Thomas Pierret

@ThomasPierret

Senior Researcher at CNRS-IREMAM, Aix-en-Provence. Tweet in private capacity. RT not endorsement. Header: A l'Est de Damas by Majd al-Dik & Nathalie Bontemps

Aix-en-Provence, France
Joined December 2011
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  1. 14 hours ago

    Yet that would be a turning point. Clumsy kidnapping of Hariri was still "old" KSA: bully, but not to the extent of killing a Lebanese Prime Minister Syrian style.

    The Saudi regime kidnapped the Lebanese prime minister and threatened him into quitting, so killing a Saudi dissident in Turkey seems plausible.
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  2. 14 hours ago

    OMG

    1 reply 1 retweet 5 likes
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  3. 14 hours ago

    Grand Mufti of that time was going berserk and asked government (i.e. Quwwatli among others) for special powers to act against new sects. There's hardly anything comparable in today's Syria.

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  4. 14 hours ago

    As for "Gods": Quwwatli's time was marked by the emergence of new religions, sects and cults like the Murshidiyya, Ahmadiyya, al-Albani's Salafiyya, plus some weird groups such as the purported nudist cult of Tuma al-Harastani.

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  5. 14 hours ago

    Political "prophets" in today's Syria aren't even Syrian: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Abdullah Ocalan, Khomeyni/Khamenei.

    1 reply 2 retweets 10 likes
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  6. 14 hours ago

    Even among armed groups few leaders managed to build strong charisma. Zahran 'Allush and al-Jolani are exceptions, and anyway didn't claim to be the political equivalent of a Prophet like the aforementioned Aflaq/Saade did in the mid-20th century

    3 replies 3 retweets 11 likes
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  7. 14 hours ago

    The current opposition's many leaders are mere (sometimes petty) politicians, there's an obvious absence of charismatic visionaries among them.

    1 reply 1 retweet 8 likes
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  8. 14 hours ago

    Now, "Prophets": I assume Quwwatli was using it as a metaphor for ideologues like Michel Aflaq and the late Antoun Saade. Latter were product of their time and there's hardly any equivalent in post-2011 Syrian politics.

    1 reply 1 retweet 7 likes
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  9. 14 hours ago

    One might draw a parallel with highly factionalised/personalised character of opposition politics in post-2011 Syria, but its origins are entirely different: it resulted from 50 years of eradication of political life by the regime, which prevented any genuine party politics

    2 replies 2 retweets 11 likes
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  10. 14 hours ago

    First, "national leaders": by 1958, Syria had a profusion of ambitious politicians because it was a democracy, whereas Nasser's Egypt was a one-man dictatorship

    2 replies 3 retweets 11 likes
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  11. 14 hours ago

    With due respect to my esteemed friend and colleague , I think, on the contrary, that this quote is "mortal", that is, context-specific. I feel it's often used to imply that Syria's problems are rooted in an exceptional/intangible political culture, but it's misleading

    Immortal quote from Shukri al-Quwatli on the difficulty of ruling Syria
    2 replies 13 retweets 39 likes
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  12. Retweeted
    Oct 5

    The decree n°16 that's causing panic in explained in : Many have equated the decree with religious extremism and the end of secularism, but it's "pure fantasy", says

    7 retweets 10 likes
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  13. Oct 4

    Decree doesn't make regime less secular, just more authoritarian. It strengthens control of Ministry over religious field only (not culture) at expense of Grand Mufti. Moral panic among hardcore regime supporters is unfounded

    The big Syria story nobody's talking about in media: Decree 16, new law vastly expanding power of religious affairs and endowments ministry to regulate religious and cultural activities, seen as major step away from regime's vaunted secularism …
    6 replies 24 retweets 61 likes
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  14. Oct 3

    Very interesting chart, but it's not every minority-dominated regions; rather, provinces with large Alawite population, be they a local majority (Tartous, Latakia) or not (Hama, Homs). Suwayda is minority (Druze)-dominated but it's not over-represented.

    If there's one chart to look at it's this: a comparison of governorates' % of Syrian population in 2004 compared to the % of all men killed who are from that governorate. …
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  15. Retweeted
    Oct 2

    Nous publions aujourd'hui ce texte de , un hommage à Amer, révolutionnaire capable de traverser une frontière en guerre pour apporter un verre d'eau

    12 retweets 17 likes
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  16. Retweeted
    Oct 1

    Powerful - Syrian artist recreates his suffering in 's prisons. drawing and condemning what he saw - and reminding the world what unspeakable crimes the Syrian regime is continuing to commit against its own people

    18 retweets 10 likes
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  17. Retweeted
    Oct 1

    French communist MP Ian Brossat in court Tuesday, sued for defamation by Bashar al-Assad's uncle Rifaat for describing Paris property as 'ill-gotten' and bought with money stolen from the Syrian people (1984 of Rifaat al-Assad)

    3 replies 23 retweets 11 likes
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  18. Sep 29

    "Syrian government guarantees" = oxymoron

    Syrian refugees are starting to return from Lebanon under a government sponsored program, but some of them are getting detained by the Syrians despite government guarantees. reports …
    2 replies 20 retweets 48 likes
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  19. Retweeted
    Sep 28

    Judiciary in , declares that Ahrar al-Sham cannot be considered a terrorist organization. And yet neighboring is debating [laughably] to consider labeling the ’s 13th Division, 51st Division, al-Jabhat al-Shamiya & Suqor al-Jabal as terror groups.

    Procès Délibéré de la 16e chambre du TC de Paris > Lotfi Souli (revenant): 10 ans 2/3 sûreté, Karim Souli (revenant): 8 ans 1/2 sûreté, Anass Belloum (sur place, présumé décédé): relaxe -selon le tribunal Ahrar al-Sham ne peut être considéré comme…
    15 replies 81 retweets 96 likes
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  20. Sep 28

    "De l’architecture malmenée au soulèvement" : à propos du livre de Marwa al-Sabouni, The Battle for Home, The Vision of a Young Architect in Syria (pour le projet ANR Shakk)

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