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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
