Making Friends with a Murderer: Normalising with the Assad regime

Last week, the Palestinian group Hamas announced  that they would reconcile with the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad.

The announcement marks a change in the policy of the Palestinian group, who in 2012 offered support to the Syrian rebels that were seeking to throw Assad from office. 

Since then, Assad has re-established, with Russian and Iranian help, some sort of control over Syria, and secured his future. To reach this point, approximately half a million Syrian died, and tens of thousands were thrown in the regime prisons. 

The recent announcement by Hamas, followed similar moves by Turkey. 

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called on the Syrian opposition to normalise with the Assad regime, sparking anger and consternation among Syrian groups in the north of the country. 

This week on The New Arab Voice we asking why are the likes of Hamas and Turkey moving back to Syria and what does this mean for the revolution and those that continue to struggle for a life free from cruel and barbaric control.

We're also looking at a different form of normalisation: the travel bloggers have secured Syrian regime sponsored  visas, and have produced videos that are normalising the idea of a Syria ruled over by the brutal Assad regime. 

On this episode, we speak with Joseph Daher (@JosephDaher19), academic and researcher at the European University Institute (@EUI_EU) and the author of Syria After the Uprisings: The Political Economy of State Resilience; and with Ayman Abdel Nour (@aabnour) the founder of the Syrian Christians’ Initiative for Rights and Dialogue.

This podcast is written and produced by Hugo Goodridge. Theme music by Omar al-Fil. 

Other music by Blue Dot Sessions. 

To get in touch with the producers, follow then tweet us at @TheNewArabVoice or email hugo.goodridge@alaraby.co.uk.

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