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I find this title incredibly offensive!

Syria before war was normal middle income country. It had income from petrol. Tourists from Arabic countries come there for shopping. That was 15 years ago!

Here is a list of international conferences I found in 10 seconds googling. Some of them are technical: https://www.syrleb.org/site/english/index.php?node=115522

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The text of the article says it's the first time "a free Syria hosted an independent tech conference", implying that any tech conferences under the Assads didn't count.

But yeah, it's a clickbait headline.

> implying that any tech conferences under the Assads didn't count.

Why shouldn't it count exactly?

Most people would not characterize Baathist Syria as "free".

And the jury is still out on if that label applies to the current lot.

Why not? Honest question. I assumed it was his attitude toward his southern neighbor that sealed his downfall, both politically and in the court of public opinion.

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