The Aleppo Project
read moreOrdinary Syrian people are going to extraordinary lengths, risking everything to protect their heritage, despite the horror that has engulfed their country. For them, it is not a question of people or stones. The story of the people is embedded in those stones, a crafted story stretching back millennia. Saving that story is saving Syria. Dr. Emma Cunliffe. Research Associate, Oxford University.
Aleppo
All posts tagged Aleppo
The Aleppo Weekly, April 5-11
by The Aleppo Project on April 12, 2016In My Beloved Aleppo, Sawsan Ibrahim collects 648 photos of the Old City, downtown and residential districts in central and western Aleppo.
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The Aleppo Weekly- March 29-April 4
by The Aleppo Project on April 4, 2016The Washington Post’s Loveday Morris reported on the ‘stunning devastation’ inside Aleppo’s souqs.
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A Mother Mourns the Last Exodus
by Rami Aboud on March 29, 2016“I am the mourning mother, and who comforts her,” a deep rhyme echoes in the sky of Aleppo every year.
It is the heavenly voice of the Levantine singer Fairuz that awakens Christian neighborhoods of the city. Mothers are awake earlier than usual; they open the doors to their balconies and the contest begins on whose Fairuz is loudest. It is Good Friday, one of the most important days in the Aleppian Christian calendar. Shop keepers and hair dressers are packed; working in harmony with the rhymes that mix with the fragrance of the Bakhur incense. In the afternoon, tens of thousands of Christians join a pilgrimage to the nearly forty churches of Aleppo. The old town, however, gets the largest number of pilgrims. Farhat Square in al-Jdaydeh quarter puts on its special attire. The sounds of people, peddlers and boy scout brass bands are a symphony embedded in the memory of Aleppians. The four churches that overlook the square remind Christians of their ancient roots in the city. The medieval limestone holds the memory of surviving the Mongol slaughter when Timur Lank invaded Aleppo six hundred years ago.
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Cocktail St.
by Armenak Tokmajyan on March 9, 2016
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Now when I hear the word cocktail what comes to my mind is a drink in which the bartender skilfully brings different components together to create a new concoction. The word had a different meaning in Aleppo. You could get a normal cocktail, alcoholic or non-alcoholic, in fancy bars in the city but they were not as good as what we thought of as real cocktails.
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Aleppo Weekly February 1-7
by The Aleppo Project on February 9, 2016
After months of ‘dynamic stalemate,’ the military situation to the north of Aleppo city shifted dramatically over the past few weeks. Government and allied forces took control of strategic towns on the Aleppo-Gaziantep road, disconnecting eastern Aleppo city from the northern countryside and Turkey. The city is still connected with Turkey through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing in the western part of Idlib province.
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Data Snapshot
by The Aleppo Project on February 4, 2016We know that many Syrians who have been forced from their homes are passionate about their country and are already playing a role in its future. When refugees and people who were forced to leave eventually return home, they often suffer a second displacement when they are pushed aside by reconstruction processes that ignore their needs and plans. By gathering information from as wide a range of people as possible, we hope to challenge many of the assumptions about how reconstruction should be managed.
In late 2014 and early 2015 we surveyed 1001 people. One of the questions we asked everyone was, “Do you think you will return to Aleppo?”
- 72 per cent said “Yes.” 28 per cent said “No.”
- This was generally true whether someone was male or female, had children, owned real estate, or his/her house had been damaged or destroyed.
- It did not hold true for education levels. If someone had at least some post-secondary education, he or she appeared 14 per cent less likely to return to Aleppo than someone without any post-secondary education.
Reconstruction plans should carefully consider who will return to Aleppo when the fighting stops. If, as is likely, the most vulnerable return first, and those with higher levels of education and more financial resources return much later, or not at all, the Aleppo of tomorrow will look very different than the Aleppo of yesterday.
To download the report, click here.
read moreEasy Like Friday Morning
by Armenak Tokmajyan on January 27, 2016
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For most people in a Muslim-majority country like Syria, Friday is a day of rest. Shops and cafes mostly close until the afternoon when Friday prayers are over and then business builds only slowly towards the evening rush. For many young Aleppians, it was meant to be a lazy morning. For me, an Armenian, I had to wake up early to go to school. But Friday mornings will always make me think of three things: a breakfast of the best ful in the world, delicious Syrian sweets – Shuebiyat or Zlebyeh — and drinking coffee by Aleppo’s citadel.
read more“For Aleppo”
by The Aleppo Project on January 6, 201600
This is a wonderful piece composed by Gábor Berkó, a young Hungarian composer, and performed by Budapest- based musicians on the day The Aleppo Project was officially launched. The artists did this work on a voluntary basis to demonstrate their solidarity with Syrians who live the brutal war in Syria on a daily basis. While the music video clearly shows the destruction and pain brought to Aleppo by the fighting, it also remembers the good days from the past and ends on a hopeful note.
However far Budapest seems from Aleppo and however bad Hungary’s image may appear nowadays in context of the Refugee Crisis, we should also remember that there are many warmhearted people here who think about and feel others’ suffering.
This music and video are dedicated to one of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited cities – Aleppo.
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Two Prophets’ Birthdays
by AlHakam Shaar on December 24, 2015
Today falls between two important birthdays for Syrians.
Yesterday was Eid ul-Mawlid an-Nabawi – Prophet Muhammad’s birthday. There is no consensus among religious scholars about the permissibility of observing it, or indeed about which specific day it is, but it is often celebrated across the Islamic World on the 12th day of the third month of the lunar Hijri Calendar. Most Aleppian Muslims celebrate the day with passion. The Souq, now burned, used to be decorated with small, often green, banners bearing prayers and praise for the prophet. Mawlids – sufi chanting sessions – are held in mosques and other public and private places. At homes, people make and eat traditional desserts. My mum cooks mamouniyyeh, and my father would send me or one of my brothers to buy sheybiyat, sweet pastry stuffed with walnuts or pistachio.
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