GENEVA: An anticipated Syrian regime offensive against opposition groups in Idlib province could displace more than 700,000 people, far more than were uprooted in a recent battle in the southwest of Syria, a UN-led group of health agencies said in a monthly report.
Many of Syria’s battles have ended with agreements for fighters and their families to depart for Idlib governorate, where an influx of
displaced people has roughly doubled the population to around 2.5 million.
The UN has said the province has become a “dumping ground” for evacuees.
The monthly Health Cluster Bulletin, published by a group of health-focused aid agencies led by the World Health Organization, said aid workers were bracing for the Idlib battle.
“Increased hostilities are expected in the northwest in the coming period, to result in displacements of 250,000 to over 700,000 people in Idlib and surrounding areas,” the report said.
“This will cause an increased need for humanitarian assistance to the new vulnerable and host communities, especially emergency health services.”
Between mid-June and the end of July, 184,000 people were displaced by a battle in the south and subsequent agreements to end the fighting there. Among the displaced, more than 10,000 went to Idlib and northern Aleppo governorate, the report said.
The UN has repeatedly warned about the dangers of an attack on Idlib. Syria’s President Bashar Assad said in a Russian media interview last month that Idlib governorate would be a priority for his forces.
UN regional humanitarian coordinator Panos Moumtzis said in June that the governorate’s entire population of 2.5 million could be displaced and move toward the Turkish border if there was a major battle.
Such a battle would be much more complicated and brutal than anything seen so far in the seven-year war, he said.
The health cluster report included a map showing the breakdown of the population in southern and eastern parts of the governorate, suggesting that the displacement scenario was based on an attack by government forces from the south and east.
The map showed population estimates in four zones from the frontline up to the Latakia-Aleppo highway and the Hama-Aleppo highway, with a total of 993,000 people in those zones.
Health agencies warn Idlib offensive could uproot 700,000 Syrians
Health agencies warn Idlib offensive could uproot 700,000 Syrians
- Between mid-June and the end of July, 184,000 people were displaced by a battle in the south and subsequent agreements to end the fighting there
- Increased hostilities are expected in the northwest in the coming period, to result in displacements of 250,000 to over 700,000 people in Idlib and surrounding areas
The Damascus book fair draws crowds, with censorship eased in post-Assad Syria
- The book fair was first held in Syria in 1985 and stopped for several years after the country’s civil war began in March 2011
DAMASCUS, Syria: Abdul-Razzaq Ahmad Saryoul began publishing books in Syria in 2003 but he used to abstain from participating in the annual International Damascus Book Fair because of tight measures by the country’s security agencies and bans on many books under Bashar Assad’s rule.
In the first post-Assad book fair to be held in Damascus, which wrapped up Monday, Saryoul was surprised when he was issued a permit the day he applied to take part without being asked what his books are about. The wide range of titles available made this year’s fair “unprecedented,” he said.
Another publisher, Salah Sorakji, was proud to offer Kurdish books in the Syrian capital for the first time in decades. During the Assad era, ethnic Kurds suffered from discrimination, including bans on their language.
The first book fair since Assad was unseated in December 2024 witnessed high turnout, with state media reporting that 250,000 people attended on the first day, Feb. 6, trekking out to fairgrounds where it was held about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the city center. The fair’s director, Ahmad Naasan, said about 500 publishing companies from some 35 countries took part.
A debate over religious texts
While the new freedom of expression was widely welcomed, the introduction of some previously forbidden books by Islamist writers sparked anxiety among religious minorities.
Religious books were among the best selling at previous fairs in the majority Sunni Muslim country. This year, however, books of the Islamic scholar Ibn Taymiyya — who lived in Damascus seven centuries ago and whose teachings are followed by Sunni jihadi groups — were sold openly at the fair after being banned for decades.
The circulation of books spreading an extreme ideology raised alarms in Syria, where sectarian killings have left hundreds of Alawites and Druze dead over the past year in sectarian attacks by pro-government Sunni fighters.
Assad, a member of the Alawite religious minority, officially espoused a secular ideology. The Assad dynasty launched brutal crackdowns on the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups during the family’s five- decade rule.
The only known book to be banned this year — “Have You Heard the Talk of the Rafida?” — included audio addresses by Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq who was killed in a US strike in 2006. Iraq reportedly asked Syrian authorities to remove it because it incites hatred against Shiite Muslims.
A bearded man wearing a military uniform who identified himself by his nom de guerre Abu Obeida, bought a copy of Ibn Taymiyyah’s famous book “Al-Aqida Alwasitiyeh” or “The Fundamental Principles of Islam.”
“Before liberation this book was banned in Syria,” Abu Obeida told The Associated Press, standing at a stand selling religious books. ”Anyone who had such a book used to be taken to jail.”
“Now it is available, thanks be to God,” he said,adding that in the past people read “what the state wanted them to.”
A new era
The book fair was first held in Syria in 1985 and stopped for several years after the country’s civil war began in March 2011.
Hala Bishbishi, the director of the Egypt-based Al-Hala publishing house, was surprised by the number of people who showed up, although she added that the Damascus book fair cannot yet be compared to those held in oil-rich Gulf countries.
“With the circumstances that Syria passed through, this fair is excellent,” the woman said. Shuttle buses between the fair and central Damascus boosted visitor numbers, she added.
Atef Namous, a Syrian publisher who had been living abroad for 45 years, said he was participating for the first time because any book can be sold at the fair now, even those imported form Western countries.
The exhibition this year comes weeks after intense clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters in the northeast. A ceasefire deal was reached and the government in Damascus has sought to reassure Kurds that they are equal citizens in the new political order.
Interim President Ahamd Al-Sharaa issued a decree last month giving Kurds rights unseen in decades, including restoring citizenship to Kurds who had been stripped of it under the Assad dynasty, making Kurdish one of Syria’s official languages as well as recognizing the Kurds most important holiday, the spring celebration of Newroz.
“We are very happy with this positive step toward Kurds, who for more than 60 years have been deprived of practicing the Kurdish culture,” said Sorakji, the Kurdish publisher about being allowed to show books in Kurdish for the first time in many years.
Selling history, literature and philosophy books at his stand, Sorakji said most of the people buying were Kurds, but there were also Arabs who want to know more about their compatriots.
“We are all Syrians but what caused all the differences was the (Assad) regime,” he said.
Another owner of a publishing company, Mayada Kayali, said that the most important thing to offer to the younger generations who “have emerged from war, injustice and oppression is knowledge — knowledge that is accessible to them, without placing restrictions on their ideas or their opinions.”
