Syria
No Turning Back
The people now running Syria didn’t just replace Assad — they inherited the revolutionary energy that toppled him. That’s what makes the country’s new order both resilient and paranoid.
A New Syria?
The challenges facing Syria today are connected to three previous beginnings: the fall of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I, independence in 1946 after World War II and the fall of European colonial empires, and the birth of Hafez al-Assad’s regime in 1970.
In Homs, Revenge Is the Only Law Left Standing
Homs, once the capital of Syria’s revolution, has become a violent landscape of sectarian killings, property seizures and unrestrained impunity. As neighbors and armed factions exploit the security vacuum, the new government is using selective enforcement and deliberate neglect to reshape the city’s demographics and power balances.
Syria Begins Its Coastal Massacre Trial
Syria is holding its first public trial since Assad’s fall, a live-broadcast reckoning over the coastal massacres in March that brought alleged perpetrators on both sides before the same judge in Aleppo.
Replanting Syria’s Lost Heritage
Across the fields and ruins of Idlib, a farmers’ initiative is taking root: to restore Syria’s agricultural autonomy by reviving the ancient practice of saving and replanting traditional “baladi” seeds — a practice nearly erased by war, displacement and industrial seed giants.
Kurds Could Hold Syria Together or Pull It Apart
For a century, Damascus pushed a single Syrian identity while the margins asked for recognition. After Assad fell, that argument resurfaced again. How it’s settled will make or break the country.
Putin Updates His Syria Strategy
The very existence of Syria’s new leader serves as a stark reminder to Moscow of what it has lost. For Russia’s influential, pro-war military bloggers, often a barometer of nationalist sentiment, the welcome given to interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa was a slap in the face.