Diana Darke is a writer and Middle East cultural specialist who bought a semi-derelict Damascene courtyard house in 2005. Over a three-year period she restored it with the help of a Syrian architect and local craftsmen. When civil war ...See moreDiana Darke is a writer and Middle East cultural specialist who bought a semi-derelict Damascene courtyard house in 2005. Over a three-year period she restored it with the help of a Syrian architect and local craftsmen. When civil war broke out six years later, she offered it as a shelter for her Syrian friends, but it was soon taken from them through false terrorism charges, one of many such instances across Syria since the war began. She tells us her story.
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