After 3 years of research and drafting my thesis, I finally received a master degree from the University of Tokyo, majoring in Genocide Studies. My 184-page treatise in Japanese, “A Study on the Mechanism of Genocide within the Broader Concept: The Case for Acts of Extermination against Civilians in the Syrian Revolution” is a dedication for all Syrians who believe in freedom, justice, and dignity.
Now, I became a so-called “expert” on Syria’s torture system and its mechanism... this is the happiest and saddest moment of my life. I would like to take this opportunity to express my feeling after spending 3 years in this horrific field of research. What it has given me is extreme pain but also a tremendous amount of hope and dignity. This is a long post; nevertheless, I hope each one of you will read it through.
The person in the photograph I am holding is named Ayham Ghazzoul. He would turn 33 years old last April. Moreover, it has been 7 years since the world has lost him. He was perished under the systematic torture by the Assad regime when he was 25 years old. It was a brutal, inhumane, and unimaginable murder. He stood up to demand freedom, justice, and dignity as numerous Syrians did so in 2011; he defended human rights and opposed the authoritarian regime. Yes, the reason he was tortured to death is simply he followed his sense of humanity. On November 15th 2012, he was captured at the Damascus University, tortured with barbaric tools and electricity for over 4 hours straight, dragged to one of the regime’s thousands of dungeons, left to die in a dark prison’s cell while suffering from the pain. His corpse is still under the control of the perpetrators, the Assad regime. This is the country called Syria, where these crimes happened to over 200,000 people and repeated until this moment.
Ayham was doing his specialisation training as a dentist at the Damascus University, at the same time he was an active member of Syria’s human rights and media organisation, SCM. He was beloved by everyone; his students he was mentoring, his colleagues, and his family. He was the youngest son in the family and he was always kind, funny, handsome, and was the joy for the family as his mother Mariam explained to me. He truly loved the beauty of the Syrian revolution and its motto of freedom. Ayham’s face brightens every time he would return home from the demonstrations. Ayham’s case is one of just 8 cases I included in my dissertation giving a glimpse of the human behind the horrific massacre. This makes my study different and unique from many other human rights reports on Ayham’s case. Also, this makes my thesis very controversial. I received many criticisms from professors that I am biased as academia. However, there is no disappointment for me. Because I am a human before an academic. From the beginning, I wanted this investigation to shed light on the “human side” of what is going on in Syria, not only analysing the data. Probably I am a “bad academic”. Yet, righty and proudly, I do not consider my thesis just as research. This is a resistance against the world’s most heinous criminals, ongoing impunity, and the demise of our humanity.
In Japan, there is almost no recognition of the torture in Syria. It is the first time that the explanation and analysis; furthermore, the 8 personal accounts and detailed memoir of Syria’s torture and prisons have conveyed to Japan.
I was always considering these torture-related incidents in Syria as an act of extermination. The thesis aims to disclose the mechanism of the acts of extermination carried out by the Syrian regime within the scope of Genocide Studies. Within this spectrum, my research questions the following: who is the targeted group and how the violence is carried out? The question is answered through testimonies of victims’ families, as well as seven former detainees which I had collected from August 2018 to October 2019. The thesis concluded that the acts of violence targeted civilians who had sympathy for the revolution (I refer to them as “Revolution Sympathisers”). This also includes those who “seemed” like they have compassion, resulting in a “Genocide within the Broader Concept”. The “Broad Type of Genocide” is referred to as genocide wider than the concept defined by international law, focused on the arbitrariness of the perpetrators.
Using this theory and framework, I concluded what happened and still happens in Syria; the regime’s imprisonment of “Revolution Sympathisers” is not just mass human rights violations. It is not routine violence in warzones but intentional and systematic extermination to an industrial level through a clear chain of command. It is Genocide. Hence, my analysis obviously challenges the current international law and its limitation.
You can continue reading this
Now, I became a so-called “expert” on Syria’s torture system and its mechanism... this is the happiest and saddest moment of my life. I would like to take this opportunity to express my feeling after spending 3 years in this horrific field of research. What it has given me is extreme pain but also a tremendous amount of hope and dignity. This is a long post; nevertheless, I hope each one of you will read it through.
The person in the photograph I am holding is named Ayham Ghazzoul. He would turn 33 years old last April. Moreover, it has been 7 years since the world has lost him. He was perished under the systematic torture by the Assad regime when he was 25 years old. It was a brutal, inhumane, and unimaginable murder. He stood up to demand freedom, justice, and dignity as numerous Syrians did so in 2011; he defended human rights and opposed the authoritarian regime. Yes, the reason he was tortured to death is simply he followed his sense of humanity. On November 15th 2012, he was captured at the Damascus University, tortured with barbaric tools and electricity for over 4 hours straight, dragged to one of the regime’s thousands of dungeons, left to die in a dark prison’s cell while suffering from the pain. His corpse is still under the control of the perpetrators, the Assad regime. This is the country called Syria, where these crimes happened to over 200,000 people and repeated until this moment.
Ayham was doing his specialisation training as a dentist at the Damascus University, at the same time he was an active member of Syria’s human rights and media organisation, SCM. He was beloved by everyone; his students he was mentoring, his colleagues, and his family. He was the youngest son in the family and he was always kind, funny, handsome, and was the joy for the family as his mother Mariam explained to me. He truly loved the beauty of the Syrian revolution and its motto of freedom. Ayham’s face brightens every time he would return home from the demonstrations. Ayham’s case is one of just 8 cases I included in my dissertation giving a glimpse of the human behind the horrific massacre. This makes my study different and unique from many other human rights reports on Ayham’s case. Also, this makes my thesis very controversial. I received many criticisms from professors that I am biased as academia. However, there is no disappointment for me. Because I am a human before an academic. From the beginning, I wanted this investigation to shed light on the “human side” of what is going on in Syria, not only analysing the data. Probably I am a “bad academic”. Yet, righty and proudly, I do not consider my thesis just as research. This is a resistance against the world’s most heinous criminals, ongoing impunity, and the demise of our humanity.
In Japan, there is almost no recognition of the torture in Syria. It is the first time that the explanation and analysis; furthermore, the 8 personal accounts and detailed memoir of Syria’s torture and prisons have conveyed to Japan.
I was always considering these torture-related incidents in Syria as an act of extermination. The thesis aims to disclose the mechanism of the acts of extermination carried out by the Syrian regime within the scope of Genocide Studies. Within this spectrum, my research questions the following: who is the targeted group and how the violence is carried out? The question is answered through testimonies of victims’ families, as well as seven former detainees which I had collected from August 2018 to October 2019. The thesis concluded that the acts of violence targeted civilians who had sympathy for the revolution (I refer to them as “Revolution Sympathisers”). This also includes those who “seemed” like they have compassion, resulting in a “Genocide within the Broader Concept”. The “Broad Type of Genocide” is referred to as genocide wider than the concept defined by international law, focused on the arbitrariness of the perpetrators.
Using this theory and framework, I concluded what happened and still happens in Syria; the regime’s imprisonment of “Revolution Sympathisers” is not just mass human rights violations. It is not routine violence in warzones but intentional and systematic extermination to an industrial level through a clear chain of command. It is Genocide. Hence, my analysis obviously challenges the current international law and its limitation.
You can continue reading this
