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].
Dylan Collins is an independent journalist based in the Middle East since 2010. His work has appeared with The Guardian, Al-Jazeera America, Al-Jazeera English, Syria Deeply and L’Espresso among others. Follow him on Twitter: @collinsdyl
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Local and international NGOs are calling for an immediate end to the escalation in fighting in Syria’s divided northern city, where violence has risen to levels not seen in months and civilian centers like hospitals, mosques and bakeries have been targeted.
As the war in Syria enters its sixth year, the Syrian Accountability Project (SAP) at Syracuse University College of Law is set to release a groundbreaking report on Thursday about rape throughout the conflict. Syria Deeply will provide a live stream of the presentation and discussion.
As young Syrian refugee students celebrated International Women’s Day in the Bekaa Valley this week, education advocate Nora Jumblatt highlighted the increasingly important role of women throughout the refugee community. The war in Syria, despite its chaos and sadness, she said, has given rise to a “little miracle”.
Four days into the temporary truce, the guns have largely fallen silent. But government and Russian airstrikes against what they claim to be “terrorists” have continued. Syria Deeply spoke with Rami Khouri of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs on its chances of success.
As Kurdish militias in northern Syria steadily take on greater importance, largely due to U.S. and Russian support, Turkey has quickly changed its priorities within the crisis. Syria Deeply spoke with Gokhan Bacik about the YPG’s expansion amid the chaos in Aleppo and the growing tensions in Turkey.
Pro-government forces are pushing to seal off the last northern rebel stronghold from its only supply routes, a siege on Aleppo city looks imminent, and the temporary cease-fire set to begin at the end of the week looks increasingly unlikely to happen. But has the war reached a turning point?
Discriminatory residency policies and a severe shortfall in humanitarian aid have left Syrian women in Lebanon at risk of frequent abuse and exploitation, according to Amnesty International. But despite the difficult circumstances, they’ve have shown a resilient determination to take care of their families.
Syria expert Aron Lund picks six reads you probably haven’t come across before – on subjects including authoritarian counterinsurgency tactics, the key forces behind conflict before 2011, the divisions likely to make the Geneva peace talks fail and life as a gay soldier in Assad’s army.
Delayed talks between the Assad government and representatives of the Syrian opposition are set to begin in Geneva today. But with major opposition players missing and fresh government gains on the ground, the prospects of ending the five-year civil war seem slim.
As the crisis in Syria rolls steadily towards its sixth year, misconceptions and misunderstandings abound on everything from the importance of local cease-fires to the U.N.’s definition of success in its humanitarian efforts. Members of an online community asked a U.N. political adviser their own queries.
Hundreds of thousands of people are living under siege in Syria, where starvation is being used as a weapon of war. Syria Deeply spoke with James Sadri, director of The Syria Campaign, to learn more about the prevalence of siege tactics in Syria, the perpetrators, and the charges of U.N. failure to help end the sieges.
In the wake of the most recent fallout between Saudi Arabia and Iran, Syria Deeply gathered together a group of experts to discuss the potential consequences for Syria, both on the ground and at the negotiating table. The big question: Could this mean the end of the Syrian peace talks known as the Vienna Process?
In a live streamed conversation, Syrian journalist Rami Jarrah spoke with The Syria Campaign to talk about daily life in Aleppo, the hardest hit city in Syria’s civil war. Jarrah said that despite the current international focus on ISIS, Russian airstrikes currently pose the greatest threat to Aleppo’s civilians.
As controversy continues in the United States around the resettlement of Syrian refugees, Syria Deeply asked a former U.S. ambassador to Syria to help us make sense of the U.S.’s stance toward refugees coming from the war-torn country and whether or not increased restrictions serve American interests.
As Saudi Arabia’s Syrian opposition talks wrapped up on Thursday, Syria Deeply asked our community of experts – including Hassan Hassan of Chatham House and Ryan Crocker, the former US Ambassador to Syria and Lebanon – how likely it was that the Riyadh group could successfully represent the Syrian opposition in negotiations with the Assad government.
Based on bloodlines dating back centuries, tribal networks in Syria have long been influential on the ground, but their role in the civil war is often overlooked. Syria Deeply spoke with an expert on the issue to learn more about how tribal dynamics have factored into Syria’s civil war.
In a video recently published by The Syria Campaign, a French journalist held prisoner by ISIS for 10 months said that ongoing international efforts to destroy the Islamic State by bombing the militants into oblivion will only work to push more people into the extremist group’s hands.
Bashar al-Assad’s increasing dependence on Iranian military support on the battlefield, according to Iran expert Nader Hashemi, has not only led to a war of influence between Moscow and Tehran in Damascus, but has deepened the growing sectarian divide in Syria and throughout the region.
According to a report published this month by Physicians for Human Rights, the healthcare system in eastern Aleppo has been destroyed by government attacks on the city. Syria Deeply spoke with one of the report’s researchers to find out more about how healthcare workers are coping with the crisis.
While the West focuses on the fate of Assad and the defeat of ISIS, radical Islamist ideologies are gaining ground throughout the Syrian opposition. Syria Deeply spoke with Hassan Hassan about the country’s increasingly entrenched jihadist presence and its consequences for political transition.
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