donors who believe in the positive ripple effect of the program.

"There have been times in the program where these dogs and cats have literally saved these humans," Kalef said.

The requests are split roughly 60% to 40% between dogs coming to the U.S. and cats coming here, Kalef said. Cats are a lot simpler for the nonprofit because they are smaller and bringing them into the U.S. is less regulated.

Those who can't afford to donate can help spread the word about SPCA International's services because Kalef said she has met service members who didn't know there were options to bring pets home until years later and are still devastated by their loss.

As for Rocket, he is settling into his new home with a new sister, a heeler, a ton of new toys, and a token reminder of Syria.

Cross was sitting with a blanket she had in Syria on her lap in the last few days when Rocket took it from her and arranged it for himself before laying on it.

"It's safe to say, he remembered his blanket," Cross said.

By Mary Shinn, The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.)

Syria racked by fuel crisis ‘in worst year yet’

Financial Times — Thu, 22 Dec 2022 20:26:00 +0300

The wages Youssef once earned as a taxi driver in Aleppo used to be enough: though the days were often long, his family had never been in need.

But in recent weeks, acute fuel shortages have paralysed regime-held parts of Syria and Youssef is increasingly unable to find, let alone afford, fuel.

“I usually drive my children to school before starting a shift. But in the past few weeks, I haven’t had enough petrol to do either,” said Youssef, who only wanted to be identified by his first name. “No petrol means no work and no school.”

The 37-year-old has picked up odd jobs to help his family survive what experts and residents say is one of the worst crises to hit the country since the outbreak of a civil war in 2011.

With the backing of Iran and Russia, President Bashar al-Assad’s regime brutally crushed the rebellion and now controls about two-thirds of the country but conflict, western sanctions and the collapse of neighbouring Lebanon’s banking system have brought the economy to the verge of collapse.

The ripple effects of the fuel crisis were widespread, said Emma Forster, the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Syria policy and communications manager in Damascus. “People are telling us this is the worst year yet: before, fuel was available but it was very expensive. Now it’s just not available at all, and it is having a knock-on effect on every aspect of life in Syria, which was already very hard for many.”

Much of the country is at a standstill, as there is no fuel for generators to provide electricity: factories have paused operations and universities have cancelled classes. Power outages of up to 22 hours a day have become the norm in Damascus and its surrounding region. In a new report this month, the UN warned that 15.3mn people in Syria, out of a total population of 22.1mn, require humanitarian aid — the highest number of people in need since the start of the conflict.

The lack of power was affecting healthcare, schooling and water systems, said Forster. As winter bites, people were resorting to burning “anything they can find to keep warm: wood if they can afford it, trash, plastic bags, rubber tyres, old clothes and shoes, even pistachio peel”.

In a rare move, the government, which tightly controls its public messaging, announced its offices would close for two working days this month. “It feels like we’re going back to the stone age,” said one government employee in Damascus, who identified himself only as Abu Omar. In the past two weeks, he has only been able to get to work five times.

Oil minister Bassam Tohme blamed the shortages on the temporary suspension of oil shipments from Iran, a key ally of Assad’s government and the main supplier of fuel since western sanctions were imposed in the early years of the war.

Data on fuel shipments between the two countries is patchy and it is not clear why Iran would have reduced supplies. But “there’s no reason not to believe the government on this, especially because they make a lot of money in this sector”, said Jihad Yazigi, editor of the economic news bulletin Syria Report. “[Tohme] said Iranian supplies had declined. If it weren’t the case, it would be unlikely for him to blame the Iranians for a domestic crisis.”

Iranian fuel imports are usually bought on credit, but the shortages are forcing the government to seek supplies elsewhere, which it must pay for in cash taken from its scant foreign currency reserves. This has contributed to the Syrian pound hitting a record 6,000 to the dollar on the black market.

Government officials have also blamed the shortages on US-imposed sanctions, Turkey’s recent military campaign in north-east Syria, where air strikes have damaged energy infrastructure including refineries and power plants, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has contributed to higher prices.

With little in the way of revenues and rampant corruption, the government has cut back on badly needed subsidies, with millions of Syrians losing access to subsidised food and oil products earlier this year. Those who still qualify for subsidised fuel are entitled to 25 litres of petrol every 10 days, but residents and analysts say they can only obtain fuel every 20 days.

The government has almost doubled the price of non-subsidised fuel to S£5,400 for one litre of diesel and S£4,900 for one litre of petrol. It has further slashed fuel allocations by 40 per cent for government vehicles until the end of the year.

The Ministry of Internal Trade and Consumer Protection, which governs the distribution of oil products, regularly announces raids on black market operators on Facebook. But, in a rare show of public dissent, these posts are typically met with derision and anger.

The fuel crisis was one reason for small protests in Druze-majority Sweida province earlier this month, which left one protester and one police officer dead, and several others wounded.

For now, though, experts say the crisis is unlikely to have broader political ramifications for Assad’s regime.

“This regime was willing to destroy the whole country to remain in power and I trust the regime to scare people enough into submission,” Yazigi said.

For many people, the start of winter has only brought home the severity of the crisis. Youssef has started to panic: “Last winter was hard, but this one could kill us.”