Syrian journalists publish Arabic newspaper at border

A group of Syrian journalists and writers residing in Şanlıurfa recently began publishing an Arabic language newspaper to spread the voice of war refugees and circulate accurate and updated information. Five months ago, they decided to prepare a newspaper featuring news about culture, politics and literature. The 11-member team, including reporters, editors and writers, publish "Al-Harmal" once every two weeks. The newspaper takes its name from "peganum harmala" also known as "Syrian rue," a plant whose smell is believed to expel evil spirits when burned.

With the support of the Şanlıurfa Governorship and local journalists, the newspaper is sent to the Syrian Interim Government to explain the demands of refugees. Bessam Blibl, the editor-in-chief, spoke to Anadolu Agency and said the newspaper intends to mention the views and requests of Syrians taking shelter in Turkey in an appropriate way. According to Blibl, Syrian journalists have refrained from exercising their profession for years due to continuous conflicts. "The motto of our newspaper is 'Always Freedom.' We are living away from our homeland and aim to present the developments in Syria and around the world," Blibl said. Consisting of 16 pages, Al-Hamal released its third issue and is making significant progress. Certain Turkish authors and journalists write for the newspaper, too. "Turkey and Syria are sister countries. I thank all who supported us," he said.

The newspaper team is planning to publish it in Armenian, Kurdish and Turkish in the coming months. One of its writers, Ibrahim Alalwash, said after studying civil engineering in Syria, he changed his mind about his future career path and began writing novels and stories as well as started working as editor for local newspapers. He expressed his happiness to start writing again and said he mostly writes features for the culture page. Alalwash said he mainly reads Orhan Pamuk and Nazım Hikmet, but emphasized, "We need to read more Turkish authors. Turkish culture is similar to ours and we learn from each other. What we want to create is cultural dialogue. I hope we can work on a joint project with Turkey when Syria regains its freedom."