Syrian Christians at the Mariamiya Greek Orthodox Church in old Damascus on Dec. 15, 2024, attend Sunday Mass for the first time since Syrian President Bashar Assad’s ouster.
AP Photo/Hussein Malla
The fall of the Assad regime marks a turning point in Syria’s history. But it also opens a ‘chapter fraught with peril’ for the country’s minorities, an expert on religious minorities writes.
The Conversation; Mohammed Badra (EPA), Maxim Shemetov (Reuters Pool/EPA), Stoyan Nenov (Reuters Pool/AP)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan both see an opportunity to advance their competing interests in post-Assad Syria.
ANTONIO PEDRO SANTOS/LUSA/EPA
The country is deeply divided along religious and ethnic lines, which makes continuing violence one likely scenario.
Rebel leader Abu Muhammad Al-Jolani [photographed tend days before launching the final offensive against Damascus.
Abaca Press/Alamy Live News
Eleven days that shook the world.
U.S. forces patrol oil fields near Syria’s northeastern border near Turkey on Sept. 3, 2024.
Delil Souleiman/AFP via Getty Images
The US has been involved in Syria in several important ways, including sanctioning Bashar al-Assad’s government for more than a decade.
Somalia’s foreign affairs minister Ahmed Moalim Fiqi.
Arda Kucukkaya/Anadolu via Getty Images
The Red Sea region holds geopolitical importance and has become an arena where local and global interests play out.
Alberto Pizzoli/Pool Photo via AP
The OSCE is the only regional security forum where Ukraine and Russia still meet.
Ugandan opposition politician Kizza Besigye at the Makindye Martial Court in Kampala on 20 November 2024.
Badru Katumba/AFP via Getty Images
The secret transfer of people from one country to another – against their will – carries great public risks.
Turkish riot police clashing with protesters in 2013.
Sadik Gulec / Shutterstock
The closure of a popular radio station in Istanbul is one of the latest assaults on press freedom in Turkey.
Key facility: Tartus naval base in 2019.
AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko
Tartus is Russia’s only foothold on the Mediterranean coast.
Russian president Vladimir Putin meeting with Syria’s Bashar al-Assad at the Kremlin in 2015.
Russian Government / Alamy Stock Photo
The fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime will have consequences for the many international players with a stake in the region.
Erdem Sahin/EPA
Syria’s new leaders, the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, will face immediate challenges as they seek to consolidate power and form a new government.
End of a half-century of family rule. A damaged portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad hangs in the Syrian city of Qamishli.
Delil Souleiman/AFP via Getty Images
Opposition forces marched into Damascus on Dec. 8, seemingly ending the half-century rule of the Assad family. But what happens next?
Omar Sanadiki/AP
The swift and unexpected fall of the Syrian capital, Damascus, to Sunni opposition forces marks a pivotal moment in the modern history of the Middle East. Bashar al-Assad’s regime had withstood more than…
An armed man takes a selfie as Syrian rebels sweep into the country’s largest city, Aleppo.
Bilal Al Hammpoud / EPA
Syria’s civil war is back with a vengeance after a lightning rebel advance.
A Syrian opposition fighter tears up a painting depicting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his late father Hazef al-Assad at the Aleppo International Airport in Syria.
Ghaith Alsayed/AAP
Syria has fractured into three zones: Turkey-backed Sunni forces in the north, US-supported Kurdish forces in the northeast, and the Shiite-backed Assad government controlling the west and south.
An Indonesian protester rallies in favor of Uyghur independence. China has been accused of silencing members of the Muslim minority group.
AP Photo/Dita Alangkara
Repressive countries have more success in co-opting support to silence overseas critics with governments they trade with.
Vladimir Putin has been one of the supporters of a bid by Turkey to join Brics.
Sputnik via Xinhua/Alamy
Turkey is juggling alliances within Nato and potentially with Russia and China.
Turkish president Recep Erdogan (right) sends off a seismic research vessel to Somalia in October 2024.
Turkish Presidency/Murat Kula/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images
Turkey’s investment in Somalia is driven by regional and domestic security considerations.
A waste picker towing his cart through a street in Antalya, Turkey.
Evgeny Haritonov/Shutterstock
Waste management reforms in Turkey are excluding the country’s informal litter pickers from the sector.