Une semaine sur la Syrie,
41e semaine de l’an 2019
Grâce à notre inlassable veilleur et archiviste, cette rubrique offre chaque semaine une sélection d’articles, informations, études et rapports glanés sur la semaine qui précède. En fin de rubrique, une série d’évènements de la semaine à venir est proposée.
Artwork by Miream Salameh
all rights reserved.
With her kind permission.
– Agir pour Idlib:
– In-depth: ‘Remaining hospitals in #Syria‘s Idlib overwhelmed with patients‘ https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/indepth/2019/10/8/remaining-hospitals-in-syrias-idlib-overwhelmed-with-patients
– I thought I’d seen all the horrors possible here in Idlib – until now | Raed Al Saleh https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/oct/08/horrors-idlib-white-helmets-syria?CMP=share_btn_tw
1 – Rapports et Etudes:
-« The Syrian pound’s depreciation and its high fluctuations reflect the fragile political and economic situation in the country. The government’s improvised decisions have failed to stabilize it. » Read the latest analysis by Zaki Mehchy on #Syria‘s economy.
https://www.chathamhouse.org/expert/comment/syrian-pound-signals-economic-deterioration
– This report is an appeal and a challenge. Will the international community support the Syrians who recognise the difficulty of the task they face? #Syria https://www.christianaid.org.uk/resources/about-us/report-syrian-civil-society-closing-door
2 – Idlib :
-“I don’t think I’ll go back to Syria if the areas east of the Euphrates become safe under rebel control. I’m from Eastern Ghouta and I hope the Syrian regime falls so I can go home » https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/idlibs-residents-turkeys-looming-offensive-throws-future-doubt
– Ceasefire Broken, Samedi 12 Octobre, Earlier Today #Syria Regime killed & injured kids in #Idlib with cluster bombs.. & there are also reports that they used #BarrelBombs in #Lattakia Tonight local media say #Russian Warplanes are flying over #Idlib & carrying out #Airstrikes on #Ariha
3 – Les syriens, les kurdes et l’invasion Turque:
– Hassan Hassan @hxhassan https://mobile.twitter.com/hxhassan/status/1181925214525022209
-Erdogan’s announcement of the Turkish invasion in Syria, blessed by Russia, the rebels that Russia is fighting, and the United States that supposedly backs the force being attacked. The immediate priority for Turkey now is to plan the flag before Trump changes his mind, so they moved quick to attack towns with large Arab populations, where they’ll be likely stationed.
-Turkey’s vice president confirms that this is just the initial phase of the operation. #Trump probably surprised even Turkey with his approval of the operation. This operation could take several months, for now it’s mainly to plan the Turkish flag and mark its territory. The operation will be concentrated first in Arab-majority areas, hoping Kurds will flee. Judging from Turkey’s previous operations in northwestern Syria.
-This is on Trump, but mostly on officials (working for him or for his predecessor) who were so clueless about how far Turkey will go to dismantle what it sees as « the territorial caliphate of Ocalan ». Also because they didn’t attempt to make it bloodless & protect civilians.
-Preventing the Kurds from building a statelet of any kind to the south of its borders, by a group they see as an extension of the insurgency that’s been fighting inside Turkey for four decades, eclipses any other priority for Turkey. That brought it ever closer to Russia.
– Journalists and officials can be outraged and preach about Trump, but this was going to happen sooner or later. The US had years to fix the SDF, but officials kept saying ‘we believe in delegating authority to the locals’ (defined as the YPG and those working with them). So it’s really just outrageous to see Obama officials, for example, deflecting blame and presenting themselves as policy sages. They messed up, and all of us told them they were planting the seeds of future disastrous. It’s all documented and in writing, predicted play by play. In American foreign policy, those fools fail up. Every time they mess up, they emerge as in charge of managing the mess they had created. And media applaud them, and give them the platforms to re-write history. It’s a systemic mess. Fools cheering for fools. Who is paying for this mess now?
-No surprise but media outlets affiliated to Saudi Arabia and the UAE are up in arms about the Turkish invasion of northern Syria. Suddenly they care about Syria.
-Once Turkey takes over that area, it’ll be become a lot easier to weaken the Kurds in the remaining areas. Many of the SDF’s internal cadres will walk away and join Turkey, others will operate in areas with zero Kurdish populations, and the SDF could slowly crumble from within. It’s almost exactly 2 years since the Trump administration abandoned their longstanding Kurdish allies in #Iraq and blessed a takeover of Kirkuk by pro-Iran forces+militias. That was one of the defining moments of today’s Iraqi politics. Oct2017 Oct2019.
-This is going to be a bigger moment in history than we probably think. ISIS revival is not the only worry. It’s the easier way for outsiders to capture the moment, but it goes beyond this. And if you think this will stop in those northern areas, or in Syria, you’re mistaken. A good analogy for Turkey’s strategy is the US strategy against ISIS. The priority is to expel an adversary from territory. Beyond that, no clue. There are ideas yes, but no real plan.
-Russia too, as one knowledgeable friend says, has no endgame either. The US, forget it.
-Turkey was willing to go to war there, notwithstanding the costs, but it was physically & literally stopped by the US military. Once they were able to do it, They go on.
-Turkey’s intervention is informed by its top national security priority, whatever the costs. After this, it has NO exit strategy. Damascus & Tehran had no say in this, since Russia coordinated it with Turkey. Russia, as said above, has no endgame there: One thing is clear: What’s happening today is the beginning of something big, no seems to have any idea what that might be.
-This could be akin to Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait, or something like that. It could shift Turkey’s plan for Syria entirely, against Assad for example. Different things, ostensibly unrelated, are happening from Iran to Iraq to Syria to Turkey, and then from Egypt to Yemen to Saudi Arabia. Things look fragile/precarious, fragmentation is expanding, aggressiveness is increasing, and various problems are expounding. We’re unlikely to see immediate consequences for these big events, but they’re definitely complicating matters across the region.
-In Syria, conditions could dramatically change in 1-2 years, after a period of quiet and apparent equilibrium. Syrians, get yourself ready for another round of unknowns. Iraqis, same thing. Assertions about new and lasting trends are proving short-sighted.
-To grasp what #Turkey’s intervention in #Syria might mean, consider the following fact: The decision was made by three men. #Erdogan #Trump #Putin
-Erdogan had a chat with Trump and Putin about invading Syria, and he got himself a deal. Trump did this impulsively without his team. Putin decided this on his own without allies in Tehran & Damascus .Erdogan knows exactly why he had to invade, but beyond that he got no plan.
-The Turkish operation marks the absolute & indisputable end of anything that used to identify as the Free Syrian Army or the mainstream opposition. Syria is now fully under foreign control, and forces have extremist ideologies or mercenaries. Even those forces that used to claim the name of the FSA have now organized under the full sponsorship of Turkey, and ironically called themselves « the National Army ». They wisely and rightly dropped the words ‘Free’ and ‘Syrian’. But they’re not nearly « national » or « army ». Syria answers to these foreign leaders: Abdullah Ocalan (eastern Syria) Recept Tayyip Erdogan (northern Syria) Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (western & southern Syria) Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (ISIS) Ayman al-Zawahiri (some in Idlib) Jihadists and Islamists (Idlib)
– Both Washington and Moscow oppose a UN Security Council resolution to condemn #Turkey’s intervention in Syria. That doesn’t happen every day….
– Le désastre kurde en #Syrie – JP Filiu https://www.lemonde.fr/blog/filiu/2019/01/13/le-desastre-kurde-en-syrie/
– En Syrie, Ankara met ses menaces à exécution – https://liberation.fr/planete/2019/10/09/en-syrie-ankara-met-ses-menaces-a-execution_1756607…
– A Turkish offensive in northeastern #Syria would threaten the fragile equilibrium in the area, argues @jobahout on #SyriaWithdrawal. https://carnegie-mec.org/p-80018
– #Syrie : recrutement forcé et déficit démocratique chez les Kurdes. https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/092816-000-A/syrie-recrutement-force-chez-les-kurdes/
– Vers la fin du mirage pour le Kurdistan syrien autonome https://liberation.fr/planete/2019/10/07/vers-la-fin-du-mirage-pour-le-kurdistan-syrien-autonome_1756131… via @libe
4 – Aide humanitaire :
– Le convoi humanitaire de l’association Médina de Bourges est bien arrivé en #Syrie https://www.francebleu.fr/infos/societe/le-convoi-humanitaire-de-l-association-medina-de-bourges-est-bien-arrive-en-syrie-1570107685
5 – Education :
-News – UK aid to provide education and jobs to thousands of Syrian refugees in Lebanon:
https://gov.uk/government/news/uk-aid-to-provide-education-and-jobs-to-thousands-of-syrian-refugees…
6 – Refugees:
– La Turquie au centre des questions migratoires #Syrie http://infomi.gr/15N3.T via @InfoMigrants_fr
– Quand les réfugiés #syrie ns dopent la croissance économique turque http://xfru.it/ZXsxz7
7 – Le régime et la société :
– As was to be expected: #Assad Regime Violates Rules of Procedure Related to Constitutional Committee’s Work. #Assad‘s commitment to anything and anybody is not worth anything. #Syira #UN http://en.etilaf.org/all-news/news/assad-regime-violates-rules-of-procedure-related-to-constitutional-committee-s-work.html…
– A number of reconciliation fighters have died in regime prisons. https://syrianobserver.com/EN/news/53401/rights-report-documents-regime-arrest-of-142-defectors.html
– Yabroud : #Lebanese #Hezbollah militia brought a number of its armed militiamen’s families to #Yabroud city #Qalamoun region in #Damascus countryside in coordination with #Assad Regime intelligence after the displacement of the indigenous people & residents’ #Syria
– The arrests highlight the oppressive atmosphere that people must endure in regime held areas. https://syrianobserver.com/EN/news/53501/assad-security-arrests-12-women-who-contacted-relatives-in-northern-syria.html
– Damas: –The #Assad regime takes it out on « medical cadres » in #Damascus countryside for allegedly working for the former revolutionary factions #Syria http://nedaa-sy.com/en/news/16042
8 – Les nouvelles consciences de la société syrienne :
– L’actualité vue par le dessinateur #syrie n Najah Albukai https://www.heidi.news/articles/l-actualite-vue-par-le-dessinateur-syrien-najah-albukai?utm_source=twitter
– In this moving account, Syrian journalist @marwanhishampen writes about his return to Raqqa – a region braced for yet more conflict and catastrophe.
“As an Arab, I say: when I looked at the Syrian map before today, I saw no hope of an inclusive future except in [the SDF held] part of the country. Now that hope is gone.” writes from Raqqa on the eve of the Turkish invasion. https://www.amnesty.org.uk/blogs/ether/return-raqqa
– His first mission was to smuggle war crimes evidence. Now it’s to convince Congress to act https://edition.cnn.com/2019/10/08/politics/syria-defector-caesar-in-washington/index.html
– War can leave invisible mental scars The region is facing an unprecedented mental health crisis Kareem Shaheen : I wrote a piece for mental health awareness week about struggling with anxiety, burnout and depression as a journalist covering Syria/Lebanon. Please forgive my self-indulgence in writing about myself, but I thought it might help someone out there. https://www.thenational.ae/opinion/comment/the-nightmares-of-the-dead-the-weeping-and-the-wounded-haunt-me-still-1.921416
– A #Syria n Visiting A Nazi Camp https://syriauntold.com/?p=60527 via @SyriaUntold
– Orphaned in #Syria’s civil war, how a refugee boy defied the odds to study in the UK. Nour became one of only a handful of Syrian refugees to make it to the UK without being part of a resettlement programme and with no help from the government. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/syria-refugee-uk-lebanon-orphan-school-boarding-education-a9090801.html
– As a White Helmet, she spent years saving lives in war-torn #Syria. Now she’s building a new life in Canada “Freedom, justice and democracy were taboo words, but everything changed after the revolution and we can talk and don’t have to be silenced,” https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/10/06/as-a-white-helmet-she-spent-years-saving-lives-in-war-torn-syria-now-shes-building-a-new-life-in-canada.html
– In solidarity with #Sudan: Syria’s graffiti movement by Rana Riziq part two in three part video series https://atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/syriasource/in-solidarity-with-sudan-syrias-graffiti-movement/… @KeshMalekSyria
9 – Justice & impunity:
– Universal Jurisdiction, Universal Justice: Prosecuting Syrian War Crimes Abroad #Syria https://bpr.berkeley.edu/2019/09/22/universal-jurisdiction-universal-justice-prosecuting-syrian-war-crimes-abroad/
– The war in #Syria is NOT over. « A criminal is running our country. » https://www.thenational.ae/opinion/comment/as-the-syrian-civil-war-drags-on-the-world-must-not-turn-its-back-on-it-1.919914
10 – US:
-Trump withdraws US troops from northern #Syria – analysis from @FredericHof @MrjDuclos @faysalitani @borzou @jasmineelgamal https://atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/menasource/trump-withdraws-us-troops-from-northern-syria/
11 – Iran:
-As the US withdraws from Syria, Iran is eyeing the oil reserves east of the Euphrates. https://syrianobserver.com/EN/news/53514/irans-eyes-on-economic-opportunities-after-us-withdrawal.html
12 – Analyse et politique:
-Northern Syria has been a graveyard of failed US policies https://www.trtworld.com/opinion/northern-syria-has-been-a-graveyard-of-failed-us-policies-30522
13 – Livre:
-«Manam»: le devoir de ne pas désespérer « Moi, je suis fascinée par les survivants », lance Rima Elkouri à mi-chemin de notre entretien. « Nous sommes nos silences encore plus que nos mots », #Syrie https://www.ledevoir.com/lire/564005/fiction-quebecoise-manam-le-devoir-de-ne-pas-desesperer
– From the book « We crossed a bridge and it trembled » . http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/review-we-crossed-bridge-and-it-trembled-voices-syria-1792193180
-Words from Cherin, mother from Aleppo. « Before the revolution, I thought that Syria was for Assad. Syria was just the place where I lived, but it didn’t belong to me. » « When the revolution began, I discovered that Syria was my country. As Kurds, we had thought that we were oppressed and others were favored by the regime. » « After the revolution we discovered that we were all suffering from the same oppression. « We discovered that we had not been working together, and that is how the regime was able to dominate us. I wish that all groups and peoples of Syria work together in these dark times, and that no one runs back into the arms of the oppressors, the ones that bombed civilians to nothing.
14 – Photographie :
-« #ALEP-MACHINE » épouse la trame de l’ouvrage « Le fil de nos vies brisées » de Cécile Hennion, qui dresse le portrait de la ville à travers les récits entremêlés de ses habitants, contraints à l’exil par les violence & la guerre #Syrie #PBCN2019 #PrixBayeux
https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/092273-000-A/alep-machine/
15 – Creative memories :
-Très beau travail du site « La mémoire créative de la révolution syrienne » : une chronologie très détaillée et parfaitement sourcée du soulèvement anti-Assad. La première partie, de 2011 à 2013, est en ligne, en arabe, français, anglais. https://creativememory.org/fr/chronology-of-the-revolution-and-the-syrian-war/2011-2013-from-the-revolution-to-the-chemical-weapon/#event-tl-biypf
16 -Arts: -A year after #Syria n artist Houssam Alloum’s arrival in Canada, his portrait work is nominated for the Kingston Prize /
17 – Théâtre :
-Daraya, Foule Théâtre: »
http://www.leventredelabaleine.net/events/foule-theatre-daraya/
18 – Musique :
– Set amidst the backdrop of the fabled #LittleSyria neighborhood in #NYC, this unique performance project bridges #HipHop & live #Arabic instrumentation with the time-honored #Hakawati storytelling traditions of the #Levant. https://youtu.be/xPLdys6hJ_k
– Victoires du Jazz 2019. L’Album inclassable de l’année a été décerné à la flûtiste et compositrice Naïssam Jalal. #Syrie https://francemusique.fr/actualite-musicale/anne-paceo-artiste-de-l-annee-aux-victoires-du-jazz-2019-77114…
19 – Interview:
– #Syria n Artist and Architect Mohamad Hafez. https://www.pbs.org/video/web-extra-syrian-artist-and-architect-mohamad-hafez-7mgsp1/
20 – Les Syriens:
– Je me sentais exister : Après avoir fui la guerre, Emad raconte son arrivée en France. _#Syrie https://fr.news.yahoo.com/video-je-sentais-exister-apr%C3%A8s-095108074.html?soc_src=community&soc_trk=tw…
–#Syria n family speaks on their new life in rainy Fermanagh https://www.impartialreporter.com/news/17944101.syrian-family-speaks-new-life-rainy-fermanagh/?ref=twtrec
-Syrian family closes Toronto restaurant following death threats https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/10/08/restaurant-founded-by-syrian-refugee-family-closes-amid-allegations-of-death-threats.html
21- La Syrie à Paris:
-Séances film For Sama, avec débats. https://www.facebook.com/pg/KMBOFilms/events/
The film documents life in Aleppo through 6 years of the Syrian conflict, capturing the horror of the war alongside the most pivotal, joyful moments of life.
‘How can you think the world still needs to open an investigation to know who is bombing these hospitals? It’s a very huge gap between the reality and what’s happening in the corridors of the UN.’
https://www.syrianotes.org/2019/09/syria-notes-autumn-2019.html
– Mercredi 16 Octobre 20h, For Sama, https://www.facebook.com/events/1327544207418808/
– Jeudi 17 Octobre 12h, La cantine Syrienne, https://www.facebook.com/events/838881166508229/?event_time_id=838881183174894
– Vendredi 18 Octobre, 18h30, François Burgat, https://www.facebook.com/events/471140786809615/
– Samedi 19 Octobre, 20h30, Derviche | Bab Assalam & Sylvain Julien
https://www.facebook.com/events/2448530391896282/
– Dimanche 20 Octobre, 16h, Je passe 3, performance, https://www.facebook.com/events/397825271119739/
– Dimanche 20 Octobre, 17h30, Derviches tourneurs de Damas | https://www.facebook.com/events/1275696142553954/
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