Archaeological discoveries confirm Arab Gulf region’s long history of religious coexistence

Archaeological discoveries confirm Arab Gulf region’s long history of religious coexistence
The discovery of an ancient Christian monastic site on Siniyah Island, off the coast of Umm Al-Quwain in the UAE, paints a picture of a thriving community. (Reuters)
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Updated 13 December 2022

Archaeological discoveries confirm Arab Gulf region’s long history of religious coexistence

Archaeological discoveries confirm Arab Gulf region’s long history of religious coexistence
  • First evidence of Christian occupation — fragments of plaster crosses — was unearthed in 1994 off Abu Dhabi coast
  • There is enough evidence testifying to Christianity’s existence along Gulf shores from at least the 4th century AD

LONDON: One day, in late February 1986, a young man from Jubail in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province decided to put his new 4WD through its paces on the sand dunes west of the coastal city. Before very long, however, he made two startling discoveries.

The first was that neither he nor his new car were well suited to dune-bashing, as both man and machine soon found themselves stuck fast in the sand.

But then, in the words of a paper published in the journal “Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy” in 1994, “in the process of digging out, (he) discovered he was on top of a wall which disappeared down into the sand.”

Although the young man had no idea what he had found, he realized it must have been very old. Having freed his vehicle and returned to Jubail, he alerted the authorities about his discovery.

What he had stumbled on, it would later transpire, was the remains of a Christian church, long buried beneath the drifting sands.

Archaeologists who later excavated the site would find an open, walled courtyard, about 20 meters long, with doorways leading onto three rooms.




Although Christianity began to wane as Islam rose, Christians were not seen as outsiders at that time, for the simple reason “they were family.” (Department of Archaeology and Tourism Umm al-Quwain)

The central room, at the eastern end of the structure, was determined to be the sanctuary, where the altar would have stood. The room to the north was where the bread and wine for the Christian ritual of the Eucharist would have been assembled. To the south was the sacristy, where the sacred vessels and the priest’s robes were kept.

All the walls were covered in gypsum plaster, in which there were clear impressions of four crosses, the distinctive symbol of Christianity, each about 30 cm tall.

Several stone columns remained intact, as did a pair of decorative plaster friezes, featuring a pattern of flowers linked by vine motifs.

This, it turned out, was not just any church. Dated by archaeologists to the 4th century AD, it predated the coming of Islam by about 300 years, and proved to be among the oldest known Christian churches in the world.

The discovery was just one small piece in a historical jigsaw puzzle which has since been all but completed, assembling a picture of a time when two faiths, Islam and Christianity, coexisted along the shores of the Arabian Gulf.

Now, 36 years after that young Saudi’s discovery, another major piece has been added to the puzzle with the excavation of a Christian monastery on Siniyah Island, just off the coast of Umm Al-Quwain in the UAE.

Using pottery and carbon dating of organic remains found in the foundations of the complex, the monastery has been dated to between 534 and 656 AD, a period that spans the lifetime of Prophet Muhammad, who was born around the year 570 and died in 632.

The site appears to have been abandoned during the 8th century — not as a result of a clash between the two faiths, but because of an internal conflict within Islam, archaeologists believe.

“Eventually the walls collapsed, and the windblown sands moved over them, leaving low mounds with building debris, and pottery, glass and coins, which were visible on the surface,” said Tim Power, associate professor of archaeology at the UAE University in Al-Ain and co-director of the Siniyah Island Archaeology Project.




The site where the Christian altar once stood against the rear wall of the Siniyah Island building’s sanctuary. (Siniyah Island Archaelogy Project)

“But there is absolutely no evidence of destruction, or of deliberate damage to the site. We even have the stem of the glass chalice that was being used to deliver the Eucharist, in its original place, and the bowl that was used for mixing the Eucharist wine, also in situ.

“It really does feel like they just got up one day and walked away.”

Power believes the site was abandoned not because of religious differences, “but because of the Abbasid invasion of 750 AD, which fits with our ceramic dating and radio-carbon dating for the abandonment.”

In 750 AD, the Abbasid caliphate, based in Mesopotamia, overthrew the Umayyads. “We know from the Arabic historical sources that the Abbasid invasion was very violent, and the coastal towns of the emirates were destroyed,” he said.

“So I think these people fled in terror at the prospect of the invasion by the imperial authorities in Iraq, which were trying to maintain control of their restive provinces. It was a conflict between two different groups of Muslims.”

The existence of the monastery right up until this moment in the mid-8th century, more than a hundred years after the death of Prophet Muhammad, is evidence that “there was clearly a degree of intercommunal, interfaith tolerance at the local level.”

Power says it is a common mistake to assume that the Christians of the Gulf at the time of the rise of Islam were outsiders.

“It is worth remembering that Christianity is a Middle Eastern religion. Jesus Christ spoke Aramaic, which was the language of the Middle East at the time of the Arab conquests. These churches and monasteries were most likely not built by foreigners visiting these shores, but built by and for the local Christian Arab community.

“There is a great deal of historical and inscriptional evidence which tells us that probably the majority of the Arabian Peninsula until the rise of Islam was Christianized.”




Power says it is a common mistake to assume that the Christians of the Gulf at the time of the rise of Islam were outsiders. (Department of Archaeology and Tourism Umm al-Quwain)

And although Christianity began to wane as Islam rose, Christians were not seen as outsiders at that time, for the simple reason “they were family.”

“Over the course of several generations Christian Arabs started to convert to Islam. But as a Muslim you might have a cousin, say, who’s a Christian and, as they are still today, these were very strongly kinship communities.

“Membership of a tribe was probably the crucial piece of your identity, and religious affiliation almost secondary.”

This is the second discovery of a Christian monastery in the UAE. In 1992, the newly formed Abu Dhabi Islands Archaeological Survey, founded by the UAE’s then-president, Sheikh Zayed, began investigations on three islands.

On one of them, Sir Bani Yas, just 7 km off the coast in the Western Region of Abu Dhabi, they quickly found some tantalizing clues — the remains of several courtyard houses and fragments of pottery dated to between the 6th and 7th centuries AD.

The first evidence of Christian occupation was unearthed in 1994 — fragments of plaster crosses that bore a striking resemblance to others that had been found previously at several locations in the Gulf.

Over the next two seasons, as the survey reported in a paper published in 1997, “a very large, complex structure emerged ... which now proves to be a monastery, with a church standing in its center within a courtyard.”

There is now a wealth of evidence, both textual and archaeological, testifying to the existence of Christianity in the Gulf from at least the 4th century AD until the first couple of centuries of Islam.

According to sources written in Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic spoken by Christian communities in the Middle East from about the 1st to the 8th century AD, the Church of the East, which was also known as the Nestorian Church, thrived in a region known as Beth Qatraye.




A frieze from a Christian monastery on Sir Bani Yas. (DCT Abu Dhabi)

According to the Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage, published by the Syriac Institute, which exists to promote the study and preservation of the Syriac heritage and language, Beth Qatraye, “land of the Qataris,” included “not only the peninsula of Qaṭar, but also its hinterland Yamama” — today a historic region within Saudi Arabia — “and the entire coast of northeast Arabia as far as the peninsula of Musandam, in present-day Oman, along with the islands” of the Gulf.

References to Beth Qaṭraye are found in a number of Christian documents written in the years leading up to the emergence of Islam. The earliest comes from the “Chronicle of Arbela,” written in Syriac and supposedly composed between 551 and 569 AD by a monk from what is now Irbil, in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.

The chronicle refers to the existence of several Christian dioceses in the Gulf, and specifically in the area of Beth Qatraye, dating back as far as 225 AD.

First “rediscovered” in 1907, the chronicle has fallen in and out of favor with ecclesiastical historians. But although its authenticity has been challenged, many of its details appear to have been confirmed by subsequent archaeological discoveries in the Gulf.

There is, however, no doubt among scholars about the authenticity of preserved church correspondence that shows Christianity was established in Beth Qaṭraye by at least the 4th century.

Ishoyahb III, Patriarch of the Church of the East from 649 to 659, left a wealth of letters for historians to pore over, including five sent from his base in Adiabene in northern Mesopotamia to the clergy and faithful of Beth Qatraye.

Another valued source that mentions the region of Beth Qatraye is the “Book of Governors,” a monastic history written in the mid-9th century by Thomas, a bishop of Marga, an east Syriac diocese in the metropolitan province of Adiabene, a province of the Sasanian Empire in Mesopotamia.




Archaeologists who later excavated the site would find an open, walled courtyard, about 20 meters long, with doorways leading onto three rooms. (Supplied)

There is also an abundance of archaeological evidence of a Christian presence in the Gulf. The first clues were found in 1931 at Hira, an ancient city in south-central Iraq, which in about the 3rd century AD became the capital of the Lakhmids, a Christian tribe originally from Yemen.

In 1960, the French archaeologist Roman Ghirshman excavated a 7th-century Christian monastery on Iran’s Kharg Island, and in 1988 a church was discovered at Al-Qusur on Failaka Island, Kuwait.

Shortly before the church at Jubayl was discovered, three Christian crosses were found nearby at Jabal Berri, a rock outcrop about 10 km southwest of the city, some 7 km inland from the coast. Two were made of bronze, and the third, just 5 cm tall, was carved from a single piece of mother of pearl.

Ecclesiastical and Arabic records not only point to considerable Christian activity in areas that are now part of Saudi Arabia, but also demonstrate that “far from undergoing a decline, Christianity flourished in the Gulf immediately after the Muslim conquest,” as Robert Carter, professor of Arabian and Middle Eastern archaeology at UCL Qatar, wrote in the 2013 book, “Les preludes de l’Islam.”

Indeed, there was “a burst of Christian activity from the late 7th and/or 8th century, extending into the early 9th century at Kharg.”

One of the sites where Christianity flourished was on the island of Tarut, just off the modern-day governorate of Qatif in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province. It was here in 635 AD that Muslim forces put an end to the “ridda,” the apostasy movement in the eastern region, in a final battle that was fought at Darin on the island.

However, “the Muslim conquest did not put an end to the Nestorian community here,” as Daniel Potts, professor of ancient Near Eastern archaeology and history at New York University’s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, wrote in a paper published in the journal “Expedition” in 1984.

There are records of a major synod, or church council, having taken place on the island more than 40 years later, in 676.

This was a significant gathering, as it was at this synod that the Christian practice of marriage in a church was first established, when George I, the chief bishop of the Church of the East, issued a ruling that henceforth only those unions blessed by a priest would be regarded as legitimate.




“There is absolutely no evidence of destruction or of deliberate damage to the Siniyah Island site,” Tim Power, associate professor of archaeology, UAE University, Al-Ain. (Supplied)

In mid-November this year, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced that up to SR2.64 billion ($703 million) had been allocated for the development of the island of Tarut, which today is home to 120,000 people, to preserve its heritage and enhance its potential as a tourism destination.

Tarut was not the only Christian site in what is now Saudi Arabia. Other centers or churches mentioned in Syrian texts included “Hagar” and “Juwatha,” both believed to have been located somewhere in Al-Hasa oasis, and at nearby Al-Qatif and Abu Ali Island, just north of Jubail.

Eventually, all these Christians sites, from Jubail in Saudi Arabia to Umm Al-Quwain in the UAE, disappeared from history. According to John Langfeldt, an American priest and historian who wrote the first paper about the church in Jubail after visiting the site in 1993, they did so as part of a peaceful process of assimilation.

“There was no forced conversion of the populace to Islam (and) Christianity remained the primary religious allegiance of the vast majority of the population,” Langfeldt wrote in a paper published in the journal “Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy in 1994.”

“Gradually, over several centuries, probably due to several factors — such as the burden of ... tax, isolation from outside Christian contact, convenience, some fine qualities of Islam, and the excellent witness of its adherents — almost all of the population was Islamized.”


Blinken says US considering actions against Sudan leaders

Blinken says US considering actions against Sudan leaders
Updated 01 June 2023

Blinken says US considering actions against Sudan leaders

Blinken says US considering actions against Sudan leaders
  • Blinken did not spell out what actions Washington could take or whether it would personally target the heads of the army and the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces
  • He said the US would remain engaged and stopped short of blaming one side for violating the truce, after the army announced its withdrawal on Wednesday

OSLO: Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Thursday that the United States could take action against rival Sudanese leaders after the collapse of a US-brokered truce.
The United States is “looking at steps that we can take to make clear our views on any leaders who are moving Sudan in the wrong direction, including by perpetuating the violence and by violating cease-fires that they’ve actually committed to,” Blinken told reporters.
Blinken did not spell out what actions Washington could take or whether it would personally target the heads of the army and the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces or take a broader approach.
Blinken, who was in Oslo for NATO talks, said the United States would remain engaged and stopped short of blaming one side for violating the truce, after the army announced its withdrawal on Wednesday.
Blinken acknowledged wide violations of a series of cease-fires brokered by the United States and Saudi Arabia between the army and the Rapid Support Forces.
“We did see the provision of humanitarian assistance going forward. But it has been incredibly imperfect and incredibly fragile,” Blinken said.
“Now we’re seeing actions — again, by both sides — in clear violation of the commitments they made,” he said.
A number of US lawmakers and activists have criticized President Joe Biden’s administration for not taking earlier action, including sanctions, against army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and paramilitary commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.
US diplomats have argued that it was more useful to preserve relationships to negotiate between them.


18 dead in attack on Khartoum market after army abandons talks

18 dead in attack on Khartoum market after army abandons talks
Updated 01 June 2023

18 dead in attack on Khartoum market after army abandons talks

18 dead in attack on Khartoum market after army abandons talks
  • Khartoum and other parts of the country gripped by warfare between the army and the paramilitary forces
  • The army on Wednesday blasted RSF bases in Khartoum after pulling out of the talks

KHARTOUM: Shelling and aerial bombardments killed 18 civilians at a market in the capital of Sudan where fighting showed no signs of abating Thursday after the army abandoned truce talks.
For more than six weeks, Khartoum and other parts of the country have been gripped by bloody warfare between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
The army on Wednesday blasted RSF bases in Khartoum after pulling out of the talks in the Saudi city of Jeddah, accusing its rival of violating a cease-fire that was meant to allow aid deliveries.
“Eighteen civilians were killed and 106 wounded” by army artillery fire and aerial bombardments Wednesday on a market in southern Khartoum, a committee of human rights lawyers said.
The toll was confirmed by a neighborhood group that organizes aid, which said the situation was “catastrophic” and appealed for help from doctors and for blood donations.
The United States said Thursday there had been “serious violations of the cease-fire by both sides” and warned it would only be ready to mediate between the warring parties when they get “serious.”
“Once the forces make clear by their actions that they are serious about complying with the cease-fire, the United States and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are prepared to resume facilitation of the suspended discussions to find a negotiated solution to this conflict,” a State Department spokesperson said.
In both north and south Khartoum on Wednesday, troops loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan attacked key bases of the RSF led by commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, residents said.
One witness said there was “heavy artillery fire from army camps” in the capital’s north.
Another reported “artillery blasts on the RSF camp in Al-Salha” in southern Khartoum — the largest paramilitary base and arsenal in the city.
The attacks came two days after US and Saudi mediators said the two sides had agreed to extend by five days the initial week-long humanitarian truce.
Mediators admitted the truce had been “imperfectly observed,” but said the extension would “permit further humanitarian efforts.”
The army walked out “because the rebels have never implemented a single one of the provisions of a short-term cease-fire which required their withdrawal from hospitals and residential buildings,” a Sudanese government official said.
Despite repeated pledges from both sides, fighting has flared this week both in greater Khartoum and in the western region of Darfur.
“The army is ready to fight until victory,” Burhan declared during a visit to troops in the capital.
The RSF said they would “exercise their right to defend themselves” and accused the army of violating the truce.
Since fighting erupted on April 15, more than 1,800 people have been killed, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.
The UN says 1.2 million people have been internally displaced and more than 425,000 have fled abroad.
Yaqout Abderrahim escaped Khartoum for Port Sudan, where she has been waiting 15 days for a rare seat on a flight out.
“We want to leave at any price because our houses are destroyed and we no longer have any means to raise our children,” she said.
More than half the population — 25 million people — are now in need of aid and protection, the UN says.
Entire districts of Khartoum no longer have running water, electricity is only available for a few hours a week, and three quarters of hospitals in combat zones are not functioning.
Hundreds have been killed in Darfur, on Sudan’s western border with Chad, the United Nations said.
Darfur has never recovered from the years-long war that began in 2003 when a rebel uprising led strongman Omar Al-Bashir to unleash the Janjaweed militia, from which the RSF are descended.
Experts say Burhan is facing increasing pressure from his own Islamist supporters and remnants of the Bashir regime, with whom he had built a symbiotic relationship in order to gain power.


UN chief rejects Sudan’s call to axe his envoy but ‘Security Council has final say over UNITAMS mission’

UN chief rejects Sudan’s call to axe his envoy but ‘Security Council has final say over UNITAMS mission’
Updated 01 June 2023

UN chief rejects Sudan’s call to axe his envoy but ‘Security Council has final say over UNITAMS mission’

UN chief rejects Sudan’s call to axe his envoy but ‘Security Council has final say over UNITAMS mission’
  • SG Guterres briefs council over ‘shock’ request at closed talks
  • Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan claims Volker Perthes is ‘partisan’

NEW YORK: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday rejected a request from Sudan’s military leader Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan to remove his office’s special envoy, but said the Security Council has the final say on the fate of the world body’s overarching mission in the conflict-ravaged nation.

Guterres’ remarks, outlining his “full confidence” in Volker Perthes, as special representative of the secretary-general, came after briefing a closed Security Council meeting. The UN chief had requested the meeting to discuss the situation in Sudan and Burhan’s letter seeking the removal of the allegedly “partisan” Perthes, who serves as the special representative for Sudan, and head of the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan, or UNITAMS.

This is only the fifth time during his mandate that Guterres has requested a meeting of the Security Council behind closed doors.

The closed Security Council meeting came days after the UN chief had received a letter from Burhan, Sudan’s military leader and chairperson of the Transitional Sovereign Council, asking for Perthes to be removed from his post.

Guterres told reporters in New York after the Security Council consultations: “In relation to the situation in Sudan, there are areas of responsibility of the Security Council and there are areas of responsibility of the secretary-general. 

“In my area of responsibility, I reaffirmed to the council my full confidence in Volker Perthes as special representative of the secretary-general. 

“It is up to the Security Council to decide whether the Security Council supports the continuation of the mission for another period or whether the Security Council decides that it is time to end it.”

Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said that Guterres was shocked by Burhan’s letter. He added that the secretary-general was proud of Perthes’ work in Sudan and backed him.

Burhan reportedly accused Perthes of “being partisan,” and claimed the envoy’s strategy in pre-war talks between the generals and the pro-democracy movement aggravated the conflict.

Last year, Burhan accused Perthes of “exceeding the UN mission’s mandate and blatant interference in Sudanese affairs.” He threatened to expel him from the country.

Perthes had earlier this month told the Security Council that the responsibility for the fighting “rests with those who are waging it daily: the leadership of the two sides who share accountability for choosing to settle their unresolved conflict on the battlefield rather than at the table.”

According to the UN, at least 730 people have been killed and 5,500 injured since the outbreak of hostilities last month. The actual toll could be much higher.

Clashes between Burhan’s forces and the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, a paramilitary group led by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo have continued across several parts of the country, including in the capital Khartoum, and in Zalingi, Central Darfur, Al-Fasher, North Darfur and Al-Obeid.

The internal displacement of Sudanese civilians and the influx of refugees into Sudan’s neighboring states have also been a source of concern for Security Council members. The International Organization for Migration has said that over 1.2 million people have so far been internally displaced since April 15 and about 370,000 have sought refuge in the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Sudan.

Dujarric said that IOM’s estimates “are based on preliminary reports from field teams while additional reports are likely to emerge as humanitarian access improves.”

That is while on Wednesday Sudan’s military announced that it would no longer engage in talks with the RSF that it accused of “repeated violations” of the humanitarian ceasefire, including their continued occupation of hospitals and other civilian infrastructure in the capital, Khartoum.

On May 20, both sides signed a ceasefire agreement as part of US-Saudi facilitated talks in Jeddah. It demanded a seven-day ceasefire to allow for the delivery of emergency humanitarian aid and the restoration of basic services. The warring parties agreed to protect civilians from violence and refrain from targeting civilian infrastructure or population centers and from acquiring military supplies, including from foreign sources.

In a joint statement issued on May 26, Saudi Arabia and the US said that the monitoring committee had observed significant breaches of the May 20 agreement, including the use of artillery, military aircraft, and drones in Khartoum, as well as clashes in the town of Zalingi in Darfur. Riyadh and Washington “cautioned the parties against further violations and implored them to improve respect for the ceasefire.”

So far, there have been seven declared ceasefires in the country, all of which have been violated. The two sides have accused each other of these violations.

In another joint statement Sunday, the US and Saudi Arabia called out both warring sides for specific breaches of the weeklong truce, saying the military continued to carry out airstrikes, while the RSF was still occupying people’s homes and seizing properties. Fuel, money, aid supplies and vehicles belonging to a humanitarian convoy were stolen, with theft occurring both in areas controlled by the military and by the RSF, the statement added.

A spokesman for Burhan said on Wednesday that by suspending participation in the talks with the RSF the military wants to ensure that the terms of a US-Saudi-brokered truce “be fully implemented” before discussing further steps. The RSF has for its part said it “unconditionally backs the Saudi-US initiative.”

Meanwhile members of the Security council are negotiating a draft resolution renewing UNITAMS’ mandate, first introduced in 2020, which is due to expire on June 3, amid diverging views on how to reflect the situation in the country.

Dujarric said that meanwhile “the mission continues to do its job the best it can, given the circumstances. We continue to have a political presence in Port Sudan. Mr. Perthes will make his way back to the region, I believe, in early next week.

He added: “I don’t think I want to say we’re getting great or good cooperation (from) both sides. We are able to deliver humanitarian goods in certain places when we can manage to talk to the men with guns and to ensure safe passage.

“(The) WFP (World Food Programme) has been able to resume food distribution in Khartoum. We’ve had a large number of trucks being able to move. But what we would like to see is a nationwide cessation of hostilities, so we don’t have to do a case-by-case negotiation for each convoy or each movement, which is time consuming and which is also risky.”


Turkiye’s Erdogan faces struggle to meet Syrian refugee promise

Turkiye’s Erdogan faces struggle to meet Syrian refugee promise
Updated 01 June 2023

Turkiye’s Erdogan faces struggle to meet Syrian refugee promise

Turkiye’s Erdogan faces struggle to meet Syrian refugee promise
  • Turkiye hosts 3.4 million Syrian refugees
  • Erdogan wants to send a million back as resentment grows

ANKARA: President Tayyip Erdogan played up his plans to repatriate a million Syrian refugees as he rode a wave of nationalism to his third decade in power, but he could struggle to make good on the promise as conflict lingers on in neighboring Syria.
Erdogan, long seen as an ally by Syrian opponents of President Bashar Assad, emphasised refugee repatriation during bitter campaigning for Sunday’s run-off against Kemal Kilicidaroglu, who took an even tougher stance on the issue.
The focus on refugee return ahead of the election caused alarm among the 3.4 million Syrians living in Turkiye, where resentment toward them is growing.
Many of the refugees came from parts of Syria that remain under Assad’s control and say they can never return to their towns and villages while he remains in power.
Under Erdogan’s plans, they would not have to. With Qatari help, he says Turkiye has been building new housing in rebel-held northwest Syria — a region where Ankara has troops on the ground whose presence has deterred Syrian government attacks.
The plans imply a redoubling of Turkiye’s commitment to the rebel-held area where it has been building influence for years, even as Assad demands a timetable for the withdrawal of Turkish troops as a condition for progress toward rebuilding ties.
With Turkish voters increasingly resentful of the refugees — Turkiye hosts more than any other country – Erdogan’s plans put the issue at the heart of his Syria policy, alongside concerns about Syrian Kurdish groups that have carved out enclaves at the border and are deemed a national security threat by Turkiye.
Erdogan has said he aims to ensure the return of one million refugees within a year to the opposition-held areas. His interior minister, Suleyman Soylu, last week attended the inauguration of a housing project meant to accommodate returning Syrians in the Syrian town of Jarablus.
“It is our duty to fulfil our citizens’expectations about this issue through ways and means that befit our country,” Erdogan said in his victory speech on Sunday, adding that nearly 600,000 Syrians had already returned voluntarily to safe areas.
But for many Syrians in Turkiye, the prospect is unappealing.
“I would like to go back to Syria but not to Jarablus ... I would like to go back home, to Latakia,” said a Syrian who gave his name as Ahmed, a 28-year-old student at Ankara University, referring to a government-held region on the Mediterranean.
“I would like to go back, but if Assad stays, I can’t due to security concerns.”
Controlled by an array of armed groups, much of the northwest also suffers from lawlessness.
“Conditions in northern Syria remain so bad and unstable that large-scale return will be difficult to arrange, despite all these reports about Turkiye and Qatar building housing and infrastructure,” said Aron Lund, a Syria expert with Century International, a think tank.
“It seems like a drop in the ocean and the overall economic situation keeps deteriorating.”
Driven partly by its goal of securing refugee returns, Turkiye has changed diplomatic course on Syria, following other regional governments by reopening channels to Assad, who Erdogan once called a “butcher”.
But the rapprochement is moving more slowly than the thaw between Assad and his former Arab foes, reflecting Turkiye’s much deeper role in a country where Russia, Iran and the United States also have forces on the ground.
Analysts think Ankara will not agree easily to Assad’s demand for a withdrawal timetable, noting that any sign of Turkish forces leaving would prompt more Syrians to try to flee for Turkiye, fearing a return of Assad’s rule to the northwest.
“Turkiye is highly unlikely to compromise on troop withdrawal, which likely means hundreds of thousands of refugees heading their way if and when they leave Idlib,” said Dareen Khalifa of International Crisis Group, a think-tank.
Many Syrians in Turkiye were relieved at Kilicidaroglu’s defeat. During his campaign, he said he would discuss plans for refugee returns with Assad after reinstating relations, and that returns would be completed in two years but would not be forced.
He sharpened his tone after trailing Erdogan in the first round, vowing to send all migrants back to their countries.
Ibrahim Kalin, Erdogan’s chief foreign policy adviser, said on Monday that Turkiye wanted a safe, dignified and voluntary return.
International refugee law stipulates that all returns must be voluntary.
“We’re making plans to secure the return of one or 1.5 million Syrians in the first place,” Kalin told a local broadcaster.
Samir Alabdullah of the Harmoon Center for Contemporary Studies in Istanbul, a non-profit research institution, said he did not expect much to change now the election battle is over.
“Syrians are relieved after Erdogan’s victory ... There is nothing wrong with voluntary return. We do not expect policy change on migration,” he said.


Gaza Strip’s Palestinians polarized by unorthodox watermelon delicacy

Gaza Strip’s Palestinians polarized by unorthodox watermelon delicacy
Updated 01 June 2023

Gaza Strip’s Palestinians polarized by unorthodox watermelon delicacy

Gaza Strip’s Palestinians polarized by unorthodox watermelon delicacy
  • The dish originated more than 100 years ago with Bedouin Arab tribes in the neighboring Sinai desert in Egypt
  • Lasima is available just two months a year, it is made with melons that are picked when they are small and not yet ripe

KHUZAA: Locals call it “watermelon salad.” But this delicacy popular in the southern Gaza Strip at this time of year is far from the sweet, refreshing taste the name evokes.
“Lasima,” “Ajar,” or “Qursa” are different names for the hot, savory meal that takes hours to prepare. There’s watermelon inside, but one can hardly taste it.
In a territory that prides itself on its culinary traditions, Lasima is surprisingly divisive. Residents in southern Gaza love the dish. Just a few kilometers (miles) to the north, people shun it as unclean, due to its hands-on preparation.
Lasima is available just two months a year. It is made with melons that are picked when they are small and not yet ripe. They are roasted on a fire and peeled, and the soft flesh is mixed with roasted eggplants and thinly sliced tomatoes, lemon, garlic, onion and olive oil. Then it is eaten with a special dough baked in the ashes of the fire.

The name “Ajar,” or “unripe” in Arabic, refers to the baby melons. “Qursa” is the word for the thick dough. “Lasima,” which means “messy,” refers to the sloppy meal served in a large clay bowl.
Many say the dish originated more than 100 years ago with Bedouin Arab tribes in the neighboring Sinai desert in Egypt.
Others claim it’s a traditional Palestinian food. There is little evidence to support this claim, however. The food is popular only in southern Gaza, near the Sinai border. Farther north, the meal is barely known.
Amona Abu Rjila, 70, of Khuzaa, says it’s a little of each. She says she remembers her parents and grandfathers making it outdoors in the watermelon season. “It’s a traditional Palestinian dish with Bedouin roots,” she said.
Farther north, few would agree with her. Those familiar with the dish object to its preparation, with the ingredients typically mushed together with bare hands, as unclean.
On a recent day, a group of friends gathered in a yard adjacent to Israel’s frontier with Gaza. They diced the vegetables and roasted the ingredients in a fire. When the flames faded and the vegetables were charred, the thick dough was buried in the ash.
Abdelkarim Al-Satari, 33, a jobless accountant, started mixing the Lasima. He shredded the dough and put all the ingredients in the large bowl, squeezing everything with his fist. Wary of the onlookers, he put on black cooking gloves.
“In every season, people call me to make Lasima for them about 20 times,” he said.


To challenge the dish’s negative image, social media content creator Mohammed Aborjela brought the meal in smaller clay pots and offered samples to random passers-by in Gaza City.
Most of the respondents in a nearly two-minute video said they’d never heard of it, but all who tried it liked it.
The video attracted over 1,000 comments — many of them baffled northerners who were intrigued about the taste but turned off by the preparation methods.
“The way it’s made, especially by some men, is not appealing for the eyes,” said Nada Azzam, a Gaza City woman.
She said she has never tried Lasima. But after watching a video of women making it with “clean cooking means,” she vowed to give it a taste.