Dear Deeply Readers,
Welcome to the archives of Syria Deeply. While we paused regular publication of the site on May 15, 2018, and transitioned some of our coverage to Peacebuilding Deeply, we are happy to serve as an ongoing public resource on the Syrian conflict. We hope you’ll enjoy the reporting and analysis that was produced by our dedicated community of editors contributors.
We continue to produce events and special projects while we explore where the on-site journalism goes next. If you’d like to reach us with feedback or ideas for collaboration you can do so at [email protected].
Exploring Syrian civil society as well as grassroots and international social initiatives that deal with everyday civilian life in Syria.
Follow via RSSMillions of Syrians are using social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Skype to disseminate and discuss the conflict. Each week Syria Deeply monitors the online conversation in English and Arabic, pulling out the highlights in a feature called the Social Media Buzz.
Malik Al-Abdeh
Malik Al-Abdeh is a London-based Syrian journalist. Follow him on @malikalabdeh.
For two years Salamiyeh, the Ismaili-majority city 20 miles east of Hama, has skirted much of the violence unleashed on its neighbors despite hosting large anti-government protests. It’s created an environment of political tolerance that differs from Assad regime strongholds and territories held by rebels.
As part of our series of interviews with journalists covering the Syria crisis, we reached out to CBS News correspondent Clarissa Ward, whose extensive reporting from the war has been honored with both the DuPont and Peabody Awards. Here, she discusses the story behind the ‘Evening News’ piece that took her to the suburbs of Damascus in November of 2011. “It’s a very, very, very complex environment for a journalist,” she said. .
Millions of Syrians are using social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Skype to disseminate and discuss the conflict. Each week Syria Deeply monitors the online conversation in English and Arabic, pulling out the highlights in a feature called the Social Media Buzz.
Barak Barfi Research Fellow, New America Foundation
Barak Barfi is a Research Fellow at the New America Foundation, where he specializes in Arab and Islamic affairs. He recently returned from Aleppo. Barak writes often for publications including The International Herald Tribune, The New Republic, the Washington Post, Foreign Policy and The Atlantic, and is a regular guest on CNN, Fox News Channel, France 24 and other international networks. He is based between the U.S. and the Middle East.
Jane Park
This is the second of three editorials about Teach Deeply, an education initiative from News Deeply that works to educate American students about the Syrian crisis. Jane Park works at Creative Commons, a Mountain View, Calif.-based nonprofit organization creating flexible copyrights that allow people to share creative work. You can find her on Twitter as @janedaily.
ALEPPO – Every night thousands of people gather outside Aleppo’s bakeries to buy their daily bag of bread. Syria’s civil war has transformed the formerly routine transaction into a six hour process. .
Millions of Syrians are using social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Skype to disseminate and discuss the conflict. Each week Syria Deeply monitors the online conversation in English and Arabic, pulling out the highlights in a feature called the Social Media Buzz.
Karen Leigh
Karen Leigh is the managing editor of News Deeply. She has lived and reported in India, West Africa and the Middle East for publications including TIME and The New York Times. You can find her on Twitter as @leighstream.
Samy Harmoush
Samy Harmoush is the National Project Manager for the Syrian American Council, coordinating and advising Syrian-American volunteers across the U.S. He’s a graduate of Columbia University. Follow him on Twitter @SamyHarmoush.
Carl F. Hobert
Today, News Deeply launches a new initiative called Teach Deeply. Kristin Nolan, our development and educational programs manager, explains the concept:
Barak Barfi Research Fellow, New America Foundation
Barak Barfi is a Research Fellow at the New America Foundation, where he specializes in Arab and Islamic affairs. He recently returned from Aleppo. Barak writes often for publications including The International Herald Tribune, The New Republic, the Washington Post, Foreign Policy and The Atlantic, and is a regular guest on CNN, Fox News Channel, France 24 and other international networks. He is based between the U.S. and the Middle East.
Iskenderun, Turkey–As opponents of the Assad regime scramble from one foreign capital to another, trying to secure funding for weapons and aid to help Syrians in need, some prominent religious leaders are sitting on the sidelines, quietly organizing themselves to provide spiritual guidance after the bloodshed ends.
In our effort to showcase unseen images of the Syrian crisis, we’ve featured the work of photojournalist Nicole Tung. Tung is a 26-year-old American whose photos from Syria have been published in TIME magazine, The New York Times, and other global news outlets. The Hong Kong native is a graduate of New York University and has traveled in and out of Syria since the early months of the war. Here, she photographs patients in and around the hard-hit Aleppo suburb of Sha’ar, including the Sunni stronghold’s since-destroyed Dar al-Shifa Hospital.
As part of our series of interviews with journalists covering the Syria crisis, we reached out to Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times. Kristof is a bi-weekly columnist and a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize. He has been covering the Syria story since its earliest days, reporting from Syria in late November. ‘It’s frustrating that we have this apathy,’ he tells us.
Millions of Syrians are using social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Skype to disseminate and discuss the conflict. Each week Syria Deeply monitors the online conversation in English and Arabic, pulling out the highlights in a feature called the Social Media Buzz.
Lara Setrakian Co-Founder and Executive Editor, News Deeply
Lara Setrakian is a foreign correspondent and the founder of Syria Deeply. She’s covered the Middle East and US foreign policy for the past five years, filing for ABC News, Bloomberg Television, the International Herald Tribune, and Monocle Magazine. She pioneered the use of social media in covering Iran’s election crisis in 2009 and lives on Twitter as @lara.
Yassamin Ansari
Yassamin Ansari is an International Relations major at Stanford University. She spent the fall of 2012 studying Arabic in Amman, Jordan, where she also reported as an independent journalist from the Zaatari Refugee Camp. Yassamin is also the Co-Chair of Syria Deeply On Campus.
Millions of Syrians are using social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Skype to disseminate and discuss the conflict. Each week our Mohammed Sergie monitors the online conversation in English and Arabic, pulling out the highlights in a feature called the Social Media Buzz.
As part of our effort to highlight civilian stories, below is a conversation between Syria Deeply and an architecture student from the University of Aleppo. She is in her final year and working on her graduation project. This conversation predates the latest blast at the university’s architecture school. Luckily, she was absent on Tuesday, January 15, the day of the tragic incident. At her request, we are not disclosing her name. The text has been edited for clarity.
Social media and user-generated content have come to play a key role in how we see the Syria conflict – quite literally. One platform, Bambuser, has given us the ground view of raging battles, streaming live, through the cell phone cameras of its users inside the country.
As part of our effort to highlight civilian stories, below is a conversation between Syria Deeply and Midya, a trained pharmacist who belongs to Syria’s largest ethnic minority, the Kurds. She lives and works in Qamishli, the unofficial capital city of Syria’s Kurdish region. Midya is known locally for the active role she has played in street demonstrations since the start of the Syrian Revolution. The following interview was conducted with repeated interruptions due to the poor state of communications in Qamishli at present.
Bradley Bosserman
Bradley Bosserman is a policy analyst at NDN and the New Policy Institute, where he directs the Middle East and North Africa Initiative. He lives on Twitter as: @BradEEB.
Millions of Syrians are using social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Skype to disseminate and discuss the conflict. Each week our Mohammed Sergie monitors the online conversation in English and Arabic, pulling out the highlights in a feature called the Social Media Buzz.
Syria Untold
With the help of Qordoba, Syria Deeply has translated this submission from Syria Untold*, a forthcoming Arabic language news website focused on peaceful and creative resistance in Syria. Its writers, based in Syria and abroad, collect, filter and curate stories about civil disobedience and the nonviolent aspect of the Syrian revolution.* .
As part of our effort to highlight civilian stories, below is a conversation between Syria Deeply and Abu Skandar, the mayor of Al Ghassanieh, a predominantly Christian village just past Jebel Akrad in Latakia province. .
Millions of Syrians are using social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Skype to disseminate and discuss the conflict. Each week our Mohammed Sergie monitors the online conversation in English and Arabic, pulling out the highlights in a feature called the Social Media Buzz.
Below is a conversation between News Deeply and a 20-year-old man who defected from the Syrian Army’s Sulas Military Base and joined the rebel side. At his request, we will not use his name in this article.
Loubna Mrie paid a steep price for her place in Syria’s revolution. As an Alawite who took a stand against President Bashar al Assad, she pitted herself against her community; many Alawites have remained staunchly behind Assad, as the leader of their sect and the protector of their privileged position of power. .
As the world celebrated the dawn of 2013, in Syria, the regime and the rebels were fighting for the suburbs of Damascus. President Bashar al Assad’s reportedly launched air raids that struck across the country, killing at least 160 people. Aleppo’s International Airport shut down, said AFP, reportedly after a rebel assault. The bottom line: more deadly fighting, with neither side really able to take control.
Millions of Syrians are using social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Skype to disseminate and discuss the conflict. Each week our Mohammed Sergie monitors the online conversation in English and Arabic, pulling out the highlights in a feature called the Social Media Buzz.
Mohammed Sergie
Mohammed Aly Sergie is the Senior Editor at Syria Deeply. He previously reported on private equity deals for Dow Jones in New York and established a bureau for the news service in Saudi Arabia. He grew up in Aleppo, Syria.
As part of our effort to highlight civilian stories, below is a conversation between News Deeply and Ayesha, a 29-year-old woman living in the Atma refugee camp in Idleb Province. She is one of an estimated 50 pregnant women in the camp; volunteers tell us there’s an acute need for baby milk. .
Lara Setrakian Co-Founder and Executive Editor, News Deeply
Lara Setrakian is a foreign correspondent and the founder of Syria Deeply. She’s covered the Middle East and US foreign policy for the past five years, filing for ABC News, Bloomberg Television, the International Herald Tribune, and Monocle Magazine. She pioneered the use of social media in covering Iran’s election crisis in 2009 and lives on Twitter as @lara. .
As part of our effort to highlight civilian stories, below is a conversation between Syria Deeply and a young schoolteacher in Homs. When he’s not in the classroom, he volunteers for a relief organization helping the victims of Syria’s conflict.
As part of our effort to highlight civilian stories, below is a conversation between Syria Deeply and a law student at Aleppo University. He stopped going to class after the regime crackdown on student protests earlier this year.
> Millions of Syrians are using social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Skype to disseminate and discuss the conflict. Each week our Mohammed Sergie monitors the online conversation in English and Arabic, pulling out the highlights in a feature called the Social Media Buzz.
Sarab Al-Jijakli
Sarab Al-Jijakli is a Syrian-American community organizer, activist and co-founder of the National Alliance for Syria. Follow his blog or on twitter @sarabny.
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