Dana Nawzar

The day there won’t be any borders between these old hubs of civilisation is the day I want to seehttps://twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/1190659836167348227…

I belong to the camp which believes nothing good comes out of Iraqi street movements -never have- but thing latest events achieved was debunking the myth of faith groups as monolithic political blocs. This is the neuance many with the Orientalist upbringing can’t see.

There are many confusions about Iraqi protests but the most confusing thing is that there are no protests in Iraqi Kurdistan which is doing much worse than the other parts of Iraq in terms of corruption, lack of services & utter disregard for rule of law.

My Scottish friend says if you want to vote Lib Dem, vote Tory instead. Why go for the second hand when you can afford the original.https://twitter.com/JamieJBartlett/status/1190181956937539584…

The kind of religious Jewish zealots living under Israeli protection could only be found in ISIS’s Raqqa, would that make Galbraith abandon Israel? Secular leftist Turks now allied with Erdogan are the most extremist, does that mean Turks don’t deserve any rights?

And this also applies to the false logic promoted by certain Islamist dumbsters who use the leftist or secular nature of poweful Kurdish parties to argue against Kurdish rights. Such logics, liberal or conservative, are fascist and dehumanising in nature

This is the kind of yikes which is popular with both left and right Kurds deserve rights and protections even if every single one of them had a 6 inches messy beard and was married to 3 wives looking for the 4th This PR point failed to prevent any attack. So keep it to yourselfhttps://twitter.com/LennoxGina/status/1190148713500463104…

Testimony to US’s pathetic situation in Middle East. When your diplomacy fails, military withdraws and have no tool but sanctions Contain Iran? Sanctions Contain Turkey? Sanctions Change gov in Lebanon? Sanctions Reduce PMF power in Iraq? Sanctions Punish Assad? Sanctionshttps://twitter.com/AliTahmizian/status/1190187504546320384…

All in all, Bashar al-Assad came out to declare victory. He sees the picture much more clearly than all analysts who have crowded this space. The killer of 200,000 civilians is winning thanks to an immoral spineless international order and he knows it. END.

On Arab League’s decision on reinviting Syria into the League, he said Syria had said nothing when the Arab League decided to suspend their membership and won’t say anything now either. Then laughed and said that is enough about Arab League.

On Turkey again, Assad claimed that the Turkish military and intelligence were supporting him until ‘Erdoğan conducted the coup against them’ but he had no doubt that the relations will get better soon either because Erdogan’s end or him changing course under pressure.

When asked why meet with Turkish invaders but not with Israel, Assad said Turkey is a neighbor and they have ties despite fluctuations in the relationship while they do not recognise Israel’s existence at all.

When asked if Obama was better than Trump because former rejected Turkish demands for a safe zone but latter allowed, Assad disagree. Assad described Trump as least worst American president ‘because he is transparent’

On Baghdadi, he said that they had no role in the operation and Trump had thanked them only to make the operation look credible. He doubted that the operation has happened and said anything Americans say should not be accepted at face value.

On Idlib he said the final solution will be one of three: they either leave to Turkey, surrender or go to war. He said that all agreements and steps are temporary and the only solution acceptable is retaining control of all Syrian territory by the Syrian state.

On ties with Turkey, he said there have been several meetings b/w security officials with Russian presence inside Syria & in Russia. He said a meeting w/ Erdogan or his people won’t honour him but he is ready to do it if it served Syrian interest.

On Kurdish rights, Assad said they are not against cultural rights. He gave ‘patriotic’ Armenians as an example that they have full cultural rights He said sensitivity about Kurds is because they talk about ‘Syrian Kurdistan’ and ‘Greater Kurdistan’ and that will not be allowed.

On SDF, which the anchors called ‘dissolved militia’, Assad said they have had ties with them even before Turkish invasion. Syrian regime return will be in full eventually but they will gradually do that. No armed group, administration will be allowed outside Syrian state

On Turkey, Assad said what many still don’t get: Erdogan is not Turkey He said most Turkish parties & many in army/security are against Erdogan’s position on Assad. He also said Erdoğan will accept him once he comes under domestic/international pressure.

Man who once wished that an explosion happen at a Muslim majority neighbourhood now says elections should be on a day when Muslims can’t vote. Replace Muslims with any other group and the guy will lose his job, wife and bank account in 24 hours.https://twitter.com/OzKaterji/status/1189971122462298113…

ISIS doesn’t need armies. Try can do with one or two mentally troubled Muslims who might see liberation in their message. And the entire global media is making sure ISIS’s message has the greatest reach. They do it because they are idiots but that is no excuse.

ISIS is 10 per cent an organisation and 90 per cent an image, a story. The ‘experts’, the media and the far right are all doing excellent job spreading the message of ISIS, introducing its leaders with the adjectives they falsely choose! Idiots.

‘Why don’t Muslims do something or Muslim leaders speak up’ question is meaningless for there is no formal & poweful entity which represents Muslim interest. While our reality is Sykes-Picot, our questions are as if a worldwide Muslim alliance existed. It doesn’t.

Nation states were designed to shrink the identity from a civilisation/ummah to artificial borders! There weren’t anything called Turkey, Saudi or Pakistan a century ago. Today, the borders of these countries & sense of belonging to them have replaced articles of faith.

Imagine being an Uyghur Muslim, forced into a concentration camp, forced pork and wine, prohibited from praying the way you have all your life, separated from your children and family and having no one, not a single Muslim leader around the world speaking up for you!

This is one of the threads that I wish all people with Islamic affinities be it Turks, Arabs or others would read. This is what good people like @IlhanMN might also need to see.https://twitter.com/DanaNawzar/status/1183324645107359744…

Baghdadi died by detonating himself while running from a dog. Assad is now being accepted again by all major local, regional and international players as the president of the ‘Syrian Arab Republic’. What does this convey?

It is been over a thousand years and we still don’t have an English expression which captures the meaning of كلمة حق يراد بها الباطل best. That unmatched wisdom from Imam Ali is so much needed nowadays.

Baghdadi killed 300 people in US and Europe while Assad massacred his people only. Assad says ‘long live Syria’ while Baghdadi shouted Allahu Akbar It has never been about how many you kill, it is always about who you kill, where and what you shouthttps://twitter.com/Elizrael/status/1189486655197143046…

That is not true. Erdogan doesn’t try to create a caliphate. He tries to maintain the territorial integrity of his own nation state by embracing nationalism and fighting the independence/autonomy dreams of Kurds. So he isn’t like Baghdadi but more like you pal Modi.https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/1189514657658232833…