Experts on countries of origin by surname

Countries of Expertise: Syria (and to a lesser extent Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Turkey).

I write books and articles about the political, military, economic, social and cultural conditions in Syria. My most recent book is The Blood Between Us: Syria’s Revolutionary Transition (Saqi, 2026). My journalism has been published at The Guardian, New Lines Magazine, Time, Newsweek, Unherd, Al Jazeera, the New Statesman and other outlets. The BBC and others have frequently interviewed me on Syria.

I am also the chief English editor of the Syria Prisons Museum and the ISIS Prisons Museum; these are documentation projects producing evidence of crimes in prisons run by the Assad regime and ISIS for use in trials and for wider justice and accountability purposes.

As well as prisons, I focus on transitional justice, militias, sectarianism, and political and economic development.

Turkish-Belgian lawyer specializing Turkish law, human rights, and political issues, with expertise in transnational repression, persecution of dissidents, prison conditions, and torture in Turkey.