Egypt’s Police, Syria’s Captagon, and a Diplomatic Thaw: A Media Arabic Analysis | Media Arabic Booster 07/24

July 2024 was full of complex diplomatic signals across the Middle East, and in this Media Arabic Booster, we’ll unpack two major stories.

First, we’ll look at an Egyptian state-run magazine’s vision for a “modern police force” and what that tells us about the country’s shift from a police state to a military-led republic.

Then, we dive into a fascinating analysis from al-Arabi al-Jadeed on Turkish President Erdoğan’s invitation to Syria‘s Bashar al-Assad, exploring the pressures from the refugee crisis and Qatar’s potential “green light.”

This post will equip you with the Arabic vocabulary needed to discuss diplomacy, normalization, and state security.

A close look at a headline

Headlines in Arabic media are generally easy to understand – but there are also some tricky words.

Akhbar al-Hawadith: The police and the military in Egypt

On Thursday, July 4, 2024, the weekly Egyptian magazine Akhbar al-Hawadith (أخبار الحوادث), a state-owned semi-official publication and offshoot of the daily al-Akhbar newspaper, published the following article:

Let’s focus on the headline:

Vocabulary list

All words marked in color above are explained here.

What does al-Shurta (الشرطة) mean?

Most sources assume the following origin of the word al-Shurta (الشرطة): The police were given this name in reference to a strip of cloth that was placed on the hand over the clothing of the security man during the reign of Caliph ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān (الخليفة عبد الملك بن مروان) to distinguish them from the general public.

➤ How come? The root ش-ر-ط, in an old meaning, denotes to slit the ear of a camel. From this, it got the meaning of sign, token, mark; also condition. Note: The Biblical Hebrew word שֶׂרֶט (sheret) – with similar Semitic root letters – means stripe, incision, tear, line, scratch.

➤ Who was Abd al-Malik ibn Marwān? He was one of the most important caliphs of the Umayyads and ruled from 685 (65 AH) to 705 (86 AH). The Dome of the Rock – Qubbat al-Sakhrah (قُبّةُ الصَّخْرةِ) in Jerusalem (الْقُدْسُ) was built at the behest of Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan. Construction began in 687 and was completed in 691. The word صَخْرٌ (pl.: صُخوُرٌ) means rock or stone in Arabic.

Translation of an article

Let’s look at parts of a longer newspaper article in Arabic. We will translate each sentence carefully. The highlighted words are in the vocabulary list below.

al-Arabi al-Jadeed: “Did Erdoğan obtain a green Qatari light to invite Al-Assad?”

On July 9, 2024, the following analysis was published in the Qatari-owned London-based newspaper al-Arabi al-Jadeed (العربي الجديد). The Turkish president is under political pressure to send back Syrian refugees, and in early July 2024, shops and vehicles belonging to Syrian residents were attacked and sometimes set on fire by rioters in several Turkish cities. In July, Erdoğan extended an invitation to the Syrian ruler.

Let’s now take a closer look at a few complete paragraphs.

Note: In June 2022, the Republic of Turkey officially changed its name at the United Nations to Türkiye. In this article, I will still use Turkey to avoid confusing readers.

هل حصل أردوغان على ضوء قطري أخضر لدعوة الأسد

Did Erdoğan obtain a green light from Qatar to invite al-Assad?

Section 1

رجحت أوساط عربية أن يكون الرئيس التركي رجب طيب أردوغان قد حصل على ضوء أخضر من قطر لدعوة الرئيس السوري بشار الأسد إلى زيارة تركيا بعد سنوات من القطيعة والعداء. واعتبرت الأوساط ذاتها أن عودة أردوغان إلى تأكيد الدعوة بعد مرور أقل من أسبوعين على إثارة الموضوع تشير إلى حصوله على إشارات بشأن موافقة الأسد التي تكون قد تمت بعد التأكد من تحييد قطر التي رفضت ركوب قطار التطبيع مع دمشق قبل سنة ولم تؤيد عودة سوريا إلى الجامعة العربية.

Arab circles indicated that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan may have received a green light from Qatar to invite Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to visit Turkey after years of estrangement and hostility. The same circles said (considered) that Erdoğan’s reiteration of the invitation less than two weeks after raising this issue indicates that he obtained signs of al-Assad’s approval. This may have happened after making sure that Qatar has now been convinced, knowing that the latter had refused to board the normalization train with Damascus a year ago and did not support Syria’s return to the Arab League.

Section 2

ولا يبدي الرئيس السوري تحمسا شديدا لاستعادة علاقاته السابقة مع تركيا، لكن تصريحات أردوغان المتتالية تعكس وجود تقدم في المفاوضات تجاه هذا الملف، ما يرجح دخول قطر على الخط خاصة مع غياب أي مؤشر على استعداد أنقرة لتنفيذ الشرط السوري المعلن والمتمثل في سحب تركيا قواتها من شمال سوريا. كما أن تصريحات الأسد قبل أيام لم تشر إلى شرط سحب تركيا قواتها من سوريا؛ حيث اكتفى بالحديث عن انفتاح بلاده على المبادرات الهادفة إلى عودة العلاقات مع أنقرة المستندة إلى سيادة الدولة السورية وضرورة محاربة كل التنظيمات الإرهابية.

The Syrian president doesn’t show much enthusiasm for restoring his previous relations with Turkey, but Erdoğan’s successive statements reflect that progress has been made in the negotiations on (regarding) this issue, which means that Qatar has probably entered the fray, especially in the absence of any sign indicating that Ankara will meet the declared Syrian condition, which is for Turkey to withdraw its forces from the Syrian north. Moreover, al-Assad’s statements a few days ago did not refer to the condition of Turkey pulling its troops from Syria. Instead, he merely spoke about his country’s openness to initiatives aimed at restoring relations with Ankara based on the sovereignty of the Syrian state and the need to fight all terrorist organizations.

Section 3

ويقول مراقبون إن الأسد حريص على فك عقدة العناد القطري ولو عن طريق الأتراك، خاصة أن تحسين العلاقات مع السعودية لم ينعكس بشكل إيجابي على وضع سوريا السياسي والاقتصادي، لافتين إلى أن المستفيد من تحسين العلاقات بين الرياض ودمشق هو السعودية لأنها تغلق باب الالتزامات مع فصائل المعارضة، وتترك النظام السوري أمام مسؤولية مواجهة تهريب المخدرات المصنعة في سوريا -مثل الكبتاغون- والمتجهة إلى السعودية.

Observers say that al-Assad is keen on resolving the problem (untieing the knot) of the Qatari stubbornness, even if via the Turks, especially since improving relations with Saudi Arabia has not had a positive impact on Syria’s political and economic situation. They point out that the beneficiary of improving relations Riyadh and Damascus is Saudi-Arabia, because this shall shut the door to the [Saudi] commitments with the opposition factions while leaving the Syrian regime with the responsibility of confronting the smuggling of drugs manufactured in Syria – such as Captagon – and heading to Saudi Arabia.

Section 4

وفي العام الماضي قاومت قطر الجهود التي قادتها السعودية لإعادة سوريا إلى الجامعة العربية …. لكن مراقبين عدوا رفضها حينئذ نوعا من التريث، معتبرين أنها ستحذو حذو جيرانها الخليجيين وبقية الدول العربية في الوقت الذي تراه مناسبا. ولعبت قطر دورا كبيرا في الأزمة السورية على الصعيدين السياسي والعسكري وأدى تدخلها إلى خروج الاحتجاجات على النظام السوري عن مسارها المدني بعد عسكرة أجسام الثورة التي هيمن عليها الإسلاميون. ورغم هزيمة المعارضة بعد التدخل الروسي في سوريا إلا أن المعارضة المدعومة من قطر وتركيا مازالت تسيطر على بعض الجيوب في الشمال

Last year, Qatar resisted Saudi-led efforts to reinstate Syria in the Arab League … However, observers considered Qatar’s refusal at the time to be a kind of wait-and-see, saying that Qatar would follow the example of its Gulf neighbors and the rest of the Arab countries at the time it sees fit. Qatar had played an important role in the Syrian crisis, both on the political and military level. Its intervention caused the protests against the Syrian regime to stray away from their civil path after the militarization of the revolution bodies, which were dominated by Islamists. Despite the defeat of the opposition as a result of the Russian intervention in Syria, Qatar and Turkey-supported opposition is still controlling some pockets in the North.

Vocabulary list

All the words in the above article marked in color can be found in this table with explanations.

Section 1

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