The number of people killed and injured by the earthquake that struck Syria and Turkey at dawn today, Monday 6 February 2023, is still expected to rise. Emergency teams in both countries continue to reach more affected areas. The first earthquake, which struck south Turkey and northern Syria from its center in Kahramanmaraş, was at a magnitude of 7.8 and caused numerous human losses and…

In early 2016, during a ceremony by the National Commission for the Syrian Science Olympiad at the Opera House in Damascus, Mrs. Asma al-Assad gave an enthusiastic speech about the progress of the educational initiative she has sponsored since 2006, concluding that this progress inspires optimism and shines a light into the prevalent darkness. Thanks to her vaunting phrase “Look where we were, and how…

There seems to be American and Western plans in the making to fight ISIS in Syria, although it is unlikely to exceed air strikes and perhaps some limited commando operations. The purpose of such strikes is probably to put the emerging terrorist entity under pressure, busy it with pulling itself together and prevent it from «expanding». The Assadist regime, for its part, was quick to…

Filiation and affiliation are useful Saidean concepts that can help shed light on the situation of Syria. Said elaborated these concepts in his essay «On Secular Criticism» Edward W. Said, The World, the Text, and the Critic (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1983).. In this article, they will be made to travel from the realm of literature and into the politics of destruction in Syria….