"And I have found both freedom and safety in my madness, the freedom of loneliness and the safety from being understood, for those who understand us enslave something in us. But let me not be too proud of my safety. Even a Thief in a jail is safe from another thief. "

Khalil Gibran (How I Became a Madman)

Lübnan Marunîleri / Yasin Atlıoğlu

NEWS AND ARTICLES / HABERLER VE MAKALELER

Tuesday, June 06, 2017

The Rise of Katibat Dir' al-Watan: A Journey to the Lebanon-Syria Border Areas- Atlantic Council


Four years ago, Lebanon's north-eastern borderlands with Syria came to the forefront of media attention as the entry point for Hezbollah fighters to participate in the battle to capture the key Homs countryside town of al-Qusayr from Syrian rebels. Though there had already been reports of Hezbollah 'martyrs' through fighting in Syria, al-Qusayr was the first major engagement in the Syrian civil war in which Hezbollah's role became widely publicised, not unjustified considering that the group lost dozens of fighters in the battle.

Hezbollah has partly justified its intervention in Syria on the grounds of protecting Lebanon's borders as well as Lebanese citizens. In the case of the border areas of the northern Beqaa and the Homs countryside, there is a basis of reality to these ideas. While some Syrian regime border guard checkpoints exist, there is still no border fence here, and there are in fact thousands of people of Lebanese nationality who have been living on the Syrian side of the border since well before the Syrian civil war. These Lebanese people resident in Homs countryside border villages like Zeita are mostly Shi'a and related to their compatriots on the Lebanese side of the border.