"March is also March in Syria, [...] the whites of the flowering almond branches, the orange of tulips and then this temperate, kind wind, full of light and jasmine. Then, in the house on your left, yesterday, just before sunset, Asma committed suicide. A bullet in the head – March isn’t March, in Syria. She was 13." — from a feature by NOOR's Stanley Greene.
Tomorrow is widely recognized as the third anniversary of the worst humanitarian crisis in modern times: the Syrian civil war. About three years ago, minor protests in Syria in response to the Arab Spring and government corruption escalated to large-scale unrest. The ongoing armed conflict between rebel groups and forces loyal to the Ba'ath government has created almost 2.5 million Syrian refugees, according to the UNHCR.
In 2013, NOOR's Stanley Greene and Andrea Bruce worked extensively to cover the Syrian crisis, following those involved in the fighting and the civilians and emergency workers caught in between. As winter turns to spring and the first flowers tentatively bloom, we invite you to take a look at Crisis in Syria, our collection of stories about the conflict, and remember that March may not be March in Syria.