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In a commentary on the CSIS podcast published on March 20, 2025, conducted by John Alterman with the journalist from The Economist, Nicolas Pileham, who interviewed the interim Syrian president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, numerous impressionistic phrases are used in an attempt to craft a well-rounded profile of the new Syrian authority figure. According to Pileham’s portrayal, […]

The statement issued by the Syrian presidency in response to the outcomes of the ‘Kurdish Unity Conference’ held in the city of Qamishlo on 26 April 2025, contained many fallacies that were, as usual, wrapped in nationalistic and unity slogans. This was done to market the statement to Syrians and public opinion as a defender […]

In two different historical contexts, more than a hundred years apart, two political statements or declarations emerged, reflecting the aspirations of Syrians toward independence and building a national state in Syria: the first is the ‘Declaration of the General Syrian National Congress’ (1920), and the second is the ‘Declaration of the Kurdish Unity Conference’ (2025). […]

The election in November 2024 of Donald Trump for a second presidential term in the White House was received with anxiety by people in the autonomous Kurdish enclave of Rojava. A month later, the secularist Arab nationalist regime of the Syrian President, Bashar Assad, fell to Islamist- leaning extremist groups. This transformative shift- which could […]

Two hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu concluded his speech before the United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 27, Israeli jets killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a raid on his headquarters in the southern suburbs of Beirut. The next day, from Jerusalem, Netanyahu described Nasrallah’s death as “reshaping the power […]

The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) have reached an agreement to form a coalition government, weeks after the February 23, 2025, parliamentary elections.  Analysts describe the results as a significant shift in the German political landscape.  The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party emerged as the runner-up, securing 20.8% of […]

There was no friendly neighbor for the Republic of Mustafa Kemal when it was born in 1923. It seemed that the British delegation’s head at the Lausanne Conference and Foreign Minister Lord Curzon intended this when he allowed, as the legal midwife of the new state, that the newborn would not resemble the offspring of […]

The Kurdish Center for Studies, represented by its director, Nawaf Khalil, participated in a forum that gathered several Syrian and Iraqi research centers. This event took place in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, at the invitation of the Iraqi Group for Foreign Affairs, on April 9-10, 2025. During the forum, which brought together various research and […]

Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham is exercising a significant degree of pragmatism and maneuvering, having transformed—following the “Deterrence of Aggression” operation—from an organization descended from Jabhat al-Nusra into a decisive, interventionist force, and then into a state after culminating its military campaign on December 18, 2024, with a pivotal historical event: the entry into Damascus, both as […]

In the second day of the arrival of the “Deterrence of Aggression” operation to Aleppo, the Autonomous Administration requested the entry of aid consisting of shipments of medicine and fuel for the besieged neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh. The Assad regime, in one of its weakest moments, responded by demanding financial sums to facilitate […]

There have been various models of political transitions around the world for decades, particularly in countries that have faced crises. These include: 1- Successful Transition through Agreement after Civil War: Lebanon between 1989-1990, Angola between 1991-2006, Mozambique in 1992, and Cambodia between 1992-1993. In the last three cases, the transition occurred through an agreement between […]

Months before former President Donald Trump imposed tariffs, the market valuation of Apple Inc. surpassed three trillion dollars, followed by Nvidia, a semiconductor manufacturer, achieving a market valuation exceeding three trillion as well. These newfound wealth valuations of companies far exceeded the empires based on oil and weaponry. This situation raises a question in modern […]

The issue of the ethnic origins of national leaders has drawn considerable attention since the establishment of Iraq under a colonial framework that placed Kurds and Arabs within a political entity that quickly revealed its fragile structure. This was particularly evident in the use of ethnic origin as a weapon to undermine opponents and obstruct […]

In the context of structurally troubled countries that are undergoing superficial political transformations without substantial changes in authoritarian structures, the Syrian model emerges as a glaring example of the contradiction between claims of technocracy and exclusionary authoritarian practices. Despite the official reiteration of concepts such as “civil state,” “efficiency,” and “institutional reconstruction,” the practical reality […]

The fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime contributed to strengthening Turkish aspirations within Syria. Whether the military presence is based on the principle of “de facto” or direct occupation under the pretext of protecting national security, the ability of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham to seize control of most Syrian cities previously held by the deposed regime prompted […]

On the night of Sunday, March 16, 2025, Turkish army forces committed a massacre in the village of Barukh Butan in the Kobanê region by bombing the house of a Kurdish family. The bombing resulted in the deaths of nine family members, most of whom were children. This atrocity fits into a seemingly consistent policy […]

Syria today suffers from numerous afflictions, foremost among them the extreme poverty affecting the majority of Syrians, the collapse of basic services, lawlessness among militias, and their practices that amount to genocide. There are also violations of Syrian territory by neighboring countries, especially Israel, as well as conflicts arising from the post-Assad regime and the […]

There is no doubt that the color green has infiltrated the Syrian landscape following the fall of the Assad regime, emerging as a dominant symbol. Social media has been filled with trending slogans such as “green is expanding,” referring to the need for opposition factions and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) to control Syrian territory. The […]

It is difficult to determine what constitutes a ‘root’ or ‘branch’ in the foundation and meaning of societies (or what are considered societies) in the region, as well as the ‘most influential factors’ or ‘favoring factors’ for their formation at a specific moment or within a particular geographical, human, social, economic, and political context. This […]

Massacre is defined here as “the intentional killing of a number of unarmed civilians, or the killing of a number of regular military/security forces, or militias, when they are not in a combat situation.” Massacres will be categorized according to the perpetrator(s). Massacres committed by the authority during the regimes of Hafez and Bashar al-Assad […]

In a television interview, Rami Abdel Rahman, the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), revealed a shocking comment from the de facto authority in Damascus: “Let them unleash their feelings,” which served as a chilling justification for the “sectarian cleansing” massacres, framed as a means to release accumulated resentments. The escalating bloodshed, […]

It is challenging for the recent supporters of Ahmed al-Sharaa – those who were not part of his group or supporters before 8 December – to justify the issuance of the constitutional declaration, which entrenches and details the features of autocratic and fascistic rule. Proponents and drafters of the declaration may argue for its acceptance […]

The concept of the nation-state has not succeeded in Atatürk’s Turkey, Pahlavi’s Iran, the Baathist republics in Syria and Iraq, nor has the Islamic Republic of Iran managed to solve the issue of nationalities while maintaining the dominance of Persian nationalism within its regime. From these five experiences, confrontational rifts emerged among the four major […]

110 years ago, Anatolia, Kurdistan, and Armenia were not merely regions torn apart; they represented an open arena for the collapse of the concept of co-existence. What transpired then was not just a series of massacres, but a moment that marked a liberation from the goodness of history—a doomsday moment for neighboring peoples. The state […]

No term can adequately describe the situation in the coastal regions of Syria other than to classify it as a campaign of genocide against the Alawites. Regardless of the justifications for military actions in these areas, they represent, in legal, humanitarian, and political terms: a campaign of collective extermination arising from successive and ongoing massacres. […]

In a country like Syria, decentralization and identity are often perceived more as threats than opportunities, and more as sources of division, disruption, weakness, and infiltration than as elements of cohesion, order, strength, and resilience. These perceptions are intrinsic to the emergence of the modern state in Syria and the region following the First World […]

At the beginning of February, the Syrian people felt a glimmer of hope upon hearing that the Syrian transitional government intended to form a Syrian National Dialogue Committee as a fundamental step towards the democratization of Syria in the current context. This national dialogue is meant to serve as a gateway to redefining the state, […]

In his speech at the opening of the National Dialogue Conference in Damascus on February 25, 2025, Syria’s transitional President Ahmed al-Sharaa focused on two topics that he views as major obstacles to the consolidation of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham’s (HTS) rule and its absorption of the Syrian state. Al-Sharaa asserted that Syria “cannot be divided” […]

The emergence of Hafez al-Assad’s dictatorship in 1970 was based on an international factor, namely the Soviet-American approval to remove a regime that rejected Resolution 242, which defined the contours and course of the Arab-Israeli conflict after the 1967 war. Additionally, there was a regional factor involving the new Egyptian president, Anwar Sadat, who proposed […]

The Sykes-Picot maps (1915-1916), created for the division of the Ottoman Empire, underwent a lengthy process of modifications, such that they no longer resembled their original forms. Among these changes, the “Upper Jazira” area became a focal point for boundary delimitation processes that persisted for nearly a decade following the entry of French forces into […]