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"I have to admit: I think I have a double personality. When I am in the company of artists and novelists, I forget about politics and politicians, and as soon as I take up a political activity, I forget the intellectuals and novelists. When I go to a concert or see a new play, I forget everything else."
Syria Presidential Elections: While The Regime Calls Them The Mother Of All Campaigns And Falsely Presents Them As Democratic, The Political Opposition Calls Them A Farce And The Armed Opposition Threatens To Target Voters
May 25, 2021 | By O. Peri
Introduction
Syria s presidential elections, held every seven years, will take place on May 26, 2021.[1] The upcoming elections are based on the constitution passed by the Syrian regime in 2012, which is the first Syrian constitution to allow presidential elections with multiple candidates.[2] Two candidates are running against the incumbent president Bashar Al-Assad. One is Abdullah Salloum Abdullah, a former minister, member of the Socialist Unionist Party, which holds only two seats in the present parliament. This party is a constituent of the Progressive National Front, a parliamentary bloc led by the ruling Ba th Party, which has announced its support for Assad in the present elections. The other candidate is Mahmoud Ahmed Me
Expected Saudi-Turkish reconciliation, any implications for Syria?
Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, with the Saudi Foreign Minister, Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud (Anadolu Agency)
Enab Baladi – Jana Alisa
The Syria issue has often been a point of disagreement or reconciliation on the table of negotiations between influential actors. Recently, several questions have been raised about the expected Turkish-Saudi reconciliation and its implications for Syria on various levels, notably militarization since the two countries support different Syrian military groups.
After four years of severed Turkish-Saudi ties, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, on 10 May, paid a two-day visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Turkish authorities arrest six former Syrian regime affiliates in Mersin
People smuggler Karam Yahya sitting with Syrian regime extreme loyalists (shabiha) in the Turkish city of Mersin (Karam Yahya’s Facebook account - edited by Enab Baladi)
Sources from the raided neighborhood told
Enab Baladi that elements of the Turkish Intelligence stormed the house of human smuggler Karam Yahya and arrested him, along with five people who used to work for the Syrian regime. One of those arrested was a former member of an Iranian militia in Syria.
Among the arrested are Abd Dahman, Ali al-Saleh, Na’eem Slaibe, and Abd Ghali. These people were known to be former members of the al-Salama family militias in the eastern countryside of Hama province.