Aljumhuriya, 9 June 2016 – Translated by: Abdul-Wahab Kayyali The only thing that rivals the amount of injustice in the Middle East is the region’s production of of victimhood narratives. Jews are victims, Arabs are victims, Kurds are victims, and so are Sunnis, Shiites, Alawites, and Christians. But if we are all victims, then who…
Yassin Al-Haj Saleh : “J’avais 20 ans quand Assad m’a jeté en prison”
Le Journal du Dimanche - 15 mai 2016 "J'avais 10 ans quand Hafez el-Assad est arrivé au pouvoir, 20 quand il m'a jeté en prison et 35 quand j'en suis sorti. On peut dire que je connais le système de l'intérieur." Ne comptez pas sur Yassin Al-Haj Saleh, grande figure de l'opposition syrienne, pour verser…
Yassin al-Haj Saleh : «La Syrie ne s’est pas démocratisée, c’est le monde qui s’est syrianisé»
Libération - 9 mai 2016 Cet opposant et militant de la révolution de 2011 décrit une mondialisation de la crise syrienne. Son espoir ? Que ses concitoyens retrouvent un peu de calme afin de reprendre possession d’une république confisquée par la famille Al-Assad. Opposant et écrivain, Yassin al-Haj Saleh est une figure influente et respectée…
Syria and the World: Reactionarism is Back, and Progressing
Aljumhuriya, 19 February 2016 - Translated by: Shiyar Youssef and Alice Guthrie There is something deeply atavistic about the course that the Syrian conflict has taken. Its latest developments, in particular, take us back to a time prior to the formation of the contemporary Syrian entity at the end of the First World War –…
Syria is a unique symbol of injustice, apathy and amnesia
The Chronikler, 20 January 2016 Yassin al-Haj Saleh is a leading Syrian writer, a former political prisoner and one of Syria’s foremost intellectuals. Ever since his student days, Saleh has been a vocal critic of the Assad regimes. He was arrested in 1980 during the presidency of Hafez al-Assad and spent the next 16 years as…
Three Monsters
The New Inquiry - 24 November 2015 An interview with Yassin al-Haj Saleh on the role of culture in Syria’s struggle Yassin al-Haj Saleh is a Syrian writer, intellectual and former political prisoner. In 1980, while studying medicine at Aleppo University, the 19-year-old Yassin was arrested by Hafez al-Assad’s government for his membership in the…
Syria and Western Powers: A Global Problem
alQuds Newspaper, 19 September 2015. Translated by The Free Syrian Translators Since the early days, the West’s handling of the Syrian conflict has had a set of characteristics that raise questions about the political and intellectual credibility of the elite and political leaders in the West. The first of these characteristics is dealing with outcomes, not the…
A tomb for one’s all being: The alterations of Syrian’s death and the changes of their life
Al-Jumhuriya, 17 July 2015. Translated by Murhaf Fares When individual humans die singly, among their living communities, they get buried individually. One grave for each person, no one shares ones grave with others. This could be a definition of humans, and it seems to be universally accepted, even though humans only agree a few things. We…
Ogres and Orientalism: An Interview with Yassin al-Hajj Saleh
Radio Free Syria, 4 July 2015 Yassin Al Haj Saleh is one of Syria’s most iconic political dissidents, intellectuals and authors. He was imprisoned by the Assad regime for 16 years from 1980 to 1996 for his membership of a leftist party, going on to become a widely acclaimed author and journalist, and one of the…
Palmyre des ruines, Palmyre des prisons
Orient XXI, 9 juin 2015 Traduit de l’arabe par Hana Jaber. Le risque de destruction des ruines de la cité antique de Palmyre a soulevé une grande émotion à travers le monde. Mais c’est sans doute celle de la prison de sinistre mémoire par l’organisation de l’État islamique qui aura le plus parlé aux Syriens,…