Syria

Based on interviews with Syrian media practitioners, this article uses the notion of affective proximity to make sense of local media practitioners’ reporting and witnessing of suffering in their country and community. I argue that the life-risking, and sometimes deadly, media practices of local reporters and witnesses, as well as their emotional labour, often do not feature in understandings of journalism when it is conceived as a purely professional discursive pursuit. I explain affective proximity in terms of an imagined space (or the lack thereof) between a media practitioner, on the one hand, and the event they are representing and participating in, on the other. In relation to Syria, I use it to analyse the word ‘revolution’ and what it mediates, the shifting boundaries between activism and journalism, and experiences of, and in, violence. I make the case that the study of affect and emotion in global news should be contextualized within the unequal power relations that give s...

Because of its extensive Mediterranean history, France had a particular responsibility when the Arab revolutions broke out in 2011. The strategies defined by Paris in Libya and Syria, implemented through foreign policy, have proved to be less effective than expected. Although distinct, both were pursuing the same aim: the expansion of friendly democratic regimes in the Southern European neighborhood bloc.

The chronology of the Late Bronze Age (second half of the 2nd millennium BC), a key period characterised by a flourishing development of urban civilisation, is well known in western Syria, especially on the coast at Ugarit. However, the Late Bronze Age chronology in inner Syria and in particular in the middle Orontes valley still needs to be clarified. Recent excavations and archaeological surveys conducted at the site of Qatna and its surroundings have revealed new challenging data inducing a review of the Late Bronze Age chronology. This paper presents preliminary results of my PhD research on new ceramic findings from the Late Bronze Age excavations carried out in different operations by the Syrian team at Qatna from 2005 to 2010. An innovative approach is suggested that will allow the revision of chronological issues by establishing a new baseline reference for the stratigraphic sequences from Qatna through the examination of ceramic material. This examination based on traditional pottery studies is enhanced by petrographic analyses of ceramic sherds from Qatna and is accompanied by a comparative study of other Late Bronze Age sites in the Orontes valley region.

This paper will discuss the political and legal aspects of the maritime disputes in the Eastern Mediterranean and the factors relevant to their conciliation. The first part of the paper introduces the Mediterranean Sea and the relevance of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) regime in its basins. Subsequently, the author summarizes relevant historical cleavages in the Levant Basin, with a focus on relevant modern Lebanese-Israeli, Lebanese-Syrian and inter-Cypriot events. Part III will discuss the increasing interest in EEZ delimitation over the past decade due to hydrocarbon prospects in the Eastern Mediterranean and the geopolitical and maritime challenges that have since taken shape. Finally, based on the Law of the Sea and previous examples from around the world, the author discusses relevant legal avenues for achieving balanced solutions to maritime tensions in the region and presents the most relevant criteria in delimiting maritime boundaries.

The Syrian civil war has resulted in over 250,000 deaths and several million displaced refugees within Syria and abroad. In addition to this human toll, the conflict has resulted in the devastation of the country’s acclaimed cultural heritage sites and the historical fabric that composed the country’s social landscape and the identity of its population. In this article, we consider the reaction of the international heritage community to this moment of crisis. To date, the international heritage community has developed three kinds of projects: site documentation projects; public-awareness-raising projects; and emergency training and mitigation projects. Most of these undertakings have prioritized the collection and dissemination of information about heritage loss. Less attention has been given to emergency interventions to support Syrians inside the country and the at-risk heritage. A significant gap exists between international knowledge about heritage in this crisis and the immediate needs of Syrian heritage professionals. Here, we consider some of the reasons for the divergence between on-the-ground-need and international response, along with the intended and unintended outcomes resulting from the documentation and public-awareness-raising projects. In terms of tangible results, there is no substitute for efforts conducted within a humanitarian framework. The challenge is in encouraging the international heritage community to embrace such an approach.

Brennan’ın kitabını önemli kılan birincil etken, yolculuğunu Irak savaşı başlamadan kısa süre önce, 2000 – 2001 yıllarında gerçekleştirmiş oluşudur. Ksenophon’un yolculuğuna tanıklık etmiş anıtların, kentlerin ve yeryüzü şekillerinin birçoğu, savaş süresince yok edilecektir. Oturduğumuz yerden bizi yolculuğa çıkaran bu kitap, gezi edebiyatının benzersiz bir örneğini oluşturmaktadır. Son yıllarda patlamaya hazır bir coğrafyaya dönüşen bölgede, okuyucuları Ksenophon’un izinden güvenle gezdirir. Geçmişin ve günümüzün anlatıldığı öyküler birbiriyle öyle dengeli harmanlanmıştır ki, okuyucu hem eğlenir hem de tarihe yönelik akademik bilgiler edinir. Brennan, dürüst ve açık anlatımıyla, yolculuğun getirdiği mutlulukları ve zorlukları tüm yalınlığıyla betimlemesiyle ve hem coğrafyaya hem kültürlere hem de kimisi dost canlısı, kimisi düşmanca davranan yerli halka dair gözlemleriyle, okuyucuyu kitabın içine çekip, yolculuğa çıkan okuyucunun kendisiymiş gibi hissettiriyor.
Prof. Jonathan Burgess (Toronto Üniversitesi)

The concept of authenticity, as defined in international circles between the 1960s and the 1994 Nara Conference on Heritage, has been one of the main instruments used to define policies aiming at heritage protection during the last few decades. The concept also became more than an instrument: it shaped entire approaches to the question of the built heritage and to the process – social and political – aiming at its conservation and restoration. For this reason, it has been the object of intense discussions, with scholars and activists denouncing some of its founding ambiguities as being tied to static and sometimes culturalist conceptions of history, to colonial visions, and to policies of social segregation. The object of this chapter is to reflect on such debates around the case of the city of Aleppo, and particularly around the way its medieval and Ottoman built heritage was dealt with in the period of the Ottoman reforms of the second half of the 19th century, the period of French colonial occupation, and the various phases of independence up to its present- day tragic destruction.

The Syrian war will allow Russia to recover its naval presence in the Mediterranean. The Russian Navy will have more facilities at the same time that the Chinese Navy will appear in this scenario. This new situation will give us a new world order; this period we call "Tens Calm". Something similar happened after Bismarck Era, the period called "Armed Peace" (1890-1914), when the global balance was broken. This pre-war environment in the media could have been avoided. Russia today tries to recover its old deployment in the Mediterranean to become a global power.

The architect and planner Michel Ecochard has had a long career in developing countries, from its first works in Syria under the French rule, until the 1970s. He represented the modernist and functionalist approach to planning in a time of modernization. In this article, we concentrate on his work in Lebanon and Syria between the end of the 1950s and the 1960s. He prepared the master plans of Beirut and of Damascus. Those works represented the end of an era rooted in colonial planning. It was also the beginning of a new time, with the local planners taking on, sometimes sharing, sometimes contesting Ecochard's visions. Building on recent scholarship on the circulation of planning ideas, we focus on the reception of Ecochard's proposals. Though most political elites and planning professionals shared most of Ecochard's views, the political circumstances and the changing social conditions led to adjustments and reorientations. The new planning framework was also a major factor of change.

Since the beginning of the Syrian Revolution in March 2011, many of the country’s urban areas have sustained extensive physical damage. Syria’s
second and third cities, Aleppo and Homs, have been especially hard-hit by the war, and their agglomerations were home to about 6.5 million people before the war began (out of a national population of approximately 22 million). In a country where, before the war, over fifty percent of the population lived in cities, planning postwar reconstruction is crucial. As the conflict enters its fifth year, the fate of the country’s destroyed cities has become the subject of international discussion.

Aleppo, the country’s second city, is reported to have seen the blunt of the damage, with large areas of the city either damaged or destroyed. The Old City of Aleppo, which is 5,000 years old and has earned the city its title as one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world, is the frontline of the battle between Syrian government and opposition forces. When the fighting subsides and reconstruction becomes possible, the issues of efficient rebuilding of the ancient city as well as its sustainable absorption of returning refugees will arise.

This paper proposes a roadmap to the reconstruction of Old Aleppo. It begins by explaining the necessity of rebuilding by reflecting on past cases in post-war and post-disaster eras. It then does a preliminary damage assessment of buildings in the Old City based on Satellite imagery, and proposes an adaptable model to estimate the costs and time of reconstruction. Third, the paper suggests locations and layouts for temporary camps for returning refugees. And finally, it explains how adequate policy measures are necessary for the achievement of both the reconstruction and temporary shelter of citizens.

INTRODUCTION Despite a speculated assault by the Assad regime on opposition controlled the Idlib region, Turkey and Russia have reached an agreement that averted the attack. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the Stabilization of the Situation in Idlib’s De-escalation Zone was signed by Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu and his Turkish counterpart Minister of National Defense Hulusi Akar following the Sochi summit held, in the Russian coastal city of Sochi, on September 17, 2018. In addition to its success in averting a humanitarian catastrophe, the Sochi accord will have several implications on the ground, and will further influence the future of the Idlib region and Syria in general. Yet, this accord would face several challenges in both short and long terms.

Between 1975 and 1991, Lebanon experienced a bloody civil war that killed approximately 120,000 people. Product of the sectarian divisions in vogue since the colonial period, the conflict put Christians and Muslims in confrontation, having also the participation of third parties in the regional geopolitical setting. Despite the domestic character of the war, among the regional actors, Syria stands out. Damascus’s behavior as a third party had not been homogeneous. On some occasions, the Syrian government has played the role of mediator, negotiating a truce between the belligerent factions. In others, it intervened militarily or supported some groups over others. In this context, this article proposes to examine the Syrian role in the Lebanese Civil War. The objective is to analyze this action in the
light of the conflict resolution literature, especially that dealing with the intervention of a third party in the resolution process. In particular, emphasis will be given to the motivations and effects of Syrian intervention on the evolution and end of the Lebanese conflict. The results demonstrate that: the intervention of a third party in a domestic conflict is almost inevitable; its action is impelled by diverse and contingent reasons; and that it influences the evolution of this kind of belligerence.

Syria’s ongoing existential conflict is arguably related to its nation-building trajectory starting in the beginning of the twentieth century. What can theories of nation-building and state formation tell us about the origins of conflict as well as future of the Syrian state?

Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) are health conditions that cannot be transmitted from one patient to another, and usually manifest a prolonged, persistent, and slow pathology. NCDs are responsible for over 70% of all deaths, with nearly 80% of these deaths occurring in low-and middle-income countries. In addition, NCDs constitute approximately 80% of all years lived with disability globally. With the global population aging, rises in multi-morbidity, longer life expectancies, and increasing survival rates, more and more people are expected to live with the health burden of NCDs (WHO, 2020).
COVID-19 is an ongoing pandemic that emerged at the end of 2019 in China and spread quickly to the rest of the world, affecting, both directly and indirectly, the health and life of the global population. This research attempts to understand the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on NCDs in Burkina Faso, Bangladesh, Colombia, DRC, Nigeria, and Syria. All six countries are included in the iMMAP COVID-19 Situational Analysis Program, as they are affected by humanitarian crises and conflicts. The report covers the effects of COVID-19 on access to health services, resources allocations, and the medical status of the patients with NCDs.
The research relies on the data collected from trusted academic and institutional sources stored in the DEEP Platform, or directly from World Health Organization (WHO), Centre for Disease Control (CDC), British Medical Journal (BMJ), and ELSEVIER. This secondary data review was complemented with primary data, collected through a key informants’ survey conducted using Kobo Toolbox. For the complete questionnaire.

The Syrian crisis has generated the largest refugee movement since the Rwandan genocide and is described as the defining refugee crisis of our era. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, Syrian refugees are about to replace Afghans as the world’s largest refugee population. 1 Within this refugee population older, disabled and injured refugees face specific challenges that contribute to their vulnerability, yet, studies of humanitarian programming show that these same groups are often neglected in the assessment, data collection, design and delivery of responses. Therefore, in October and November 2013, Handicap International and HelpAge International undertook a research project to highlight the number and needs of Syrian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon living with impairment, 2 injury 3 and chronic disease 4 – for the purposes of this study these groups are referred to as “people with specific needs”. Throughout the report specific consider...

The United States wants to end “forever wars” in the Middle East, among them the war against ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Much to Turkey’s dismay, Kurdish forces were crucial on-the-ground allies in that pursuit. While the military battle is subsiding, the question has arisen of how the new US administration will politically approach its Kurdish allies and deal with Turkey’s expansionism in the future.

Turkish expansionism worries the European Union and United States, despite it having been facilitated by them in the past: Both entities allowed Turkish president Erdoğan to expand militarily into Kurdish areas in Syria and Iraq without any pol­itical repercussions from his Western allies. Therefore, a currently untamed and unilaterally acting Turkey will be one of Biden’s greatest challenges in the region.

Biden will campaign for an end to endless wars, as Trump did, but he also knows that an abrupt withdrawal of US forces is not a solution. Rather, a comprehensive post-war structure for Syria must be drafted, in which the Syrian Democratic Forces should play a crucial role. The main obstacle to such an encompassing agreement will be Turkey.

The Kurdistan Region of Iraq represents a historical precedent that should not be copied. Since 2016, Turkey has increasingly and repeatedly targeted civilians there, even though the region’s Kurdish administration formally cooperates with Turkey. The short-sighted approach that the United States took vis-à-vis the Iraqi Kurds – only granting them autonomy if they agree to act as a proxy force for Turkey – has enabled this.

Joe Biden as well as his secretaries of state and of defense, respectively Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin, have much experience on the Kurdish question and, to some extent, strong pro-Kurdish records. They will likely push for a compromise between Kurdish actors and Turkey in the time to come.

Policy Implications
To achieve long-lasting stability concerning the Kurdish question, Biden’s administration should design policies that aim to prevent Turkish unilateralism and facilitate peace talks between Ankara and especially the PKK leadership, in cooper­ation with partners in the European Union. Furthermore, the political recognition of the Kurds in Syria is central to defending the gains made against ISIS.

The Hellenistic, Parthian, and Roman site of Dura–Europos (or simply “Dura”), dubbed the “Pompeii of the Syrian Desert” by Yale historian and archaeologist Michael Rostovtzeff, was jointly excavated by Yale University and the French Academy of Inscriptions and Letters from 1928 to 1937. Given the outstanding preservation of art and architecture at Dura, it is not surprising that four obsidian artifacts have escaped attention, despite evidence that stone tools – including obsidian ones – continued to be used into and after the Iron Age in the Eastern Mediterranean. After more than eight decades, the character of Dura's connections to the Classical world remains a matter of debate. Pottery includes not only local ceramic wares but also North African and Aegean ones. Our nondestructive pXRF testing establish that the Dura artifacts match the three most widely used Eastern Anatolian obsidian sources: Nemrut Dağ volcano as well as the Bingöl A and B sources. If indeed obsidian arrived at Dura via long-standing mechanisms of Mesopotamian exchange, these Eastern Anatolian obsidians would be expected. Unfortunately, the artifacts' precise locations at Dura are unclear, the excavations lacked stratigraphic con- straints, and Near Eastern obsidian distribution patterns have been rarely studied beyond the Early Bronze Age. Keeping in mind these limitations, our findings are most consistent with past suggestions regarding the im- portance of local Mesopotamian influences and resources at the site.

The formation of the «Arabian Axis» in the number of state coalition opposing the aggression of Saddam Hussein in Kuwait (1990-1991) is regarded in the article. Research methodology is based on the principles of four types of scientific knowledge: general scientific, historical, socio-scientific and problematic. The historical method, which is fundamental for the author, was used as a basis research approach to the phenomena formation and development, as well as the organic coherence of these facts and the conditions causing them. In the frame of this article author analyzes the causes, conditions of formation of “anti-Iraqi triangle” of Saudi Arabia - Egypt - Syria. The author concludes that the three members of the “Arab Axis” had many reasons to fear a dominant role and aggression of Iraq. In particular, in Syria S. Hussein confronted H. Assad, and Assad’s participation in the anti-Saddam coalition was completely predictable. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak believed that the interests of his country will be threatened if Iraq starts to dominate the Middle East arena. Saddam Hussein was also potentially dangerous for the Saudi kingdom, because he considered himself the winner in the war with Iran.

On March 2014, in an Islamic-State-sponsored prisoner swap, Mohammed Haydar Zammar, the al-Qaeda operative jailed in Syria in 2001, was freed in exchange for Syrian army officers held by the IS.

News articles that covered the prisoner exchange did not bother to explain why the IS would go to such trouble to gain his release. However, analysts familiar with the history of Islamist movements knew why...

Lebanon has entered its third year as a country hosting the highest number of Syrian refugees in the region. All geographical areas with a high concentration of Syrian refugees in Lebanon share a similar protracted marginality, underdevelopment, and weak infrastructure. Syrian refugees experience different levels of legal and political conditions, security and protection, freedom of mobility, access to aid and relief  services, access to labor, socio-economic conditions, and prices of goods and rent, all depending on their geographical settlements. These geographical differences are of eminent relevance that affects not only the Syrian refugees and their hosting  communities, but also refugee policies and aid programs. This paper explores these variations by analyzing, first, differences among host communities and, second, by examining the dissimilarities among geographic settlements. The paper reveals that the conditions of Syrian refugees depend on the geographical areas of their settlement within Lebanon. Host-refugee relations also show a direct relationship to the variant geographical areas and their sociodemographic compositions. This paper concludes that geographical differences are of vital importance to be considered when studying the living conditions of refugees, developing policies, or designing aid programs.

Hezbollah is the archetype and so far the most important and efficient of all Iranian proxy forces in the Middle East, and it demonstrates all the traits that eventually became the trademarks of Iran’s proxy networks in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and beyond. While embedding itself in the national government of Lebanon, Hezbollah receives its portfolio from Tehran and advances the agenda of the Islamist regime of Iran. While pressing the regime’s interests at the expense of the West and its regional allies through widespread terrorism and proxy warfare, Hezbollah provides Tehran with just enough plausible deniability to still appear as a somewhat “respectable actor” on the world stage.

Based on its cultural heritage and future vision, Syria launched the Five Seas Initiative in 2004, with the intention of improving regional cooperation. This initiative triggered a plethora of new paradigms and terminologies that address several developments expected to influence both the Middle Eastern conflict theater and the international landscape, particularly in the period 2010-2011 After nine years of war that served to undermine the Five Seas Initiative, and upon the failure of the hegemony of global capitalism in its crude forms, it is now time to put forward a real alternative based on common interests between regional and international actors, which would respect regional diversity away from extremism. Since Middle Eastern countries share common problems, proposed solutions to these problems would be more effective if they were formulated and carried out collectively. Ultimately, development is the only way to bring peace to the Middle East, and a lasting solution to shared problems can only be reached within the framework of “Peace Through Development”. The combination of the “Five Seas Strategy” and the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) would provide such a solution by reconstructing southwest Asia and creating a network of infrastructures thanks to Syria’s privileged geopolitical position at the intersection of the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, the Caspian Sea, and the Black Sea. Full engagement with this combined strategy seems to be the best way to avoid another wasted decade for the majority of Middle Eastern countries.