Life in Syria has never been simple. The realities, meticulously hidden under a veneer of homogeneity, have always been too complex for even the most discerning of scholars. The peaceful coexistence between the country’s myriad ethnic, religious, and tribal groups is the result of a complex layer of concessions, compromises, tacit agreements, and other pragmatic arrangements perfected over the centuries.
The Jerusalem Report / page 24
Ammar Abdulhamid hopes to spark an intellectual renaissance and encourage political reform at home in Damascus.
Yigal Schleifer / Istanbul
SYRIAN PUBLISHER AND author Ammar Abdulhamid doesn’t like to think small scale. The founder of a year-old nonprofit Damascus publishing house, Abdulhamid is embarking on a translation project through which he plans to introduce the Syrian public to the classic literary and philosophical works of the Western canon. Continue reading “The Young Syrian”
Those who think that the difficulties the Americans are having in Iraq are going to make them rethink their commitment to effecting serious change in the Middle East and adopt some kind of a neutral hands-off stance vis-à-vis regional developments are, simply put, deluding themselves. In fact, the invasion of Iraq promises to be merely the beginning of a long period of direct American interventionism in the region. Whatever difficulties the Americans are bound to encounter along the way, whatever changes should take place at the helm, substituting Democrats for Republicans, conservatives for liberals, doves for hawks, or vice versa, could affect the choice of the particular interventionist strategy to be deployed, but it will have no impact on the interventionist policy itself. The United States has no option but to intervene. Continue reading “Taking it seriously”
Tharwa Editorial
The recent tragic developments in Syria’s northernmost city of Qamishli, and the ensuing spillovers into other townships and cities, deserve more than simple condemnations of alleged wrongdoers, agents provocateurs, and/or the authorities, local or national. If these events are to be truly contained so that they are not repeated in the future and so as to avoid the slightest hint of the possibility of foreign intervention and any recourse to spiteful and vindictive rhetoric and measures, certain basic issues related to the living conditions and status of Syria’s Kurdish population need to be seriously addressed. Continue reading “Syria and the Kurds – cool heads must prevail”
The Ammar Abdulhamid Archive 