It was one of the earliest civilisations in the world, with excavated settlements suggesting a thriving city life as long ago as 3,000BC. Its capital, Damascus - or, to some, the "City of Jasmine" - is the oldest capital in human history, and one of the centres of Islamic culture.

And at one point in history, Syria was the centre of the Islamic world. A rich network of trade and cultural exchange flourishedGrew in a healthy way. , bringing strong infrastructure and economic prosperity.

It is hard to imagine now. In the midst of a civil warA war between people from the same country. which has been raging since 2011, almost half of the country's infrastructure has been destroyed.

Up to 610,000 people have been killed. More than half of the population is forced to live on less than £1.60 per day.¹ In 2022, there were 6.82 million refugees, more than half of them housed in Turkey.

And one month ago, disaster struck yet again. The 7.8 magnitude earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria on 6 February killed almost 6,800 Syrians and injured a further 14,500.

In the northern and western regions affected, around 2.8 million people were already internally displacedPeople who have had to leave their homes in one part of a country and move to another part of the same country, often due to war. due to bombing attacks from their president, Bashar al-Assad - now, a further 10,000 buildings have been destroyed by the natural disaster.

Even before the catastrophe, the region's population of 4.7 million was forced to survive with just one MRIMagnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technique used in healthcare to form pictures of the anatomy and the physiological processes of the body. machine, 64 X-ray machines, 66 hospitals and 1,245 beds between them. Now, the situation is untenableSomething that cannot be supported, maintained or defended from criticism. .

This has renewed the spotlight on one of the world's most troubled countries - but some say it is not enough. Many experts think the war is in its "endgame", with the dice cast in favour of Assad, who is backed by both Russia and Iran. They think we need to have urgent conversations about coming geopolitical shifts.

And yet Syria is still often removed from our news cycle. Some think this is deliberate: many countries have been accused of human rights violations in Syria, and questions have been raised about some Western countries' refusal to house Syrian refugees. Nobody wants the finger pointed at them.

But others say there are practical considerations. Journalists are unable to report from vast swathesLarge areas. of Syria, and information trickles out slowly and unreliably. Moreover, it is constantly competing with tragedies elsewhere: in Ukraine, Yemen, Pakistan, Lebanon and more. Who is to say which is more deserving of our attention?

Yes: Very few could speak authoritatively on what is happening in Syria right now. However, lots of people have an opinion on the war in Ukraine, because it is constantly in the news. We need to deal fairly with conflicts across the world.

No: Syria has not been forgotten, but it is a longer conflict which has a lower rate of death and casualty per year than Ukraine. This is why Ukraine might be in the news more.

Or... We tend to have more to say about the issues that affect us. Therefore, there have been many discussions about Syrian refugees, and fewer about Syria's domestic situation.