That proved to be a slow end, though. Every now and then there would be a flurry, such as the Twitter eruption one weekend in mid-2012 when reports had Bashar fled from Syria and his leading advisors all poisoned. Meanwhile, the car bombs began to go off in Damascus, mainly outside some of the dreaded security centres and military barracks. However, even some of the mainstream press now began to pick up some of the more subtle nuances. In a curiously historical moment, for example, the regime army was reported to have shelled Islamists either in or very near Krak des Chevaliers, the great Crusader castle. Those Islamists were said to be from anywhere but Syria: Saudi, Iraq, even Afghanistan. By now, the UN was accepting the facts as reported by respected agencies such as the International Crisis Group, that this was not a straight black v white contest. Rather, it involved several shades of gray v each other. That was compounded by divisions within the so-called Syrian National Council, run largely from Paris, within which a bewildering number of factions ran an equally bewildering number of agendas.
Both wiser after Iraq and aware of just how complex this was given Syria's geographic and strategic position, the Americans moved a lot slower than desired by more impatient international commentators anxious for "progress" after the great changes in, say, Egypt, even if the subsequent rise of the Muslim Brotherhood to positions of power there tempered the euphoria. The United Nations' efforts mirrored the enormous difficulties. Special envoy Kofi Annan flew into Damascus briefly, then came away with his plan. That was scuppered by a veto lodged by both Russia and China. The former had a long history in Syria and of backing the Assads. Regionally, Syria was Russia's only remaining ally, really. Its naval base in Tartous and its thousands of citizens married to Syrians reflected that. The Chinese had extensive business interests, including a large share of the Syrian oilfields which though dwindling, were still important. The Annan Plan gave way to Annan Plan Mk II, and then to the Annan Capitulation as he walked away from the role. effectively admitting defeat. There was talk the Russians were no longer adamant Assad had to be a non-negotiable part of any settlement. The Turks continued to press on the northern border, especially after one of their fighter jets was shot down by Syrian forces. In the south the Saudis, without any apparent sense of irony given the state of their own body politic, lectured all in sundry that Syria had to become more democratic.
While I was watching this and despairing several thousand kilometres away, my Syrian friends and colleagues were living through it and all the talk of "Balkanisation" as it appeared different groups would come to control different areas of the county. Those with whom I was able to stay in contact reported confusion, bewilderment, concern, hope and confidence, all at once. Many of them were progressives who I knew would be caught up in developments ("cooking in the kitchen", as one described it euphemistically), and that added to my anxiety. Emails and phone calls were sporadic and necessarily non-informative because, by now, who knew who was listening. All those feelings intensified as the daily conflicts crept closer to Damascus itself. Areas that I knew well were seeing demonstrations, police action and even more serious developments such as unexplained gun fire, explosions and even armed conflict if some reports were to be believed. In one phone call in mid-July 2012, a friend reported helicopter gunships overhead in Shalaan where all the project consultants had lived. This was all unimaginable.
By mid-2012 it seemed that Bashar al-Assad would fall, but when was unforeseeable. In the meantime, the city that I had come to love was changing dramatically. The house in Damascus was still there, I knew (I could see it on Google Earth), but would the city of which it was part ever be the same again?
The End
Bibliography
This is a selection of works from among the larger numbers of sources I consulted while in Damascus and while writing this book.
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Brian Stoddart is an Emeritus Professor of La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia where he served as President and Vice-Chancellor. Before that he held Vice-President positions in other Australian universities, as well as posts in Canada, Malaysia and Barbados. Trained as a social historian, he took his first two degrees at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, and a PhD at the University of Western Australia where he worked on nationalist politics in India. He is an internationally acknowledged authority on sports culture, with his Saturday Afternoon Fever: Sport in the Australian Culture still considered one of the definitive accounts. Among his most recent books are A People’s Collector: Arthur Galletti; and India and Australia: Bridging Different Worlds.
In addition to his academic work, Brian Stoddart has been a long-time contributor to the Australian and international media, especially in print and radio. He has extended that contribution into social media, writing regularly now for websites such as Global Policy Journal, South Asia Masala and The Conversation, as well as his own blog at www.professorbrianstoddart.com
Brian Stoddart now works as an international higher education reform consultant in countries such as Lao PDR, Cambodia, Jordan and Syria. It was during his time in Syria that he was inspired to write this book. He is now also a member of the Syrian Studies Association.
Endnotes
1. Edward Said, Orientalism (Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1978) ♠
2. Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (New York, Simon & Schuster, 1996) ♠
3. A Handbook for Travellers in Syria and Palestine (London, Murray, 1858), pp. 468-9 ♠
4. Mrs Mackintosh, Damascus and its People: Sketches of Modern Life in Syria (London, Seeley Jackson Halliday, 1883), p.6 ♠
5. Robert Richardson, Travels Along the Mediterranean (London, Cadell Blackwood, 1822), p. 461 ♠
6. A Handbook for Travellers in Syria and Palestine, p. 483 ♠
7. W.M. Teape, In Tents and on Horse
back Through the Holy Land (Stockton, Harrison, nd), pp. 50-1 ♠
8. W.B.C. Lister, A Bibliography of Murrays Handbooks for Travellers (Dereham, Dereham Books, 1993) ♠
9. See the review in The Old and New Testament Student, 12, 3 (March, 1891), p. 188 ♠
10. Cook's Tourists' Handbook for Palestine and Syria (London, Cook, 1876). ♠
11. Agatha Christie Mallowan, Tell Me How You Live (London, Collins, 1975 edn), p.33 ♠
12. Fouad Ajami, The Syrian Rebellion (Washington DC, Hoover, 2012), ch. 4 ♠
13. 21st Century Aid: Recognising Success and Tackling Failure. Oxfam Briefing Paper 137, (London, Oxfam, 2010) ♠
14. Clifford Geertz, Local Knowledge: Further essays in Interpretive Anthropology (New York, Basic, 1985) ♠
15. Annie-Christine Daskalakis Mathews, "A Room of 'Splendour and Generosity' from Ottoman Damascus," Metropolitan Museum Journal, 32, (1997) ♠
16. Kahaled Azad, "Residential Architecture in Islamic Civilization", Journal Islam Today, 25, 1429H/2008 ♠
17. Abdel-moniem El-Shorbagy, "Traditional Islamic-Arab House: Vocabulary and Syntax", International Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Vol 10 No 4 ♠
18. Ibn Al-Qalanisi, The Damascus Chronicle of the Crusades (translated by H.A.R. Gibb) (New York, Dover, 2002 edn), p. 108. ♠
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