Guest Post: On Growth of Villages and Localities in Northwest Syria

After a prolonged absence, my friend ‘Odoacer’, who is from the originally Druze village of Qalb Lawze in the Jabal al-Summaq area of north Idlib countryside, makes a return to this blog with his observations of how the areas of northwest Syria still controlled by the insurgents are continuing to change. With the previous waves of displacement, deportations from Turkey and building development, many localities have transformed into large towns and have become more interconnected with each other. High-rise buildings and shopping malls are more prevalent, but there is also a sense that the displacements are becoming permanent amid the frozen conflict. In many respects, one might speak of Idlib as almost becoming like Gaza (before the current war) in terms of its growing population density and the general inability of its inhabitants to go anywhere else.

Below is his article translated by me.

Al-Badawi Mall in Sarmada, Idlib.


The phenomenon of the transformation of villages and small localities into big towns in northwest Syria

By ‘Odoacer’

Demonstrations in opposition to the current system of rule in Damascus broke out with the beginning of the Arab Spring in 2011. Violence and influx of weapons to the rebels followed, and Syria turned into a battleground between regional states and great powers, and radical Islamic extremist terrorist organisations appeared and there was international intervention to destroy them.