Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

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A woman walks past election posters of Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad along a street in Damascus on June 2, 2014. (Reuters/Khaled Al-Hariri)

Syria’s Election: “How can I vote for my killer?”

by Hannah Lucinda Smith | Jun 3, 2014 | Features

Reyhanlı, Asharq Al-Awsat—Few people, either in or outside Syria, expect the Syrian presidential election to hold any surprises. “It is a sham election,” Anthony Franks, a Middle East expert with consulting firm Mars Omega, told me a few weeks ago as we discussed the...

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Fares with a photo of his son Malik, who was killed fighting Syrian government forces (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Under the Black Flag

by Hannah Lucinda Smith | May 20, 2014 | Features

Azaz, Asharq Al-Awsat—Maybe it was force of habit or maybe it was lingering fear, but Fares still kept his most treasured photographs hidden away behind the sofa. He picked them out from their hiding place and carefully unrolled them on the table to reveal the faces...

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Syrian refugees cross the border into the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, August 19, 2013. (REUTERS/Azad Lashkari)

Syrians, Pick Your Passports

by Hannah Lucinda Smith | May 3, 2014 | Features

At 5 pm on a humid Friday afternoon, the Bab Al-Salam border gate is heaving. Dozens of civilians, most of them women and children, queue up to cross over the border into Turkey, desperate to make it before the crossing closes for the day. They crowd up to the window...

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Free Syrian Army fighters in hospital in Turkey. (Asharq Al-Awsat/Hannah Lucinda Smith)

Broken Bodies, Fractured Army

by Hannah Lucinda Smith | Apr 30, 2014 | Features

Turkish–Syrian border, Asharq Al-Awsat—The young man sat up in his hospital bed, his head shaved and his eyes furious. “They are blood merchants,” he said, and then he paused to find the right words to express the depth of his disdain. “They are playing with the blood...

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Syrian refugees pass through the Turkish Cilvegözü gate border on August 31, 2013. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Syria’s Thousand Miles of Red Tape

by Hannah Lucinda Smith | Apr 19, 2014 | Features

Istanbul, Asharq Al-Awsat—It was only 10 o’clock on a Monday morning, but tempers were already rising. A scrum of men pushed forward towards the glass-paned desk, waving white papers and calling out names in the hope of grabbing the attention of one of the...