What Happened to Syria?

Episode 8 - The Assad Family and Regime (Part 1, 1930 to 1970)

How did the Assad family seize power in Syria? The answer lies in a man named Hafez al-Assad (basically, imagine an alternate version of Bashar al-Assad with confidence and a modicum of masculinity).

 

Hafez rises from a poor country boy from the Alawite heartland, the bottom rung of the Syrian socioeconomic power, to becoming the most powerful man in the country over the first forty years of his life.

 

The consequences of Hafez al-Assad's military and political career would lead directly to the events of 2011. 

 

Sources cited:

Asad: The Struggle for the Middle East by Patrick Seale

We Crossed A Bridge and It Trembled by Dr. Wendy Pearlman

The Home That Was Our Country by Alia Malek

Assad or We Burn the Country by Sam Dagher

 

Music licensing:

Genocide by Silent Carrion

Creative Commons - attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international (cc by-nc-nd 4.0)

https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Silent_Carrion/Suprematism_EP_III_Sol/Silent_Carrion_-_Suprematism_EP_III_Sol_-_01_Genocide 

Episode 7 - The Great Friday (April 1 to April 22, 2011)

The regime and its opponents both dig in their heels while each tries to convince the other to give up. Appeasement, brutality, and other mix-messaging dominate the regime's approach to increasing unrest while protestors continue to put their lives on the line to voice their grievances. 

 

This culminates in the Great Friday, where Syria sees its largest protests and highest death toll thus far.

 

Sources cited: 

 

Syria: The Fall of the House of Assad by Dr. David Lesch

 

We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled by Dr. Wendy Pearlman

 

My Country by Kassem Eid

 

No Turning Back by Rania Abouzeid

 

Music licensing: 

 

Fragments by Nomyn https://soundcloud.com/nomyn

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Ultimate Metal by Loyalty Freak

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https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Loyalty_Freak_Music/HYPER_METAL_/Loyalty_Freak_Music_-_HYPER_METAL__-_08_ULTIMATE_METAL 

 

Fire Away by Forget the Whale

Creative Commons - Attribution-Non Comercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) 

https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Forget_the_Whale/you-me-talk-now/fire-away-instrumental 

 

Genocide by Silent Carrion

Creative Commons - attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international (cc by-nc-nd 4.0)

https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Silent_Carrion/Suprematism_EP_III_Sol/Silent_Carrion_-_Suprematism_EP_III_Sol_-_01_Genocide

Episode 6 - Inside Daraa’s Uprising feat. Fadil al-Mhameed

Fadil al-Mhameed lived right next to the Omari mosque in 2011, when Daraa became the epicenter of the Syrian Revolution. He witnessed, participated, and documented the uprising and crackdown by the regime, at grave personal cost.

 

Fadil sustained a gunshot wound to the hand in 2011 before he was badly injured a barrel bombing in 2014. He and his family have since resettled in the United States.

 

Music licensing:

 

Fragments by Nomyn https://soundcloud.com/nomyn

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Free Download / Stream: http://bit.ly/l-fragments

Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/ndyyIhwojys

 

Arrow Arrow by Aglow Hollow

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https://freemusicarchive.org/music/aglow_hollow/Proximate_Laws_Baba_Yaga_Booty_Calls/arrow-arrow

 

Come and Get It By Scott Holmes

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https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Scott_Holmes/media-music-mix/come-and-get-it

 

Ultimate Metal by Loyalty Freak

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https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Loyalty_Freak_Music/HYPER_METAL_/Loyalty_Freak_Music_-_HYPER_METAL__-_08_ULTIMATE_METAL

Episode 5 - An Infamous Speech (March 26 to March 31, 2011)

Protests have broken out across the country and the death toll from state violence against protestors has already broken the triple digits. Syria is in shock after the events of March 25, when more than a hundred people were murdered by soldiers and Shabiha in a single day. 

 

Things are going to go from bad to worse when Bashar al-Assad gives a speech that changes everything. 

Sources cited:

We Crossed A Bridge and It Trembled by Dr. Wendy Pearlman

Syria: The Fall of the House of Assad by Dr. David Lesch

No Turning Back by Rania Abouzeid

 

Music licensing

Fragments by Nomyn https://soundcloud.com/nomyn

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Free Download / Stream: http://bit.ly/l-fragments

Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/ndyyIhwojys

 

Ultimate Metal by Loyalty Freak

Creative Commons - CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication 

https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Loyalty_Freak_Music/HYPER_METAL_/Loyalty_Freak_Music_-_HYPER_METAL__-_08_ULTIMATE_METAL

 

Hello Tomorrow by Cult Fantastic

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https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Cult_Fantastic/I_Love_My_Selfie_EP/Cult_Fantastic_-_I_Love_My_Selfie_-_03_Hello_Tomorrow

Bonus Episode 7 - Revolution in Raqqa feat. Hasan al-Kassab

Hasan al-Kassab (@HasanAlKassab2 on Twitter) was a medical student from Raqqa in 2011, when the protests began. Today, he's a Syrian revolutionary activist living in Romania.

 

Hasan joins us in this episode to talk about what the revolution was like in Raqqa and other parts of East Syria, located far away from Daraa, Damascus, and Homs.

 

There's so much more to Raqqa than ISIS and everything else that happened after 2014. Thank you Hasan al-Kassab for telling us your story.

 

Music license

Fire Away by Forget the Whale

Creative Commons - Attribution-Non Comercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) 

https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Forget_the_Whale/you-me-talk-now/fire-away-instrumental 

Bonus Episode 6 - The Bride and Groom of the Revolution feat. Noura Ghazi

They fell in love while risking their lives to protest against a regime that routinely arrests, tortures, and executes dissidents.

 

Noura Ghazi decided she wanted to be a lawyer at 13, when her father was a political prisoner. She met Bassel Khartabil in April of 2011, when activists in Damascus were trying to organize what they hoped would be a revolution similar to what had just taken place in Tunisia and Egypt. Bassel was a software developer who had worked overseas and returned to Damascus to take part in the Syrian revolution.

 

The two became famous among Syrian activists when they got engaged. Their romance was seen as one of the revolution's triumphs. But things took a very tragic turn when Bassel was detained by the regime.

 

We are so honored to have Noura Ghazi on as a guest to tell her story. She continues her work as a lawyer campaigning for the rights of Syrians detained and "disappeared" by the regime.

 

Music license

Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/ndyyIhwojysFragments by Nomyn https://soundcloud.com/nomynCreative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0Free Download / Stream: http://bit.ly/l-fragments

Episode 4 - The Revolutionaries (Part 1)

This is our first "biographical" episode. This week, we're going to look at individuals who risked, and sometimes lost, their lives to engage in non-violent resistance to tyranny.

 

Sources cited:

The Impossible Revolution by Yassin al-Haj Saleh

Assad or We Burn the Country by Sam Dagher

Razan Zeitouneh's appearances on Democracy Now!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_btXxZyMt7w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNjC_nFwc10

Razan Zeitouneh's Final Message

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmRGpQwmAUE

Yassin al-Haj Saleh speaking to Syrian Revolution: A History From Below at 41:43

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1Bdbf5FlCs&t=2977s

 

Music licensing

Fragments by Nomyn https://soundcloud.com/nomyn

Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0

Free Download / Stream: http://bit.ly/l-fragments

Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/ndyyIhwojys

Bonus Episode 5 - Damascus to DC (Part 3) feat. Mamoun

What is one to do after being exiled from your homeland?

 

That's exactly the situation Mamoun found himself in eight years ago. Coming of age and finding a path for oneself is difficult enough without a war at home and being able to visit one's family.

 

Mamoun will encounter the difficulties of being an exiled Syrian in Lebanon, Europe, and later the US at the start of Donald Trump's presidency on his path to finding a new home and embarking on the path of becoming an attorney.

Bonus Episode 4 - Damascus to DC (Part 2) feat. Mamoun

Damascus to DC tells the story of Mamoun, a Syrian-Lebanese attorney whose life journey took him across the world from his hometown Damascus to Washington D.C. after he was forced leave Syria.

 

Part 2 focuses on Mamoun's involvement in the 2011 protests, how he helped combat disinformation by contacting media outlets, and why he hasn't been able to return to Syria since 2012.

Episode 3 - Days That Changed Everything (March 15 to March 25, 2011)

How did the Syrian Revolution lead to the Syrian Civil War? Why didn't the regime make any real concessions? How quickly did the regime resort to massacring protestors? (Answer: very quickly).

 

This episode looks at what happened in Syria between March 15 to March 25, 2011.

 

Sources cited:

The Impossible Revolution by Yassin al-Haj Saleh

My Country by Kassem Eid

The Syrian Revolution by Yasser Munif

We Crossed A Bridge and It Trembled by Wendy Pearlman

Assad or We Burn the Country by Sam Dagher

Brothers of the Gun by Marwan Hisham

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-12827542

 

Music licensing

Come and Get It By Scott Holmes

Creative Commons - Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Scott_Holmes/media-music-mix/come-and-get-it

 

Arrow Arrow by Aglow Hollow

Creative Commons - Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

https://freemusicarchive.org/music/aglow_hollow/Proximate_Laws_Baba_Yaga_Booty_Calls/arrow-arrow

 

Fragments by Nomyn https://soundcloud.com/nomyn

Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0

Free Download / Stream: http://bit.ly/l-fragments

Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/ndyyIhwojys