Reconciliation agreements as strangle contracts: ramifications for property and citizenship rights in the Syrian civil war

Abstract

Far from being benevolent, so-called reconciliation agreements used in the Syrian civil war are tools of subjugation, more akin to coercive strangle contracts than the idea of reconciling past wrongs. Reconciliation agreements are written contracts imposed by the Syrian regime on rebel-held communities to firstly, retake control of the property in a reconciled area and secondly, triage the people in that area into those the regime considers able to possess restricted citizenship rights, and those completely without rights. This paper uses the case study of Daraya, a town on the outskirts of Damascus, and the personal story of Hosam, a member of Daraya’s local council, as being both unique and broadly exemplary of the use and ramifications of reconciliation agreements on property and citizenship rights and what this means for the post-war landscape in Syria.