January 2017

Losing academic records or not being able to retrieve them from public universities in Syria is one of the common problems Syrian students are facing in the host countries. Many refugee students are trying to pursue their studies or equalize their degrees after overcoming the language barrier. However, bureaucracy and administrative regulations are preventing them from doing so. 

(R.B) is a Syrian refugee with a B.A degree in Business Administration. He arrived to Germany in the middle of 2015. He has finished B2 level German which allows him to join a vocational training course in the country but he is preparing for the next language level (C1) to be able to study at university. Unfortunately, (R.B)’s dream to pursue an M.A degree in Germany is on hold because he does not have neither his B.A certificate nor his academic records. We met in a workshop in Berlin and (R.B) wanted to share his story with the Aleppo Project.

To over 50K followers on Twitter and in interviews with several global news agencies, among them BBC, Al-Jazeera, TRT, and the Independent, Lina Shamy’s in-the-moment reporting from eastern Aleppo spread the message of the siege to the world. Now reporting as an evacuee in the western countryside, she tells her story of going to Aleppo for university where she became active and critical of the regime. Shamy’s piece in the New York Times, I Went to Aleppo to Study. I Left in a Convoy of Refugees, pays homage to the memories of the former inhabitants’ last days in eastern Aleppo and details her journey back to Idlib where she grew up.

Click here for her article.

In an article in The New Arab Loubna Mrie explains how history of the conflict is being re-written by western mainstream media. Those who were before defined as revolutionary are now either portrayed as vile extremist or as though they never existed. With time those who gave their lives to fight against the regime will be forgotten making the uprising in Aleppo as it never happened. Any serious attempt to understanding the Syrian conflict has to take into consideration the point of view of its revolutionaries.

You can find the full article here

Alice Fordham walks around the city of Homs with local Architect Marwa al-Sabouni analysing reconstruction. The city was highly damaged during the war, some areas where turned into slums after the conflict. Areas previously held by rebel forces are deserted and left untouched since the citizens don’t have permission to reside there. Post conflict reconstruction not only has to take into account the structural damage but also the social divide entrenched since the start of the conflict.

You can find the article here

Sina Zekavat in Mangal Media writes about a new relationship forming with the Syrian people and their heritage. It expands upon the idea that heritage doesn’t have to be just a place for historical preservation but also a place for identity and socio-political representation. Heritage spaces like Bosra al-Sham allow for political expression and collective memory, in a place where the voices of these Syrian people are being erased. This is redefining the way we look at historical sites but also the process of protest and reconciliation.

See the full article here

While the Syrian government and its Russian allies were claiming that eastern Aleppo had been liberated by its forces, its soldiers were engaged in widespread looting of private property. This adds to the long list of war crimes carried out by the Damascus government, including the deliberate targeting of civilians, deliberate starvation, and forced displacement. Government troops did not even spare those civilians supportive of the regime or people in the western half of the city that was always under state control. This has prompted a surge of anger, much of it expressed on social media in the past month.