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Mezzeh Prison
Mezzeh prison () is a now-defunct Syrian prison overlooking the capital, Damascus. Mezzeh (also transcribed as ''al-Mazzah'', ''el-Mezze'' etc.) is the name of a neighborhood in western Damascus. Both military and political prisoners were held at Mezzeh prison. The prison was an infamous embodiment of Syrian government repression. Widespread human rights abuses and torture has been reported from the Mezzeh prison throughout its history but most notably during the rule of Hafez al-Assad (1970–2000). History The hill-top structure dates back to crusader days. During the Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon, the French rebuilt it in 1920s and used Mezzeh to house anti-colonial fighters and political prisoners. However, the prison took on a central importance for Syrian political life only in 1949, after the first Syrian coup d'état. Coup leader Husni al-Za'im, then imprisoned his predecessor in Mezzeh, only to follow three and half months later when he was himself overthrown. Since ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It is a unitary republic that consists of 14 governorates (subdivisions), and is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east and southeast, Jordan to the south, and Israel and Lebanon to the southwest. Cyprus lies to the west across the Mediterranean Sea. A country of fertile plains, high mountains, and deserts, Syria is home to diverse ethnic and religious groups, including the majority Syrian Arabs, Kurds, Turkmens, Assyrians, Armenians, Circassians, Albanians, and Greeks. Religious groups include Muslims, Christians, Alawites, Druze, and Yazidis. The capital and largest city of Syria is Damascus. Arabs are the largest ethnic group, and Mu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colonialism
Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their religion, language, economics, and other cultural practices. The foreign administrators rule the territory in pursuit of their interests, seeking to benefit from the colonised region's people and resources. It is associated with but distinct from imperialism. Though colonialism has existed since ancient times, the concept is most strongly associated with the European colonial period starting with the 15th century when some European states established colonising empires. At first, European colonising countries followed policies of mercantilism, aiming to strengthen the home-country economy, so agreements usually restricted the colony to trading only with the metropole (mother country). By the mid-19th century, the British Empire gave up me ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buildings And Structures In Damascus
A building, or edifice, is an enclosed structure with a roof and walls standing more or less permanently in one place, such as a house or factory (although there's also portable buildings). Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and functions, and have been adapted throughout history for a wide number of factors, from building materials available, to weather conditions, land prices, ground conditions, specific uses, prestige, and aesthetic reasons. To better understand the term ''building'' compare the list of nonbuilding structures. Buildings serve several societal needs – primarily as shelter from weather, security, living space, privacy, to store belongings, and to comfortably live and work. A building as a shelter represents a physical division of the human habitat (a place of comfort and safety) and the ''outside'' (a place that at times may be harsh and harmful). Ever since the first cave paintings, buildings have also become objects or canvasses of much artis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tadmor Prison
Tadmor prison ( ar, سجن تدمر) was located in Palmyra (''Tadmor'' in Arabic) in the deserts of eastern Syria approximately 200 kilometers northeast of Damascus. Tadmor prison was known for harsh conditions, extensive human rights abuse, torture and summary executions. A 2001 report by Amnesty International called it a source of "despair, torture and degrading treatment." It was captured and destroyed by militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in May 2015. History Founding The structures were originally built as military barracks by the French Mandate forces. Prison massacre During the 1980s, Tadmor prison housed thousands of Syrian prisoners, both political and criminal and it was also the scene of the June 27, 1980 ''Tadmor Prison massacre'' of prisoners by Rifaat al-Assad, the day after the Syrian branch of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood narrowly failed in an attempt to assassinate his brother, president Hafez al-Assad. Members of units of the Def ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adra Prison
Adra Prison ( ar, سجن عدرا) is a prison in Syria, on the northeast outskirts of Damascus. Political prisoners are held in the prison, along with a mixture of civil prisoners such as traffic offenders, murderers, and drug dealers. In 2014, the prison held more than 7,000 inmates, a dozen of them women, in space designed for 2,500. ''The Washington Post'' referred to the prison as "infamous". History Ghassan Najjar, an engineer who was imprisoned in 1980, reportedly went on two hunger strikes, one to protest conditions in the prison. His fellow inmates said he was beaten so badly by prison guards trying to force him to eat that he suffered spinal injuries. Mas'ud Hamid, a Kurdish journalism student, was held in solitary confinement in the prison for one year from 2003–04 before he was allowed monthly visits, and Human Rights Watch said that interrogators reportedly tortured him and beat him with a studded whip on the bottom of his feet. His room was , largely filled by a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bashar Al-Assad
Bashar Hafez al-Assad, ', Levantine pronunciation: ; (, born 11 September 1965) is a Syrian politician who is the 19th president of Syria, since 17 July 2000. In addition, he is the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and the Secretary-General of the Central Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, which espouses the ideologies of neo-Ba'athism and Assadism. His father and predecessor was General Hafez al-Assad, whose presidency between 1971 to 2000 marked the transfiguration of Syria from a republican state into a dynastic military dictatorship tightly controlled by Alawite-dominated armed forces and ''Mukhabarat'' (secret services) loyal to the Assad family. Born and raised in Damascus, Bashar al-Assad graduated from the medical school of Damascus University in 1988 and began to work as a doctor in the Syrian Army. Four years later, he attended postgraduate studies at the Western Eye Hospital in London, specialising in ophthalmology. In 1994, afte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
President Of Syria
The president of Syria, officially the president of the Syrian Arab Republic (Arabic: رئيس سوريا) is the head of state of the Syrian Arab Republic. They are vested with sweeping powers that may be delegated, at their sole discretion, to their vice presidents. They appoint and dismiss the prime minister and other members of the Council of Ministers (the cabinet) and military officers. Bashar al-Assad is the 19th and current president of Syria. Bashar Al-Assad is the son of former president, Hafez al-Assad, who was the longest-serving president serving 29 years. Al-Assad is currently the second longest-serving president marking the 22nd year of his presidency in 2022 when he entered the post on 17 July 2000. Term of office Article 88 of the 2012 constitution states that the president serves a seven year term and "can be elected for only one more successive term." Article 155 states that Article 88 applies to the president "as of the next presidential elections." Eligibi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Husni Al-Za'im
Husni al-Za'im ( ar, حسني الزعيم ''Ḥusnī az-Za’īm''; 11 May 1897 – 14 August 1949) was a Syrian military officer and politician of Kurdish origin. Husni al-Za'im, had been an officer in the Ottoman Army. After France instituted its colonial mandate over Syria after the First World War, he became an officer in the French Army. After Syria's independence in 1946 he was made Chief of Staff, and was ordered to lead the Syrian Army into war with the Israeli Army in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The defeat of the Arab league forces in that war shook Syria and undermined confidence in the country's chaotic parliamentary democracy, allowing him to seize power in 1949. However, his reign as head of state would be brief: he was executed within a few months. Coup of 1949 On 30 March 1949, al-Za'im seized power in a bloodless coup d'état. There are "highly controversial" allegations that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) engineered the coup. Most of the evidence cur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coup D'état
A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, military, or a dictator. Many scholars consider a coup successful when the usurpers seize and hold power for at least seven days. Etymology The term comes from French ''coup d'État'', literally meaning a 'stroke of state' or 'blow of state'. In French, the word ''État'' () is capitalized when it denotes a sovereign political entity. Although the concept of a coup d'état has featured in politics since antiquity, the phrase is of relatively recent coinage.Julius Caesar's civil war, 5 January 49 BC. It did not appear within an English text before the 19th century except when used in the translation of a French source, there being no simple phrase in English to convey the contextualized idea of a 'knockout blow to the existing administratio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its Metropolitan France, metropolitan area extends from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea; overseas territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the North Atlantic, the French West Indies, and many islands in Oceania and the Indian Ocean. Due to its several coastal territories, France has the largest exclusive economic zone in the world. France borders Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Monaco, Italy, Andorra, and Spain in continental Europe, as well as the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Netherlands, Suriname, and Brazil in the Americas via its overseas territories in French Guiana and Saint Martin (island), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Damascus
)), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Syria#Mediterranean east#Arab world#Asia , pushpin_label_position = right , pushpin_mapsize = , pushpin_map_caption = Location of Damascus within Syria , pushpin_relief = 1 , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = Governorate , subdivision_name1 = Damascus Governorate, Capital City , government_footnotes = , government_type = , leader_title = Governor , leader_name = Mohammad Tariq Kreishati , parts_type = Municipalities , parts = 16 , established_title = , established_date ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mandate For Syria And The Lebanon
The Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon (french: Mandat pour la Syrie et le Liban; ar, الانتداب الفرنسي على سوريا ولبنان, al-intidāb al-fransi 'ala suriya wa-lubnān) (1923−1946) was a League of Nations mandate founded in the aftermath of the First World War and the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire, concerning Syria (region), Syria and Lebanon. The mandate system was supposed to differ from colonialism, with the governing country intended to act as a trustee until the inhabitants were considered eligible for self-government. At that point, the mandate would terminate and an Sovereign state, independent state would be born. During the two years that followed the end of the war in 1918—and in accordance with the Sykes–Picot Agreement signed by United Kingdom, Britain and French Third Republic, France during the war—the British held control of most of Ottoman Iraq, Ottoman Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) and the southern part of Ottoman Syria (Palesti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
