[Editor’s note: This article was first published in Arabic on Thursday, 19 October, 2017.]   The southern bank of the Euphrates River in eastern Syria is named “al-Shamiyya” (“The Levantine”), while the northern bank is called “al-Jazira” (literally “The Island,” the historic name in Arabic for Upper Mesopotamia). The cities, towns, and villages of Deir al-Zor governorate are distributed across both banks, which until very…