Abstract
World War One (WWI) represents a watershed in the history of the Middle East (Mashreq) due to dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Syria territories of the Levant, was home to Arabs, Turks, Kurds, Armenian, Jews, Muslims and other ethno-religious communities that coexisted. The Ottoman Empire as an ally of the German alliance in WWI, and the particularly brutal rule of Jamal Pasha’, determined deterioration in socio-economic conditions in the Mashreq with tremendous suffering for local populations. War experiences varied across gender, class and sectarian affiliation. But it was a major traumatic event in the memory of survivors from the Syrian province that heralded a new phase of European imperial dominion under the French mandate system (1920/22–1945). With the rise in nationalist ideology, collective memory of WWI came to be a powerful catalyst for the patriotic conscience among the masses and eventual Syrian independence in 1945. In light of political changes in the Mashreq landscape and suffering of indigenous people caused by WWI, Martyrs’ Day became an event in the heritage of Syria from the post-Ottoman and French periods through to the post-independence and Assad eras. The meaning that has been assigned by the Assad regime to Martyrs’ Day throughout the recent war (2011 on) is appraised in this chapter. The main research sources supporting these findings are a collection of articles published in prominent Syrian online magazines and newspapers in English and Arabic, and excerpts from the speeches of president Bashar Al-Assad on the notions of martyrs and martyrdom from 2011 onwards.
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Notes
- 1.
For an in-depth analysis of the socio-political, institutional and territorial structures that helped the Ottomans manage an ethnically and religiously diverse society see Barkey (2008), particularly chapter 4.
- 2.
Batatu (1999: 279–283) contends that Hafez Al-Assad’s actual attitude and efforts towards the definition of a unitary political project for the Arab countries did not appear to be always in line with his ostensible championing of pan-Arabism.
- 3.
During my trips to Syria between 2003 and 2010, when visiting various governmental buildings to sort out my residency permit, I frequently came across maps of the country depicting a geography of the territory that had remained crystallized in time since the end of the Ottoman period, standing completely oblivious to the changes that Syrian borders had undergone over several decades.
- 4.
A short biography for each of these nationalists can be found in an article by Hamda Mustafa (2016) ‘Martyrs of May 6th 1916′, The Syria Times, 6 May. Available at this address: https://syriatimes.sy/index.php/news/local/23741-martyrs-of-may-6th-1916 (Accessed 5 November 2019).
- 5.
The Alawites are the sectarian group of the ruling Assad family.
- 6.
During the first few years of the conflict, for example, announcements of soldiers’ deaths and funeral processions among the Druze community of Sweida “transmuted into loyalist demonstrations” with pictures of Bashar Al-Assad and tributes from high representatives of the army and the Ba’ath party (Stolleis 2015: 63).
- 7.
Al-Abjadiyya (2012a).
- 8.
Global Research (2012).
- 9.
Steele (2013).
- 10.
SANA (2017).
- 11.
Khaddour (2014) ‘Tartus in the Present Crisis: A Mirror of the Syrian Regime’, Jadaliyya, 13 April. Available at: https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/30529 (accessed 01 November 2019). Tartous has been dubbed ‘The mother of Martyrs’ after a Sculpture Forum was established to document the ongoing conflict. See Said (2015) ‘First Sculpture Forum featuring martyrdom opens in Tartous with 25 participants’, SANA, 4 September. Available at: https://sana.sy/en/?p=53631 (Accessed 01 November 2019).
- 12.
Al-Abjadiyya (2012b).
- 13.
SANA (2016a).
- 14.
For example, in Homs, a city retaken by the regime following a siege that starved the population to the extreme in 2013, a Syrian-map-shaped memorial was unveiled in the Martyrs’ Cemetery in 2015. SANA reported this event as being the culmination of a ‘cleaning and decorating’ campaign in the cemetery aiming at “honouring the souls of the martyrs who died while defending the homeland”. Source: SANA (2015) ‘A Syrian map memorial built in the Martyr’s Cemetery in Homs’. 17 July. Available at: https://sana.sy/en/?p=48668 (Accessed 30 October 2019). Also, some of the events that took place in 2016 to commemorate the loss of heroic fighters for the homeland included the naming of schools after martyrs, visits of official figures to the families of martyrs and to cemeteries where wreathes were laid on martyrs’ tombs. See SANA (2016b) ‘Martyrs’ Day marked, Syrians will be victorious over terrorism’. 06 May. Available at: https://sana.sy/en/?p=76575 (Accessed 30 October 2019).
- 15.
The term Takfir is a controversial concept in Islamic theology that generally refers to a ‘non-believer’ or someone that has been excommunicated by another member of the Muslim community. Islamic jihadists have appealed to the doctrine of takfirism to justify their targeting and killing of Muslim individuals and communities whose religious beliefs and practices are not deemed sufficiently aligned with their vision of Islam.
- 16.
Henri Gouraud was a French general mandated to lead the French forces in Syria and Lebanon, and represent his government in the region between 1919 and 1923.
- 17.
K. Q. (2014).
- 18.
See the ‘About us’ page of The Syria Times newspaper at https://syriatimes.sy/index.php/about-us (Accessed 10 November 2019).
- 19.
In an article that appeared in The Syria Times on the 51st birthday of Bashar Al-Assad, Dr. Mohammad Abdo Al-Ibrahim praised the president and affirmed “To imagine Syria without such a wise brave president, which is what US, Israel and the ewes wasted in vain treasures to achieve, is to have a life without air, water, light, knowledge and without any humanity”. Al-Ibrahim, M. A. (2016) ‘Happy Birthday, Mr. President’. The Syria Times, 11 September. Available at: https://syriatimes.sy/index.php/editorials/commentary/26213-happy-birthday-mr-president (Accessed 28 October 2019).
- 20.
Al-Ibrahim (2015).
- 21.
Available at: https://syriatimes.sy/index.php/analyses-and-studies/17813-martyrs-sacrifices-inexhaustible-source-of-inspiration-in-the-battle-against-terrorism (Accessed 08 November 2019).
- 22.
K. Q. (2015).
- 23.
Mustafa (2016).
- 24.
In June 2014, ISIS fighters removed the marks delimitating the border between Iraq and Syria in a symbolic act of rejection of the Sykes-Picot agreement. See Black, I. (2014) ‘Isis breach of Iraq-Syria border merges two wars into one ‘nightmarish reality’, The Guardian, 18 June. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/18/isis-iraq-syria-two-wars-one-nightmare (Accessed 03 November 2019).
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Gissi, A. (2020). Syria: Memorializing Past and Present ‘Martyrs’ Under Fire. In: O'Reilly, G. (eds) Places of Memory and Legacies in an Age of Insecurities and Globalization. Key Challenges in Geography. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60982-5_14
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