<
https://theconversation.com/my-home-city-was-destroyed-by-war-but-i-will-not-lose-hope-how-modern-warfare-turns-neighbourhoods-into-battlefields-211627>
"It has been almost 12 years since I left my city. And I have never been able
to return. Homs, the place I was born and grew up, has been destroyed and I,
like many others, have been left in exile: left to remember how beautiful it
once was. What can a person do when their home – that place within them that
carries so much meaning – has effectively been murdered?
I have spent my academic career studying the impact of war on architecture and
cities and researching acts of deliberate destruction of home, termed by
scholars as domicide. Domus is the Latin word for home and domicide refers to
the deliberate destruction of home – the killing of it. I have investigated how
architecture, both at the time of war and peace, has been weaponised; wilfully
targeted, bombed, burnt and contested. It has led me to publishing my first
book,
Domicide: Architecture, War, and the Destruction of Home in Syria.
From the burning of housing, land and property ownership documents, to the
destruction of homes and cultural heritage sites, the brutal destruction in
Homs, and other cities in Syria, has not only erased our material culture but
also forcibly displaced millions.
Today, over 12 million people have been displaced from their homes within
Syria, and beyond in countries such as Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Germany and
Egypt. This destruction has been “justified” by the Syrian government and its
allies, who claim these ordinary neighbourhoods are in fact “battlefields” in
what they call a “war on terror and on terrorists”.
In March 2011, peaceful protests against the government began to grow. The
protests evolved into a violent insurgency when the government responded with
force. Syrians were protesting over issues like oppression and a lack of
political freedom.
Amid the brutal crackdown, there were soldiers from the Syrian army who
switched sides and formed the breakaway Free Syrian Army to support the
revolution. Throughout the years, more armed and rebel groups emerged. But
powerful allies also came to the government aid, such as Russia and Iran. This
has led the country into war. To date, more than half million people have been
killed.
The government destroyed and bombed rebel held areas as well as issuing new
urban planning laws to carry out further devastation without the need for a
military justification. The new planning decrees led to the erasure of entire
neighbourhoods which were largely populated by people who opposed the
government. These sites were labelled as “illegal” or “built without
permission”. These wanton acts of destruction were carried out to punish
opponents of the government."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
