Syria in Transition

SiT’s March issue is out. Inside: ✅Why we poll: Measuring public opinion is a political necessity. ✅Autonomy under siege: Kurdish leaders face increasing polarisation at home as they attempt to hold back an emboldened Damascus. ✅Small Town Syria: Syria’s governance is marked by HTS factionalism rooted in provincial loyalties. ✅Assadism as lived experience: A review of Rime Allaf’s book It All Started in Damascus. ✅Handarat after the fall: A shattered refugee camp becomes emblematic of the Palestinian ordeal in Syria. ✅No quick fix: Oil, wheat and the limits of economic recovery in northeast Syria. ✅The demise of Conflict Studies: Who benefitted from a field tied to Western power? syriaintransition.com/en/home/archiv…

Irán ataca las infraestructuras energéticas del Golfo porque ha calculado que ni EEUU ni Israel acudirán en su ayuda. Los nostálgicos y TEPT comparan con Irak en años equivocados, aquí un análisis out of the box de @SyriaTransition : syriaintransition.com/en/home/archiv…

Gulf War III The Gulf Arab states are now the frontline of a regional war. As deterrence fails and Iranian attacks on critical infrastructure mount, they face a stark choice: remain collateral damage, or change the balance of power. syriaintransition.com/en/home/archiv…

Government control over oil and wheat in the northeast is framed as the missing piece of Syria’s economic revival. The numbers tell a different story. The 30 January settlement between the government and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) was one of the key political events following the fall of the Assad regime. Beyond its security and governance implications, it has triggered intense debate about the economic reintegration into the state of areas in the northeast formerly under the control of the SDF. Talk shows, social media influencers, government affiliated newspapers and even regional media outlets portray the northeast as the missing piece of the Syrian economic recovery puzzle. Certainly northeast Syria accounts for a significant share of Syria’s hydrocarbons and agricultural production. But like the rest of the country, it has endured years of violence, destruction, displacement, infrastructure decay, institutional erosion, climate stress and severe drought. What, then, can reasonably be expected from the economic integration of this region? syriaintransition.com/en/home/archiv…

Nowruz and Mother’s Day: a tale of two symbols Following the fall of the regime, Kurds have begun reclaiming space to express their cultural identity openly. A stroll through Umayyad Square reveals large banners, hung early, announcing Nowruz celebrations. By contrast, one must look more closely to find even a single sign marking Mother’s Day. Why? syriaintransition.com/en/home/opinio…

Syrian MP/former head of Ahrar al-Sham's politburo opposes intervention against Hezbollah in Lebanon syriaintransition.com/en/home/opinio…

I fought Hezbollah in Homs. Seeking revenge in Lebanon is wrong Reports are circulating that the Syrian army may enter Lebanon. The justification? To hold Hezbollah accountable for its crimes and eliminate the threat it poses to Syria. Some go further, suggesting such a move would defend Lebanon’s Sunnis. Despite everything, this must be firmly rejected. Syrian MP @kinan_nahhas on why his country should remain above the fray in the Israel/US-Iran war: syriaintransition.com/en/home/opinio…

Fueron las mujeres sirias suníes quienes, con valentía, se plantaron frente a las sedes de la seguridad portando fotos de sus seres queridos. En la nueva Siria islámica y suní se les pide que regresen a sus cocinas y se las excluye de la política, dice la periodista Mona Abboud

Our kitchens carried the revolution For years, Syrian women left their kitchens to search prisons and demand answers about their missing loved ones. Now that the regime has fallen, many are being asked to return to the kitchen. Why? syriaintransition.com/en/home/opinio…

What does dictatorship do to people’s inner lives? Our review of Rime Allaf’s chronicle examines how Assadism seeped into language, memory and conscience, taking root in social habits shaped by fear and scarcity. The book argues that Syria’s reckoning cannot stop at dismantling institutions; it must also confront what the regime made of its citizens, and what still lingers in the country’s socio-political culture today. Amid the many analyses of unbounded prison violence, institutional dysfunction and the kleptocratic lifestyle of the elites around the Assad family, it is easy to lose sight of a simpler fact: Syria’s dictatorship was also a theatre of lived experience. It left deep traces in emotional worlds, behavioural habits, and in the way people speak or, just as often, in the way they do not. syriaintransition.com/en/home/archiv…

Op-ed of mine for (the excellent) @SyriaTransition, on the PYD's trajectory and its relationship to Kurdish nationalism syriaintransition.com/en/home/opinio…

What’s next for the PYD? After years of presenting its rule as a multicultural alternative for northeast Syria, the PYD is returning to explicitly Kurdish politics. The party’s new position between Damascus and its Kurdish constituents presents new challenges. @AKMcKeever discusses: syriaintransition.com/en/home/opinio…

The men who now govern Syria did not rise through formal institutions but through kinship groups rooted in Idlib, Hama and Deir Ezzor. Those provincial loyalties, once useful tools of insurgency, have been transplanted wholesale into the state. What held together in wartime may become harder to manage in peace. It is not easy to decipher the structure of power within Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) simply by scanning ministerial titles or reading government communiqués. The visible façade obscures a far denser accumulation of relationships: marriages, provincial loyalties, and patronage networks built painstakingly over years. To understand the regime now led by President Ahmad al-Sharaa, one must look back to the earliest days of Jabhat al-Nusra, at its consolidation of authority in Idlib, and into the transition that followed Assad’s fall. The organisation’s formative years fixed patterns of influence that continue to define Syria’s power structure. syriaintransition.com/en/home/archiv…

RT @SyrTransitionAR: تسليم، أم ترحيل، أم اختطاف؟ تسعى الحكومة السورية الجديدة إلى ملاحقة جرائم حقبة الأسد عبر آليات القانون الدولي. لكن قض…

Extradition, deportation, or abduction? Syria’s new government wants to pursue the crimes of the Assad era through international law. But the case of an Emirati dissident detained in Damascus raises a troubling question: will the tools of justice become instruments of repression? Mohamad Kheir AlWazir @mk_alwazeer discusses: syriaintransition.com/en/home/opinio…

عودة الثقافة السورية واجهت الثقافة السورية تحديات كبيرة، منها ضعف البنية المؤسسية، وقلة الموارد، واستمرار تشتت عدد كبير من المثقفين في المنافي. لكن التجربة التاريخية تشير إلى أن المجتمعات التي تمر بكوارث كبرى قد تمتلك قدرة استثنائية على إعادة ابتكار ثقافتها. للمزيد: syriaintransition.com/ar/home/opinio…

The return of Syrian culture The transformation of Syria’s cultural landscape remains at an early stage. The country’s cultural life still faces serious challenges, including weak institutional structures, limited resources and the continued dispersal of many intellectuals across exile communities. History nevertheless suggests that societies which endure profound upheaval often develop a remarkable capacity to reinvent their cultural life. More from Yaser al-Dhaher: syriaintransition.com/en/home/opinio…