Syria
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Palmyra: an oasis of cultural history
The ancient ruins of Palmyra are remnants of a bygone golden era. For several days now, the ruins have been controlled by the militias of Islamic State. UNESCO has warned that the World Heritage site is now at risk of being destroyed.
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Political prisoners in Syria
Around-the-clock torture
More than 215,000 Syrians are languishing in the prisons of the Syrian regime. But despite a UN resolution, it seems that hardly anyone is interested in their fate. Unless one of the victims receives a prize, that is: for example the journalist and lawyer Mazen Darwish, who was recently awarded the UNESCO World Press Freedom Prize 2015. By Kristin Helberg
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Refugee crisis in the Mediterranean
New networks trafficking Syrians from Egypt to Europe
The UN Security Council is set to vote on the EU's proposal for military action against people smugglers in the Mediterranean. But who are these people smugglers? What form do their networks take? And are they really a security threat? By Lewis Sanders
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The Syrian conflict
The illusion of a political solution
There is much discussion in the West about a political solution to the conflict in Syria. But the reality is that the world is looking the other way, continuing to nurture the illusion that something is being done at international level and that the Syrian people have not been abandoned. A critical contribution to the debate by Burhan Ghalioun
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Syria and the international community
The least we can do for Syria
In this article, former Algerian Foreign Minister Lakhdar Brahimi calls on the world not to shut its eyes to the atrocities being committed in Syria and not to give in to despair or to resign itself to the assumption that the situation cannot be resolved
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The Syrian poet Hala Mohammad
"They are stealing the soul from our revolution"
In her essay, the Syrian poet Hala Mohammad looks back at the early days of the uprising against the Assad dictatorship and how her country subsequently slid into civil war. The regime, she says, forced the population into a war that Syria and the Syrians can only lose
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Freedom of the press in Syria
The truth can cost lives
Four years into Syria's civil war, neither the regime nor the jihadists are interested in free and fair reporting. As Samar Yazbek explains, it takes great courage to stand up and tell the truth under such circumstances
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Interview with Iraqi political scientist Ghassan Al-Attiyah
A nation torn apart
According to Ghassan Al-Attiyah, Iraq's political elite failed to develop an interdenominational understanding of the state after the end of the Baath dictatorship. Mulham Al-Malaika spoke to the renowned Iraqi political scientist about the country's future and the fight against IS
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The image policy of IS
Terror in the spotlight
In this essay, Felix Koltermann takes a closer look at the image policy of IS and how media and politicians around the world have reacted to it. He argues that in spite of the horror of the images being disseminated by IS, it is important not to fall into the rhetoric of a war of images, because the goal of such a rhetoric is to take pictorial acts as a justification for military action
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Recruitment strategies used by Islamic State
A mutation of religion
The crude promises of salvation and ideological constructs propagated by IS, and the apocalyptic fantasies it is spreading via films and magazines on the Internet make the terrorist militia attractive to radical forces not only in the Arab world but in Europe too. By Michael Kiefer
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After the refugee catastrophe in the Mediterranean
How the EU is killing refugees
The figure is shocking: an estimated 800 people lost their lives when a boat carrying refugees sank off the coast of Libya. According to Heribert Prantl, the EU has the ways and the means to rescue refugees in the Mediterranean, but because it is guided by a cynical logic, it is letting them drown
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Interview with Nader Othman, deputy PM of the Syrian interim government
People want professionals, not Facebook heroes
The National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces and the interim government it has formed have been subject to international criticism. They are regarded as ineffective, disunited and lacking support in Syria. Kristin Helberg spoke to the deputy prime minister of the interim government, Nader Othman, about elected provincial councils, progress and why Syria now needs engineers, not heroes