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Yazan Badran

@yazanbadran.bsky.social
3K followers 837 following 87 posts

Assistant professor, media, journalism, politics, Syria/MENA/SWANA at Vrije Universiteit Brussel. ECHO/SCOM/FWO I call Latakia, Nagoya and Brussels home. researchportal.vub.be/en/persons/ya…

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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 20/07/2025
Sharaa received the investigative report for the 6 March “events” at the Syrian coast. If the report is not serious enough and no real accountability is forthcoming, this can backfire enormously right now. On the other hand, can he afford to hold accountable his fighting men in such moment?
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 19/07/2025
Assadist logics are alive and well. And i understand that it is naive to think that that sort of state logic, deeply embedded in every suture of state and society, can change overnight. But we must, at minimum, mount an honest challenge to it. Or else, what's the use?
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 19/07/2025
There are many Syrians who genuinely believe that the legitimacy of the current authorities and power of the state is best achieved through massive brutalising displays of violence against "recalcitrant" communities, a la Coast, Suwayda. In other words: Assad's Hama doctrine.
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 19/07/2025
The president, however, commended them for their service. Madness.
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 19/07/2025
The destruction that the tribal fighters are leaving in their wake in Sweida is truly horrific. A landscape of burning, pillaging and unrestrained hatred is all you can see and hear in these videos. To excuse, justify, obscure or naturalise this is tantamount to national suicide.
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Bilge Yesil @bilgeyesil.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
Talk about timely!
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
Testimonies of Survivors of the Coast Massacre 2 - Children Witnessing a Massacre: About Mila, who was killed but did not die, and Mira, who was not killed but did die. Collected and documented by Rosa Yassin Hasan for SyriaUntold and Daraj. syriauntold.com/2025/03/26/a...
syriauntold.com
About Mila, who was killed but did not die, and Mira, who was not killed but did die | SyriaUntold | حكاية ما انحكت
Beginning on Thursday, 6 March 2025, and lasting for six days, Alawite-majority areas along the Syrian coast were subjected to a coordinated attack that bore the hallmarks of ethnic cleansing. The ass...
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
Testimonies of Survivors of the Coast Massacre (3) - A Psychologist's Testimony After the Massacre, collected by Rosa Yassin Hasan for SyriaUntold and Daraj. syriauntold.com/2025/04/02/h...
syriauntold.com
How Will I Recover from Their Eyes? | SyriaUntold | حكاية ما انحكت
Beginning on Thursday, 6 March 2025, and lasting for six days, Alawite-majority areas along the Syrian coast were subjected to a coordinated attack that bore the hallmarks of ethnic cleansing. The ass...
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Sam Heller | سام هيلر @abujamajem.com · 01/04/2025
@apnews.com's Sally Abou AlJoud on another killing of Alawite civilians in Syria's Tartous: apnews.com/article/syri... (via @yazanbadran.bsky.social) On displacement of Alawite Syrians from the coast to Lebanon – among thousands of Syrians on the move since December – see: tcf.org/content/repo...
apnews.com
12-year-old boy among 4 killed in Syria's Tartous province
Provincial officials say a 12-year-old boy was among four civilians killed in Syria’s Tartous province.
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
Part 1 of a series of witness testimonies by survivors of the Syrian coast massacres, compiled by Syrian author Rosa Yassin Hasan. "... If this is just a search operation, then why all the gunfire? Why the explosions? Who is shooting? Who is shooting?" syriauntold.com/2025/03/20/t...
syriauntold.com
“To whom will I say good morning from now on!” | SyriaUntold | حكاية ما انحكت
Beginning on Thursday, 6 March 2025, and lasting for six days, Alawite-majority areas along the Syrian coast were subjected to a coordinated attack that bore the hallmarks of ethnic cleansing. The ass...
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Crisis Group @crisisgroup.org · 20/03/2025
The longer Israel persists in its current approach to Syria, it risks pushing the country toward one of the very scenarios it says it wants to avoid: fostering chaos that Iran and/or jihadist militants could exploit. www.crisisgroup.org/middle-east-...
crisisgroup.org
How Israel’s Overreach in Syria May Backfire | Crisis Group
After the Assad regime was overthrown, Israel immediately began treating the new authorities in Damascus as a potential security threat, taking a series of aggressive military actions. This approach r...
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Axel Bruns @snurb.info · 20/03/2025
Any researcher denied entry into the US for the 🙄 heinous 🙄 crime of lèse majesté against Emperor Trump should immediately be awarded a research grant from their home research council, no questions asked. Clearly they're doing something very right.
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
The Syria Report on the pillaging of the Syrian coast last week: "villages and towns along the Syrian coast have witnessed a systematic campaign of looting, burning, and bulldozing of properties ... accompanied by mass killings and forced displacement" hlp.syria-report.com/hlp/systemat...
hlp.syria-report.com
Systematic Looting, Burning and Bulldozing of Property on the Syrian Coast
Over the past two weeks, villages and towns along the Syrian coast have witnessed a systematic campaign of looting, burning, and bulldozing of properties. This campaign was accompanied by mass killing...
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
In fact, the whole March issue of Syria-in-Transition is well worth reading. This on the UN's engagement in Syria's transition, and their lack of urgency, also paints a gloomy picture and asks for a course correction by Pedersen (UN envoy) and UN agencies. www.syriaintransition.com/nomorebusine...
syriaintransition.com
No more business as usual — Syria in Transition
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
Malik al-Abdeh's analysis of Sharaa's governance record is damning. And his pleas are nothing but the plainest of common sense: serious reforms, emphasis on effective governance, openness to different constituencies by giving them a stake in the new state. www.syriaintransition.com/swallowingth...
syriaintransition.com
Swallowing the State — Syria in Transition
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
"Abu Jaber, a religious notable in Khattab and a former opposition fighter who had returned to the village, described how he and others entered homes, and forced men on to the town’s roundabout, with the purpose of displacing them from the village." www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...
theguardian.com
‘They killed him in cold blood’: the cycle of revenge in north-west Syria
Over 1,000 people – including 745 civilians – were killed in attacks last week that mostly targeted Alawite minority
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
Zaina has been one of the most brilliant voices on Syria in the past decade. Her unfiltered reflections here show the profound challenges us Syrians will have to grapple with - and that's assuming we will have to stability required to even begin to tackle these challenges.
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
"According to many testimonies collected by our Office, perpetrators raided houses, asking residents whether they were Alawite or Sunni before proceeding to either kill or spare them accordingly. Some survivors told us that many men were shot dead in front of their families."
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
We are no where near knowing the full scale of the slaughter: "In a number of extremely disturbing instances, entire families - including women, children and individuals hors de combat - were killed, with predominantly Alawite cities and villages targeted in particular."
ohchr.org
Syria: Distressing scale of violence in coastal areas
Reports continue to emerge of the distressing scale of violence in Syria’s coastal region since 6 March.The UN Human Rights Office has so far documented the killing of 111 civilians, but the process o...
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
Fair point!
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
Unclear how this will develop after these massacres. How al-Sharaa deals with the aftermath, and with questions of accountability, recognition and transitional justice will be key to preventing this from becoming a "popular revolt" by distinguishing these insurgents from the local communities.
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
The Alawi militant insurgency (ongoing) at the Syrian coast is plainly made up of remnants of the Assad regime. They represent in no way a form of "popular resistance"; are despised by large sections of Alawites there who see them as co-responsible for the massacres (also ongoing) that befell them.
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 08/03/2025
Accounts from friends in Baniyas (who were spared because they were Christian) confirm that at least one of the groups responsible for summary killings in Al-Qusoor neighbourhood was made up of non-Syrian foreign fighters. They executed everybody else in their building (all Alawis).
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 08/03/2025
The scenes and voices coming out from friends and family on the Syrian coast are nightmarish. The bloodshed continues unabated and any pretence of state authority by those in Damascus has well and truly collapsed. And we will all pay a hefty price to come.
theguardian.com
Syrian security forces execute 125 civilians in battle against Assad loyalists
Battle in Latakia is marked escalation by Bashar al-Assad loyalists against Syria’s new Islamist-led government
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Benjamin De Cleen @benjamindecleen.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
Very happy to see this nice collaboration with Juan get a prize from @polstudies.bsky.social !
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 07/01/2025
I agree with the assessment of the UAE, but Saudi seems to be fully behind the transition (offering significant aid and the first destination for FM) - perhaps positioning itself as counterweight to Qatar/Turkey but also part of the solution? UAE sans KSA is less threatening, I would think.
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 07/01/2025
Impressions from people in the know is that Awdah's power is greatly exaggerated, and that he's not a realistic threat, nor is there any regional intent to destabilise the current administration.
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 06/01/2025
I wrote (and re-wrote) this essay for over the past two months in an attempt to think through the contradictory impulses triggered by Israel's assassination of Nasrallah in the midst of a genocide in Gaza, from a Syrian perspective.
untoldmag.org
Nasrallah, Syria and Palestine: Thinking beyond the narratives that speak us - Untold
how can we arrive at a condition in which a struggle for a democratic, inclusive and open Syrian polity and society comes to presuppose and to prescribe a struggle against Israel’s genocidal ethno-nat...
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 06/01/2025
Hi Claire! So lovely to see you here :) hugs from Brussels.
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 06/01/2025
The driving question was and remains: how can we arrive at a condition in which a struggle for a democratic, inclusive and open Syrian polity & society comes to presuppose and to prescribe a struggle against Israel’s genocidal ethno-nationalism and vice versa.
untoldmag.org
Nasrallah, Syria and Palestine: Thinking beyond the narratives that speak us - Untold
how can we arrive at a condition in which a struggle for a democratic, inclusive and open Syrian polity and society comes to presuppose and to prescribe a struggle against Israel’s genocidal ethno-nat...
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 06/01/2025
I wrote (and re-wrote) this essay for over the past two months in an attempt to think through the contradictory impulses triggered by Israel's assassination of Nasrallah in the midst of a genocide in Gaza, from a Syrian perspective.
untoldmag.org
Nasrallah, Syria and Palestine: Thinking beyond the narratives that speak us - Untold
how can we arrive at a condition in which a struggle for a democratic, inclusive and open Syrian polity and society comes to presuppose and to prescribe a struggle against Israel’s genocidal ethno-nat...
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
The axis of popular solidarity.
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Leila @leilashami.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
People in Gaza show their support for the Syrian revolution ...
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
The brutally imposed ossification of Syrian political life has finally been broken. A thread about old-new cleavages that will structure the political field we enter now (neither comprehensive nor sufficient - just a discussion starter)👇
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
None of this will happen under conditions of our own choosing. But it is important to start thinking about it so that we can attempt to create (relatively) better conditions for the next generation to make their own destiny. 16/
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
So any serious progressive political project has to navigate these cleavages, attempt to re-articulate some in new terms and attempt to bridge others. 15/
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
These cleavages, of course, are neither simple binaries nor are they static. They also cross-cut each other and interrelate in complex ways (that are impossible to ascertain just yet). 14/
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
And, more importantly, how these shifts will resonate or be articulated within different Syrian constituencies. 13/
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
2-Regional cleavages/Israel: It remains unclear where the Turkish-Qatari axis will stand vis-à-vis an even more dominant Israel. Similarly unclear how other regional powers: normalization (i.e. UAE), resistance axis (i.e., Iran), or KSA will position themselves within this new constellation. 12/
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
1-Class cleavages: Will slowly re-emerge as the contours of the process of reconstruction in Syria and the transition into a competitive market economy and reintegration in global economic circuits become clearer, and as new classes of winners and losers emerge out of this process. 11/
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
Two more important cleavages but which will take some time to settle more clearly due to the profound dislocation in Syria’s economic life and the region’s strategic map: 10/
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
4-Communal cleavages: The two most worrying (and potentially disastrous, if competing forces choose to activate them politically) cleavages here will be the Sunni-Alawite sectarian cleavage and the Arab-Kurd ethnic cleavage. 9/
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
3-Core-periphery cleavage: Poignant for questions around fair redistribution and recognition within the new Syrian state to counter decades of neglect and forms of internal colonisation. Its two most important manifestations will be along 1) rural-urban axis and 2) (north)east-west axis. 8/
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
2-Religion-secularism cleavage: This is an old-new cleavage that will become more and more entrenched in discussions around the shape of the new state, its constitutional principles, and the discussions around personal liberties and gender rights, among others. 7/
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
It will also be a deeply divisive cleavage in terms of the memorialization of the revolution as radically and profoundly divergent and entrenched narratives of that history come clashing directly (for the first time in a decade at least) within the same public sphere. 6/
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
Particularly poignant in the difficult discussions to come about transitional justice and accountability for the horrific crimes committed in the past 13 years, as well as in discussions around economic justice and restitution for the many victims of dispossession and returning refugees. 5/
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
1-Revolution: the cleavage between those who have supported the 2011 uprising and those opposed it. This is the clearest and most immediate antagonism that is emerging and will probably dominate the transitional period and become sedimented in different political alliances and strategies. 4/
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
These cleavages will be the key axes on which different political and social demands (and thus different alliances and coalitions) will be articulated. Below are, what I think, the main cleavages/nodes of polarization that will clearly (re-)emerge in the period to come. 3/
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
However, the dominance of this bloc is neither absolute nor monolithic as they have to contend with other forces in a more open political field. And all of them will have to navigate and negotiate a number of new and old cleavages in that field in order to maintain and grow their coalitions. 2/
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Yazan Badran @yazanbadran.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
The emerging hegemonic bloc who will take up the task of reorganizing the Syrian state and political field (early indications) is a coalition between socially conservative and economically (neo?)liberal forces operating primarily within the strategic orbit of the Turkey-Qatar axis. 1/
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