Geography Archives: Syria

Four months ago, we returned from a trip to the Middle East and wrote that “the main question engaging people with respect to the Arab Spring is no longer, ‘who’s next,’ but rather how far will Saudi Arabia go in pushing a ‘counter-revolutionary agenda’ across the [region].”  Since then, something of a discussion, if not […]

  The way Egyptian scholar and researcher Samir Amin sees it, nothing will be the same as before in the Arab world: protest movements will challenge both the internal social order of Arab countries and their places in the regional and global political chessboard. Hassane Zerrouky: How do you see what’s happening in the Arab […]

Two of my favorite quotes come into play here, one by the English poet, Alexander Pope, who explained that “some people will never learn anything . . . because they understand everything too soon,” and George Bernard Shaw, much more resigned and ironic in stating that “we learn from experience that men never learn anything […]

  The King of Saudi Arabia calls for “freedom” in Syria . . . but where in Saudi Arabia is Khaled al-Johani? Saad Hajo is a Syrian cartoonist.  This cartoon was first published in As-Safir on 9 August 2011; it is reproduced here for non-profit educational purposes. | Print  

Egypt Amin Saikal (ABC, 29 July 2011): “The Islamist parties [in Egypt] now stand a good chance to win an absolute majority in the parliamentary elections in November, and also contest successfully the presidential election. . . .  According to an Aljazeera public opinion survey, released on July 7, 2011, nearly 50 per cent of […]

  We wish to express our deep concern for the treatment of Syria’s internal situation at the United Nations Security Council, beginning with strong pressures exerted by the Western powers who are members of this organ, in order to adopt decisions against the legitimate government of Syria. Taking into account the experiences of, and precedents […]

  Joshua Landis: Hama, which is the center of this crackdown, left government control about three weeks ago.  The governor called off the troops and withdrew security from the town.  He was summarily fired.  The government realized that this was a big mistake. . . .  The government is clearly trying to take control of […]

Syrian Commando (2 August 2011): “Peaceful demonstration tools in #Hama #Syria for Ramadan http://t.co/FyPY1NM“ Eslam Jawaad (2 August 2011): “Father is Druze.  Mother is Alawite.  They raised me as Muslim.  My wife is Sunni.  Brother’s wife Christian.  F#$k sectarianism.  Pray for #Syria“ 3arabiSouri (2 August 2011): “Syrians r so grateful to our Libyan brothers, if […]

  Hama has suffered for the (at least) past three weeks from lawlessness and nearly complete absence of the entire state and its organs, and from control by groups of armed teenagers and criminals who (left without any other choice, in the opinion of the US and French ambassadors) actually erected roadblocks and expropriated the […]

“Conspirators Wanted” Victor Nieto is a cartoonist in Venezuela.  His cartoons frequently appear in Aporrea and Rebelión among other sites.  Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com).  Cf. Fayez Nahabieh, “Réflexion sur les origines de la crise syrienne et les moyens d’en sortir” (InfoSyrie, 15 July 2011); Alastair Crooke, “Unfolding the Syrian Paradox” […]

Still lacking a fire starter called diplomacy, Uncle Sam fails to detonate a war against Syria. Hamid Karout is a Syrian cartoonist.  This cartoon was first published in Tishreen on 14 July 2011; it is reproduced here for non-profit educational purposes.  Cf. “‘The OIC has a strong desire to build national dialogue between governments and […]

Corrupt men in charge of mass media and corporations, abandoning the sinking ancien régime, climb onto the ship of the Egyptian revolution (whose slogan was “Leave!”), threatening to capsize it. . . . Fahd Bahady is a Syrian cartoonist.  This cartoon was first published in his blog on 22 April 2011; it is reproduced here […]

USG Discovers Syrian Protesters It Doesn’t Like As’ad AbuKhalil (12 June 2011): “Yesterday, a US official referred to the protesters at the US embassy as ‘thugs.’  But if they were attacking a Ba’th office or a Syrian government building, I am sure that they would not have been described as thugs.  So thuggery is not […]

  “Channels of blood or channels of sedition or channels of the other side — call them what you like.  These channels, as illustrated below, are a gun pointed to our land and our people.  We the people must stand up, face them, and fight them.  We don’t allow anyone to prejudice the security of […]

نظام, nizam, Arabic for regime, order, system, but against which nizam? Against the SystemDudd Al-Nizam “Against the System”by Eslam Jawaad Against the Country by Murder Eyez Statement No. 1 SyrianRevolution.org Shabeeha Song by The Strong Heroes of Moscow Cf. Jackson Allers, “Syrian Revolution and Eslam Jawaad’s Response — ‘Dudd al-Nizam’ (Syria)” (Beats and Breath, 5 […]

Merkel just wouldn’t let the cat out of the bag.  In the first days after the arms sale scandal began, her front seat in the Bundestag was conspicuously empty.  When she finally did show up she wore a sour look but said not a word.  The decision made and any reasoning behind it were highly […]

Syrians for BHL Rami Zurayk (Land and People, 8 July 2011): “Is there anyone who follows politics and champions the Arab and Palestinian causes who does not know Bernard Henri Levy? . . .  He was one of the first to enter the shattered remains of Jenin on board a Zionist tank to express his […]

Bernard-Henri Lévy, well known for his devotion to humanitarian military interventions, organized a conference to “stop the massacre” in Syria, “SOS Syrie,” in Paris on the fourth of July.  There is no doubt that BHL is eager to replicate his Libyan success in Syria.  Given the clear Russian opposition to any military intervention in Syria, […]

2 July 2011 To the final subject: the current situation.  To the Lebanese people, I say to them the following: don’t worry about civil strife.  Those who talk about civil strife in Lebanon actually want that to come about.  There will be no Sunni-Shiite strife and no civil war in Lebanon.  Everyone should be assured […]

Bassam Alkadi is President of the Syrian Women Observatory, Syria’s main women’s rights organization.  A relentless fighter for human rights in Syria, he has been fired from his job, arrested, jailed, and forbidden from traveling, but he continues to be driven by logic and not revenge.  He rejects dialogue for the sake of dialogue.  Instead, […]