2016

All posts from 2016

Dirar Khattab on “Death of Aleppo”

by The Aleppo Project on October 18, 2016

Dirar Khattab worked as the executive producer of the Al Jazeera documentary “Death of Aleppo.” “Death of Aleppo” is a film that captures the scale of human suffering and destruction in the historic city; and also the resilience of its citizens who battle daily chaos and uncertainty at home.

Watch “Death of Aleppo”: https://youtu.be/rIfscgdRhbk

This interview was filmed during the CEU School of Public Policy’s 2016 annual conference “the view from here: artists // public policy.”

More about SPP: https://spp.ceu.edu/annual-conference

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The Aleppo ProjectDirar Khattab on “Death of Aleppo”

The Syrian Trauma

by Peter Harling, Synaps Network on September 29, 2016

Every now and then, the conflict in Syria produces an iconic image of horror and suffering, which many brandish as an undisputable truth that will finally shake the world into “doing something”. Others break down at the sight of such images, or instinctively avert their senses. Mass killings and disappearances, industrial-scale torture and sexual abuse, gruesome staged executions, starvation tactics, the continued use of chemical weapons, napalm, cluster and barrel bombs, not to forget the torments of desperate emigration – all have spawned morbid emblems of their own.

Peter Harling, one of the foremost analysts of Syrian politics and the founder of Synaps, is a member of the advisory panel of the Shattuck Center on Conflict, Negotiation and Recovery.

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Peter Harling, Synaps NetworkThe Syrian Trauma

Urbicide – or an Elegy for Aleppo

by The Aleppo Project on September 27, 2016

“It is time to define it [urbicide] more precisely as the deliberate destruction of urban life beyond anything that might be justified by military necessity as a way to erase identity and expel populations. It is also time to make it a crime,” argue Robert Templer and AlHakam Shaar in a recent article about the urbicide taking place in Aleppo. Shaar and Templer predict that Aleppo will survive the current onslaught – as it has survived “centuries of disasters from earthquakes to plagues of mice, from the collapse of empires to shifts in the routes of global trade” – and that when it does states and the international community have a responsibility to help Aleppo rebuild. “We have failed to protect the Syrian people; we should not fail them again when it comes to reconstruction.”

You can read the full text of the article in the August 2016 issue of TVERGASTEIN – Interdisciplinary Journal of the Environment here.

This news item is reposted courtesy of SPP Communications Office. Original post: here.

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The Aleppo ProjectUrbicide – or an Elegy for Aleppo

Aleppo Weekly – August 11-September 1

by The Aleppo Project on September 1, 2016

“Do certain images of injured kids stay in my mind more than others? If you asked me that two years ago, then I could probably give an answer. But today, after witnessing the huge number of massacres that I have, it’s very hard to think of one specific instance. It’s become a daily occurrence. Now images stay in my mind for a short while before they slip away, to take their place alongside all the others. My own personal graveyard.” AFP Photographer Abd Doumany

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The Aleppo ProjectAleppo Weekly – August 11-September 1

A CITY BESIEGED AGAIN

by Armenak Tokmajyan on August 17, 2016

“A salad in Aleppo can cost you your life,” an Aleppian author wrote at a time when rebels had imposed a siege on the western half of the city. In July 2013, rebels had cut the Khanasser supply line. Nothing could pass. The only way in was through Bustan al-Qaser – the Death Passage – where snipers lurked. There was a 10-fold difference between prices in the east and the west. People risked their lives to put bread on their tables in a country that had once exported wheat to the region. Rebels prevented anyone from taking food to the regime side. “Let Bashar feed you,” a rebel fighter jeered at those dodging sniper fire to get food.

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Armenak TokmajyanA CITY BESIEGED AGAIN

THE ALEPPO WEEKLY – JULY 13 – 28

by The Aleppo Project on July 28, 2016

ALEPPO UNDER SIEGE

Following months long battles over al-Mallah Farms in northwestern Aleppo, regime forces have descended onto the Castello Road and cut off the only supply route for eastern Aleppo. Now an estimated 300,000 Aleppians join another 1 million Syrians living under complete siege. Meanwhile the bombing that never stopped for a few years intensified.

“Al-Assad forces and Russian airplanes are trying to control this road to besiege Aleppo … Those civilians are in danger of a lack of food, medicine and everything. And all the world is silent towards these things. These crimes.” Make-shift Aleppo University lecturer AbdulKafi Alhamdo spoke to ITV about the siege.

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The Aleppo ProjectTHE ALEPPO WEEKLY – JULY 13 – 28

Aleppo Under Siege

by The Aleppo Project on July 19, 2016

We now know the pattern of besiegement in Syria and so we know what is to come in Aleppo. Government forces surround an area of a city and cut off all food and supplies. The population weakens and thins, the elderly dying first and then next the children, often from water-borne diseases. The United Nations stands by, failing again in its humanitarian obligations through its obsequiousness to a government whose crimes long ago stripped it of any legitimacy. The West and Russia can drop bombs but not food. Support cannot go to those who might be able to break the siege because of their ideology; instead it just sloshes into a corrupt morass outside the country. Statements are issued and ignored. 2139. 2165. 2191. 2254. 2258. These are the numbers of the United Nations Security Council resolutions that are brushed off by Assad.

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The Aleppo ProjectAleppo Under Siege