Tag Archives: Syria

Kerstin Bree Carlson, Roskilde University Denmark has decided to repatriate some Islamic State (IS) supporters from camps in Syria. As a result of the decision, three Danish women and their 14 children will return to Denmark, where it is expected that the mothers will be tried for terrorism. Meanwhile, the state has removed citizenship from three women who are dual …

Ali Aljasem, Utrecht University The least surprising news of the week from Syria is that Bashar al-Assad has won another seven-year term with 95% of the votes – an increase on the 89% he won in 2014. Officials said 78.6% of eligible voters, or more than 13.5 million people, cast their ballots in the election on May 26. But western …

Harout Akdedian, Central European University The so-called Islamic State (IS) recently lost its last remnant of territory in Syria, but observers were quick to remind the world that the war against the organisation is far from over. What then does this loss of territorial control actually mean for IS? At its height, the self-proclaimed “caliphate” controlled an estimated 34,000 square …

Peter Malcontent, Utrecht University Israeli voters are about to head to the polls for the fourth time in two years. And, once again, the issue of Palestine has been almost completely absent from debate during the campaign. Once upon a time this would have been unimaginable. In 1992, Yizhak Rabin’s Labor Party won because of his willingness to strike a …

The city of Homs has been ravaged by war, leaving millions of people homeless and displaced. Abduljalil Achraf, Author provided Ammar Azzouz, University of Oxford Abduljalil sent me a photo of his ruined home in Homs, Syria. “It is the third floor”, he told me over WhatsApp. The building still stands but it looks like an empty skeleton. Most of …

Saudi King Salman accompanies Kuwait’s emir, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, left, during the 40th Gulf Cooperation Council Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in December 2019. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil) Edmund Adam, University of Toronto When the Arab Spring protests erupted in 2010, many political pundits predicted the uprisings would ripple through the entire region and ultimately reach the oil-rich …

Yasin Duman, Coventry University A spate of attacks in Turkey on Syrian refugees and Kurdish internal migrants and displaced people in recent months have put both communities on edge. In July, a Syrian teenager working as a market seller in Bursa, northwestern Turkey, died after he was attacked by a group of men. Another Syrian teenager who worked in a …

Rahaf Aldoughli, Lancaster University When I picture Syria, the first thing I see in my mind’s eye are the statues of the late Syrian president, Hafez al-Assad, in military attire – there’s one in almost every square. But it’s not just statues in the urban spaces, this muscular image of the nation permeates popular culture – Syria is symbolically depicted …

Samira, originally from Belgium, walks with her son in Camp Roj in northern Syria. Her French husband is imprisoned for links to the Islamic State. She has tried to return to Belgium, where she says she wants to reintegrate into society, but their repatriation has sparked controversy. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo) Lydie C. Belporo, Université de Montréal The children live in …

The podcast Caliphate explored the war on terror and ISIS on the ground in Syria and Iraq. In this March 12, 2020 photo, a man rides a motorcycle in northwestern Syria the current focus of the 10-year civil war. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana) Peter Klein, University of British Columbia The latest scandal to hit United States news media involves Rukmini Callimachi, …