An alley in a popular part of the Rukn al-Dine neighborhood. (Credit: Obeda Jbara)
The sad black-and-white portraits, plastered on every street corner, speak for themselves. So many disappeared and "martyrs" fallen under the yoke of the Assad regime, taken from their Rukn al-Din neighborhood. In this historic Kurdish district of Damascus, they are the only traces of the change in power. Amid this memorial, the old national flag, red, white, and black, a symbol of the Baath Party dissolved on Jan. 29, still appears here and there."We were forced to paint it," said Kiyane*, a young resident, noting one of the many storefronts covered with the cursed colors.Here, people were wary of revealing themselves to strangers. Accustomed to the climate of fear carefully fomented by the deposed clan for over five decades, the residents of Rukn al-Dine, overwhelmingly Kurdish, preferred to meet at home, away from...
The sad black-and-white portraits, plastered on every street corner, speak for themselves. So many disappeared and "martyrs" fallen under the yoke of the Assad regime, taken from their Rukn al-Din neighborhood. In this historic Kurdish district of Damascus, they are the only traces of the change in power. Amid this memorial, the old national flag, red, white, and black, a symbol of the Baath Party dissolved on Jan. 29, still appears here and there."We were forced to paint it," said Kiyane*, a young resident, noting one of the many storefronts covered with the cursed colors.Here, people were wary of revealing themselves to strangers. Accustomed to the climate of fear carefully fomented by the deposed clan for over five decades, the residents of Rukn al-Dine, overwhelmingly Kurdish, preferred to meet at home, away...
