‘Violence bends but does not break’: Narratives of activism and militancy in post-2011 Syria

With this contribution, I aim to reconstruct the path of Syrian militants who have abandoned the armed struggle to join groups of civil activists, as well as the reverse path of the emerging civil society activists who have left the non-violent movement to take up arms. The case studies all take place within the Syrian context. In an increasingly fragmented environment, it is interesting to explore the role of violence, in its various meanings, as a crucial driver of the change of behaviors and narratives of many Syrian militants and activists. This research is based on the elaboration of three different “ideal types” of militancy and activism based on fourteen stories and testimonies collected from Syria, Lebanon, and Southern Turkey from 2012 to 2017. The stories come from Syrian individuals operating in geographical areas under different political and military controls, such as the Syrian government and its allies, various non-state opposition armed actors, and the then organization of the Islamic State (IS).