"At first, the city, which is near the Turkish border and has two hundred thousand residents, revelled in its liberation. Dozens of newspapers and magazines were launched, and for the first time in forty years people formed organizations without securing approval from the state. But, before a year was up, freedom had begun to feel like chaos."
"The new city government, controlled largely by business owners and other élites, seemed oblivious to the problems of the poor. The price of bread soared as bakery owners-no longer subject to price controls imposed by the regime-shamelessly profiteered. Rents doubled, then tripled, as more and more displaced Syrians crowded the city."
"What good were 'international human rights' when you were afraid to send your daughter to school because of kidnappings? What good was a republic that couldn't provide law and order? Amid all this instability, a new group insinuated its way into Manbij: the Islamic State."
Manbij, a Syrian city near the Turkish border with two hundred thousand residents, became one of the first to escape Assad's control in 2012. Initial liberation brought democratic freedoms, including new media outlets and civil organizations. However, within a year, the city descended into chaos. An elite-controlled government ignored the poor, bakery owners profiteered on bread prices without state controls, rents skyrocketed as displaced Syrians arrived, and crime surged dramatically. Citizens questioned whether revolution had achieved anything when basic security and services disappeared. This instability and lawlessness created an opening for the Islamic State to establish itself in the city.
Read at The New Yorker
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]