George Ajjan’s blog on Syrian politics, syriapol: A Syrian Democracy Project, is a great resource for commentary and news about the country. He also has a very interesting post that reproduces an article of his on Syrian identity and history. The following exchange seems crucial for grasping how Syrians (broadly speaking) understand their identity:
Sometimes Lebanese, Jordanian, or Palestinian friends will ask me what my origin is:
“Halabi,” I proudly reply.
They respond with a confused look. “Souri, yaeni…”
“La, halabi.”
“I don’t understand, why don’t you just say that you are Syrian?”
“Why don’t you?”
Understanding this view seems to me to be a basic prerequisite for understanding the politics within and relationship between the Syrian Republic and Lebanon in particular.
P.S. Halab is Aleppo, for those who might not be familiar with the Arabic name.
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September 7th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
George Ajjan
thanks for the link Daniel. I occassionally post snippets at syriapol to draw some traffic and attract Syrians to take the poll that I set up, which aims to provide some information about their opinion trend (hard data being the neocons’ allergen.) By the way, the site was orginally blocked by US sanctions, now I believe it is blocked by the Syrian government. I suppose it’s that good!!!
Anyway, I inherited the mentality of my great-grandparents who came to the US from Syria between 1913 and 1921, when “Syria” was a broad geographic region, not a modern constitutional republic. The “Syria” I came to know from the lessons of my grandparents included what are now Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, and Palestine (see Matthew 4:24).
The inhabitants of all of those places were broadly “Syrian”, but sub-identified by region. Thus I don’t consider someone from Jerusalem, Beirut, or Amman any less “Syrian” than myself, no matter what some lousy French and British mapmakers established as they washed their hands of the region.