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 the various ethnic and religious groups that make up the social fabric of Syrian society and, in some cases, are armed players in the war.
Follow via RSSYazan Homsy is a university graduate trapped in the besieged area of Homs. He spends his days photographing daily life amid destruction and scavenging for food to share with his neighbors. With nowhere to go, the people of the besieged districts have been drawn together by their harsh circumstances. .
RAS AL-AYN, HASSAKEH PROVINCE / Visitors crossing from Turkey to Ras al-Ayn, a sleepy border town in eastern Syria, are now welcomed by the unlikeliest of characters: a Catholic member of what is considered an extremist Islamist rebel group.
AYN AL-ARAB (KOBANI), ALEPPO PROVINCE – Aladine Hamam, a member of the Azadi party, spent almost two months in jail this year, accused of being a Turkish agent and with setting up an armed group that doesn’t answer to the PYD, the predominant political party. His case highlights the divisions among Kurds on the future of the ethnic group in Syria and the unchecked power of the PYD (or Syrian Democratic Party) in Kurdish-controlled territories. .
In Syria today, President Bashar al-Assad’s forces stand accused of massacring Sunni families en masse. The more gruesome images and video<wbr>s speak to a brutal campaign of sectarian cleansing that has managed to shock even veteran Syria watchers.
NEW DELHI / More than 3,000 miles separate New Delhi and Damascus, but for Indian diplomats, the two-year-old crisis in Syria must feel much closer. For India, the global community’s sharp debates over Syria have less to do with Syria – India and Syria enjoy a casual rapport – and more to do with the fragile network of allegiances and interests that India has built over the past decades, now being tested by new international pressures.
As a regular feature, inspired by your questions about the Syria conflict, we’ve rounded up answers from some of the top minds in our network. If you’d like to submit a question for us to tackle send it to *[email protected]**.*.
“When Jimmy speaks with tribal leaders in Raqqa, they gather around him in a circle; this is very significant where he comes from. If he survives, he is going to be an important figure in the new Syria.”.
This is the first in a two-part series on Syria’s volunteer police brigades. AYN AL-ARAB (KOBANI), ALEPPO PROVINCE – With only a sixth-grade education and prior experience in temporary agricultural jobs, Fayyad Mula Khalil, the effective police chief in Ayn al-Arab, known as Kobani in Kurdish, admits that he’s not qualified to be the city’s top cop.
RAS AL-AYN, HASAKAH PROVINCE – Rebels and fighters aligned with the Turkish Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) have clashed with Syrian army posts in Qamishli over the past few weeks, signaling the beginning of the battle for one of the final strongholds of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in the northeast.
Swaida, the Druze-majority province that borders Daraa, has escaped much of the violence in Syria’s brutal conflict, serving as a haven for refugees and a source for humanitarian aid. But a spate of kidnappings, and the rise of jihadist groups such as Jabhat Al Nusra, have left residents to fend for themselves as Syria transforms into a failed state.
As part of our effort to highlight civilian stories, below is a conversation between News Deeply and a 33-year-old Palestinian activist from the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus, who asked not to be named. Here, he discusses how Yarmouk became was once “safe place” for activists in the wartime capital, until the FSA moved in. .
Kurdish and Arab militias waged a bitter battle for three months in the northern city of Ras Al Ayn, in Hassakeh province. Now, they’ve reached a truce that has managed to last into a third week, marking an early success for a nascent group of peacekeepers led by famed Christian dissident Michel Kilo.
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.
To date, 70,000 Syrian citizens have fled to refugee camps in Iraqi Kurdistan and languished. Though the majority of the evacuees are from Syria’s Kurdish cities, the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government, or KRG, has done very little to accommodate the growing numbers.
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.
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. She took these photos while reporting for Syria Deeply in Latakia province, Syria.
Azaz, Syria—The Turkey-based Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), and its Syrian political wing, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), have stumbled into a precarious situation. They are now administering a string of towns and cities along the Turkish border after the Syrian army handed the PKK control of the territory last summer.
Thomas McGee
Thomas McGee is a scholar in Kurdish Studies focusing on the Kurds of Syria and their civil society initiatives. He was based in Syria for the first eight months of the Revolution and two years prior to its start. He speaks Kurdish and Arabic and has travelled widely in the Kurdish regions of Syria. Based on his experiences, he has also published as a freelance journalist for the Guardian and BBC. His work can be found at www.journalisted.com/thomas-mcgee.
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.
Azaz, Syria—Fighters of the Kurdish Saladin Brigade greet visitors with marhaba, hello, rather than the Islamic salam alikum. They lack the bushy beards that mark the more conservative Muslims who fight alongside them in the battlefields.
The battle around Damascus has grown fierce as the regime strives to take back suburbs around the capital city that have fallen into rebel hands. It is a vital showdown in the political survival of President Bashar Assad’s regime.
Traveling through rebel-held parts of Latakia province, in the Jebel Turkman region, we met 34-year-old Umyara, an Alawite nurse working in a field hospital. In Latakia, a stronghold of President Bashar al-Assad, Sunnis and Alawites have lived side by side for centuries. Now, with intense fighting in the Alawite-led regime and the mostly Sunni-led Free Syrian Army, many fear that the animosity could spread to civilians across the religious divide.
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 Bashar Al Assad’s grip on power weakens, fears are mounting over the fate of the Alawite community, the Assad family’s heterodox Shiite sect. Who are the Alawites? Why are so many of them fighting for the regime? How they fare in the next phase of the conflict will likely shape Syria’s future.
The Kurds are vital to Syria’s power balance. They make up roughly 10% of Syria’s population, or roughly 2 million people, and hold sway over a critical swath of Syria’s northeastern terrain
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