Author: Hilal Kaplan
After the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, Iran, whose dream of a “neo-Persian empire” came to an end, is trying to recover from its disappointment. For this purpose, Iran sent Shiite volunteers from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Syria under the names of Fatimiyyun and Zaynabiyyun, added Hezbollah and the militias of the so-called Al-Quds brigades and began to occupy and assimilate the country step by step. In 2015, Ali Yunousi, Iran’s vice president, positioned his country, which he referred to as a “growing empire,” as follows: “Both the Ottoman generation and the remnants of Rome, who are competing…
We move from the center of Damascus to its northeastern periphery. We take long and winding roads to the town of Maaloula. This is a place where the Aramaic language, which was spoken during the time of Jesus, is still alive and the inhabitants are all Christians. The place we will visit is the Convent of Saint Thecla of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch, carved into the rocks. When we first arrive in the town, we are greeted with curious but warm greetings from the locals. As we enter the monastery, we meet nuns dressed in black. First they…
At the entrance, under the three-star flag representing free Syria, it reads: “Sednaya prison, the human slaughterhouse: We will not forget, we will not forgive.” Parents are carrying photographs of their children with only a little hope. Some go inside the narrow holes they dug underground and hit the bars with sticks to see if they hear a sound. The others search thousands of scattered documents out of the mud and read them to see if they can find a trace of their loved ones. Posters of the missing are hanging on the walls. People try to find the names…
We are in Aleppo right now, which had been squeezed by Russian airstrikes and Iranian-backed militias in 2016, subjugated by a siege and had had hundreds of thousands of its children martyred due to the oppressive regime of Bashar Assad for 13 years. I will share my notes on Syria in the following articles but first I would like to say a few words about our meeting with Mr. Mohammad Abu Nasr, who was appointed as a member of the Political Affairs Commission by the new administration in Aleppo. Before Aleppo, Mr. Abu Nasr was the head of a similar…