Visions of a New Syria
Efforts to craft a new identity for Syria will mean little if its government cannot get a grip on spiralling sectarian violence.
Two very different types of Syria are emerging in the aftermath of Bashar al-Assad’s ouster in December 2024. On the one hand, Syria is brimming with confidence. According to the European Union Agency for Asylum, just under one million people have returned to the country, since the fall of the Assad regime. That is a staggering proportion of the approximately six million who are estimated to have fled overseas, according to figures compiled by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). It reveals just how desperate Syrians have been to return to their homeland after 14 years of war and six decades of autocratic Baathist rule. Millions more are expected to return as things stabilise further.
Read More