"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

Sunday, January 22, 2017

Assad’s new strategy: Wooing back defectors (Sami Moubayed-The Arab Weekly)

Having provincial leaders back in fold could provide critical edge in anticipated battle for Deir ez-Zor. Having provincial leaders back in fold could provide critical edge in anticipated battle for Deir ez-Zor.


On January 3rd, Nawaf al-Bashir, an influential tribal leader who was an early defector from the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, returned to Damascus.
He had been lured by a Russian-inspired campaign to woo key opposition figures back to the fold to divide the opposition and bolster popular support for new military offensives aimed at recapturing more territory from rebel forces.
The strategy seems to be working. Coming on the heels of the regime’s landmark December victory in Aleppo, some Syrian notables seem to have concluded that bringing down the regime is no longer possible and they are turning a new page with the Kremlin, via Damascus.
Bashir, 63, a long-time oppo­nent of the regime who fled to Turkey in the summer of 2011 shortly after the war erupted, flew into Damascus Airport aboard a plane from Tehran — the most prominent counter-defec­tion of the 6-year war.