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April–May 2011 Daraa Siege
The siege of Daraa occurred within the context of the 2011 Arab Spring protests in Syria, in which Daraa was the center of unrest. On 25 April 2011, the Syrian Army began a ten-day siege of the city, an operation that helped escalate the uprising into an armed rebellion and subsequent civil war. The Syrian Army's siege involved tanks, helicopters, and up to 6,000 troops. More than 1,000 people were arrested and more than 244 people were killed, many of them children. Background Several Arab Spring demonstrations occurred across Syria in the early months of 2011. On 6 March, in the city of Daraa, between 12 and 15 teenagers were arrested for making anti-regime graffiti on 22 February. The students were tortured in the Political Security cells, headed by Atef Najib, a first cousin of President Bashar al-Assad. On 18 March, protests erupted demanding the release of the imprisoned students, an end to corruption, and for greater political freedom. Security forces responded b ...
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Syrian Revolution
The Syrian revolution, also known as the Syrian Revolution of Dignity, was a series of mass protests and civilian uprisings throughout Syria – with a subsequent violent reaction by the Ba'athist regime – lasting from 15 March 2011 to 8 December 2024 as part of the greater Arab Spring in the Arab world. The revolution, which demanded the end of the decades-long Assad family rule, began as minor demonstrations during January 2011 and transformed into large nation-wide protests in March. The uprising was marked by mass protests against the Ba'athist dictatorship of president Bashar al-Assad meeting police and military violence, massive arrests and a brutal crackdown, resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths and tens of thousands wounded. 13 years after the start of the revolution, the Assad regime fell in 2024 after a series of rebel offensives. Despite al-Assad's attempts to crush the protests with crackdowns, censorship and concessions, the mass protests had become a ...
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Arab Spring
The Arab Spring () was a series of Nonviolent resistance, anti-government protests, Rebellion, uprisings, and Insurgency, armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began Tunisian revolution, in Tunisia in response to corruption and economic stagnation. From Tunisia, the protests initially spread to five other countries: Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain. Rulers were deposed (Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt all in 2011, and Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen in 2012) and major uprisings and social violence occurred, including riots, civil wars, or insurgencies. Sustained street demonstrations took place in Morocco, Iraq, Algeria, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman and Sudan. Minor protests took place in Djibouti, Mauritania, Palestine, Saudi Arabia and the Western Sahara. A major slogan of the demonstrators in the Arab world is ''Ash-shab yurid isqat an-nizam, ash-shaʻb yurīd isqāṭ an- ...
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Die Zeit
(, ) is a German national weekly newspaper published in Hamburg in Germany. The newspaper is generally considered to be among the German newspapers of record and is known for its long and extensive articles. History The first edition of was first published in Hamburg on 21 February 1946. The founding publishers were Gerd Bucerius, Lovis H. Lorenz, Richard Tüngel and Ewald Schmidt di Simoni. Marion Gräfin Dönhoff joined as an editor in March 1946. She became publisher of from 1972 until her death in 2002. In 1983 she was joined by former Chancellor of Germany (1949–), German chancellor Helmut Schmidt. Later Josef Joffe and former German federal secretary of culture Michael Naumann joined them as well. The paper's publishing house, Zeitverlag Gerd Bucerius in Hamburg, is owned by the Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group and Dieter von Holtzbrinck, Dieter von Holtzbrinck Media. The paper is published weekly on Thursdays. As of 2018, has additional offices in Brussels, ...
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El País
(; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA. It is the second-most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . is the most read newspaper in Spanish online and one of the Madrid dailies considered to be a national newspaper of record for Spain (along with '' El Mundo'' and '' ABC)''. In 2018, its number of daily sales were 138,000. Its headquarters and central editorial staff are located in Madrid, although there are regional offices in the principal Spanish cities (Barcelona, Seville, Valencia, Bilbao, and Santiago de Compostela) where regional editions were produced until 2015. also produces a world edition in Madrid that is available online in English and in Spanish (Latin America). History was founded in May 1976 by a team at PRISA which included Jesus de Polanco, José Ortega Spottorno and Carlos Mendo. The paper was designed by Reinhard Gade and Julio Alonso. It wa ...
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Rami Makhlouf
Rami Makhlouf (; born 10 July 1969) is a Syrian businessman and a maternal cousin of former president Bashar al-Assad. At the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011, he was considered one of Syria's richest and most powerful men. According to Syrian analysts, he was part of al-Assad's inner circle and no foreign company could do business in Syria at the time without his consent and partnership. In 2016, he was reported to own Syriatel, the largest mobile phone network in Syria, along with other retail, banking and real estate companies. Makhlouf had a falling out with al-Assad in the spring of 2020 and was placed under house arrest, resulting in the arrest of many of his aides, along with the targeting of his companies by security forces. He was stripped of his shares in Syriatel, and the consortium he had established as the biggest investment vehicle in Syria was also taken off line. Makhlouf's remaining assets in Syria are considered to be insignificant compared to the bil ...
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Syriatel
Syriatel () is one of three mobile network providers in Syria, the others being MTN Syria and Wafa Telecom, which was awarded the license to operate in 2022. Syriatel offers LTE with 150 Mb/s speeds, under the brand name Super Surf. History Syriatel was founded in January 2000, with its headquarters in Damascus, Syria. The Government licenses two private companies to supply mobile phone services, Syriatel and "94". Orascom provided the management. The license with the Government was a Build-own-transfer (BOT) contract for 15 years. In 2017 Syriatel introduced 4G speeds offering 150 Mb/s speeds, branded Super Surf. On 5 June 2020, a Syrian court ordered Syriatel be placed under judicial custody. Ownership When the company was founded in 2000, Syriatel was owned by the Egyptian telecommunications company Orascom Telecom, Orascom (25%) and Rami Makhlouf (75%), a cousin of Syrian former president Bashar al-Assad. In 2003, Orascom sold its ownership in Syriatel. Comp ...
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Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region
The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region ( ''Ḥizb al-Ba'th al-'Arabī al-Ishtirākī – Quṭr Sūriyā''), officially the Syrian Regional Branch (), was a Neo-Ba'athism, neo-Ba'athist organisation founded on 7 April 1947 by Michel Aflaq, Salah al-Din al-Bitar and followers of Zaki al-Arsuzi. The party Ba'athist Syria, ruled Syria from the 1963 Syrian coup d'état, 1963 coup d'état, which brought the Ba'athists to power, until 8 December 2024, when Bashar al-Assad fled Damascus in the face of a rebel offensive during the Syrian Civil War. It was formally disbanded in January 2025. The party was founded on 7 April 1947 as the Ba'ath Party, Arab Ba'ath Party through the merger of the Arab Ba'ath Movement led by Michel Aflaq, Michel ʿAflaq and Salah al-Din al-Bitar and the Arab Ba'ath, led by Zaki al-Arsuzi. The party espoused Ba'athism, which is an ideology mixing Arab nationalism, Arab nationalist, Pan-Arabism, pan-Arab, Arab socialism, Arab socialist, and Anti-impe ...
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Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Headquartered in New York City, the group investigates and reports on issues including War crime, war crimes, crimes against humanity, Child labour, child labor, torture, human trafficking, and Women's rights, women's and LGBTQ rights. It pressures governments, policymakers, companies, and individual abusers to respect human rights, and frequently works on behalf of refugees, children, migrants, and political prisoners. The organization was founded in 1978 as Helsinki Watch, whose purpose was to monitor the Soviet Union's compliance with the 1975 Helsinki Accords. Its separate global divisions merged into Human Rights Watch in 1988. The group publishes annual reports on about 100 countries with the goal of providing an overview of the worldwide state of human rights. In 1997, HRW shared the Nobel Peace Prize as a founding member of the International C ...
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Bashar Al-Assad
Bashar al-Assad (born 11September 1965) is a Syrian politician, military officer and former dictator Sources characterising Assad as a dictator: who served as the president of Syria from 2000 until fall of the Assad regime, his government was overthrown in 2024 after Syrian civil war, 13 years of civil war. As president, Assad was commander-in-chief of the Syrian Arab Armed Forces and secretary-general of the Regional Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region, Central Command of the Ba'ath Party (Syrian-dominated faction), Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. He is the son of Hafez al-Assad, who ruled Syria from 1970 to 2000. In the 1980s, Assad became a doctor, and in the early 1990s he was training in London as an ophthalmologist. In 1994, after his elder brother Bassel al-Assad died in a car crash, Assad was recalled to Syria to take over Bassel's role as heir apparent. Assad entered the military academy and in 1998 took charge of the Syrian occupation of Leba ...
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Atef Najib
Atef Najib (; born 1960) is a Syrian former security official and head of political security in Daraa Governorate. A first cousin of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, he became infamous for being a catalyst for one of the flashpoints that ignited the Syrian civil war, when in 2011 he directed the abduction and torture of 15 boys who had written anti-Assad slogans in a public area in the city of Daraa. His aggressive actions prompted non-violent protests by local inhabitants, and—after security forces opened fire at a protest march—the gradual start of armed resistance. Upon the fall of the Assad regime, he was arrested by Syrian security forces in rural Latakia on 31 January 2025. Early life He was born in Jableh, Latakia, in 1960, to an Alawite mother, Fatima Makhlouf, and a Sunni father, Najib Alaa. Fatima was the sister of Anisa Makhlouf, wife of former Syrian president and father of Bashar, Hafez al-Assad, while Alaa was a roadside gas seller from Jableh. Atef ...
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Graffiti
Graffiti (singular ''graffiti'', or ''graffito'' only in graffiti archeology) is writing or drawings made on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written "monikers" to elaborate wall paintings, and has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire. Modern graffiti is a controversial subject. In most countries, marking or painting property without permission is considered vandalism. Modern graffiti began in the New York City subway system and Philadelphia in the early 1970s and later spread to the rest of the United States and throughout the world. Etymology "Graffiti" (usually both singular and plural) and the rare singular form "graffito" are from the Italian word ''graffiato'' ("scratched"). In ancient times graffiti were carved on walls with a sharp object, although sometimes chalk or coal were used. The word originates from Greek —''gr ...
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Early Insurgency Phase Of The Syrian Civil War
The early insurgency phase of the Syrian civil war lasted from late July 2011 to April 2012, and was associated with the rise of armed oppositional militias across Syria and the beginning of armed revolution against the Ba'athist Syria, Syrian Ba'athist regime. Though armed insurrection incidents began as early as June 2011 Jisr ash-Shugur operation, June 2011 when rebels killed 120–140 Syrian security personnel, the beginning of organized insurgency is typically marked by the formation of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) on 29 July 2011, when a group of defected officers declared the establishment of the first organized oppositional military force. Composed of defected Syrian Armed Forces personnel, the rebel army aimed to remove Bashar al-Assad and his government from power. This period of the war saw the initial civil uprising take on many of the characteristics of a civil war, according to several outside observers, including the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, as Free ...
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