12 years of war in Syria

12 years ago, the first demonstrations against the Syrian regime and against Bashar-Al-Assad broke out. Today, under the pretext that there are no more bombardments and armed opposition in Syria, Damascus decrees that the war is over, and intends to normalize its international relations. But everything is precarious in Syria, starting with peace, and the profession of reporter is still impossible there.

Manifestations repressed in blood. The armed opposition. The war. The ruins. The Free Syrian Army (FSA). The Islamic State organization, which infiltrates the conflict and stirs up trouble between the lines. Damascus, allied with Moscow to bomb Aleppo, in the name of the war against terrorism. Destroy Aleppo.

The use of chemical weapons on the civilian population. The silence of the international community. Torture and abuses documented. Misery. Starvation. A bloodless torn country. The weapons end up blowing themselves away. Regimes of fear and reprisals follow. The economic crisis and as if that were not enough; the earthquake last month.

12 years of disaster in Syria

And it’s as if talking about it doesn’t change anything. This is obviously not the posture of a Syrian journalist who opted for literature: Omar Youssef Souleiman. The reporting profession is impossible. Even before the war. In any case, according to the criteria of the profession, a journalism that is neither government propaganda nor partisan opposition. The difficult balance in a sclerotic society, under the yoke of an authoritarian regime that tortures.

And yet attempts exist, but too dangerous to last in time. Omar had to flee Syria, through Jordan first. After many adventures, he will join France whose language he does not know. Passionate about poetry, he knows Aragon and Paul Eluard. But what he discovers of Paris, on arriving, has nothing to do with Paul Eluard.

It is however by relying on the power of a verse, “And through the power of words, I rebuilt my life”, that the Syrian journalist will rebuild himself. And yet the words carry the weight of disillusion. The words that profess the promises of intervention in Syria, the good intentions of the international community have not been followed by facts. Certainly, but in Syria, everything started with slogans written on the walls, truths that were not displayed before. Words are not so powerless in the face of barbarism. Of course, they do not prevent violence and crimes, but they point, document and denounce. They are not addressed to the present but to posterity.

Documenting what is happening in Syria is always complicated. Damascus gives out visas bit by bit. The country lives in a vacuum. Omar’s family can’t leave the country, and he can’t go. He would probably be imprisoned, or even killed. And since he doesn’t have the means, a remote reporting profession, because the value of the land is essential, so he writes texts in French. With the chance to be published by Flammarion. The Little Terrorist (2018)The Last Syrian (2020), A room in exile in 2022,, and next September, Being French. It is his refugee status that serves as his inspiration, journalism has become too complicated.

“They know nothing of the ruins lodged in my memory, of the bombardments, of the nights of fear, when one was obliged to sleep in the corridors to avoid the bullets which were flying; of the mornings of flight, when one ran aimlessly. I can’t tell them that hand that’s holding a beer, it held young men just before they died.”

Omar Youssef Souleiman, Syrian journalist, writer and poet

Excerpt from “A Room in Exile”

“It was in the most abandoned neighborhoods in the world, pursues Omar Youssef Souleiman in his book ‘A room in exile’, besieged by the militias of the Assad regime, where we lived without a hospital, without medicines, with many deaths and very little humanity. I’m not going to tell it, neither to them nor to anyone. No evocation will ever make up for the loss.”

But through the power of words, Omar Youssef Souleiman has rebuilt his life. In September 2023, Flammarion will publish his new autobiographical novel, Being French. The Syrian poet was naturalized French in January 2022, after 10 years of life without a passport or identity card.