Al-Jumhuriya, 2 June 2013 Abu Qusay used to work as a tailor and a carpenter in his hometown of al-Ghizlaniya before the start of the revolution. When the tailoring business was slow, the heavy-set, burly 33-year-old would occupy himself with carpentry, and vice versa. Abu Qusay earned between 15,000 and 20,000 Syrian pounds on average…

Al-Jumhuriya, 22 January 2013 The reservations expressed in late 2012 by both Moaz al-Khatib, president of the Syrian National Coalition, and George Sabra, president of the Syrian National Council, regarding the US’s designation of Nusra Front as a terrorist organization, provoked vocal resentment among circles sympathetic with and supportive of the Syrian Revolution. Voices critical of Khatib…

Al-Jadid Magazine (Originally published in As Safir newspaper), 8 October 2012 (Yassin al-Hajj Saleh is considered one of the most important observers of Syrian politics. He spent 16 years in Syrian prison, an experience about which he recently wrote a book. One Syrian scholar rejected the description of Yassin al-Haj Saleh as a political observer…

openDemocracy, 14 September 2012 The reports from Syria of the journalist Robert Fisk raise serious questions over his credibility, say Yassin Al Haj Saleh & Rime Allaf. The international media has not always been kind to Syria’s revolutionary people. For months on end, many of the latter turned themselves into instant citizen-journalists to document their…

Free Syrian Translators (Originally published in Alhayat newspaper), 8 September 2012 Robert Fisk ventured in the company of Syrian regime forces into Daraya [a town just outside Damascus], to cover the death of 245 of the locals– according to him; more like 500 in reality. Who killed them? The “rebels”, says Mr. Fisk. They are…