He did so as the rebels entered and seized Damascus, seemingly with little fightback from Assad’s government forces. Syria dominated international consciousness for almost a decade, its civil war erupting after Assad crushed peaceful protests during the region-wide 2011 Arab Spring. But until last month the conflict had been largely at a stalemate, after Assad’s forces regained control of much of the country. The conflict in Syria partly contributed to a wave of mass migration into Europe, met by a right-wing backlash across the continent that is still reverberating today. Much of this diaspora has also responded to Assad’s downfall with astonished glee, some rushing to return home.

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Persons: Dimitry Peskov, Assad, Murat Sengul, gulags, Hayat Tahrir, Abu Mohammad al Organizations: Baath Party, Getty, UNHCR, Amnesty, Al, State Department Locations: Damascus, Aleppo, Hama, Russia, Ukraine, Iran, Israel, Moscow, Syria, U.S, Turkey, Iraq, Anadolu, Europe, London, Berlin, Germany, Al Qaeda