Syria’s fallen symbols of state

ENAR

  The Euphrates Dam, once the most potent symbol of the centrally planned development policies of the Syrian Baath Party, was taken over by rebel forces in early February. The fall of the dam is one of many recent successes of the opposition in the resource-rich northeast, which is now almost entirely out of the hands of the government. While the economic importance of the dam in itself is limited, the news of the capture of such a major source of pride for the authorities reverberated across Syria.  When it was built in the mid-1970s, the dam was the largest ever to be built in Syria and among the largest infrastructure projects developed in the country during the 20th century. It was supposed to meet several government objectives: help provide food self-sufficiency thanks to the new lands that it would irrigate, generate new power that would meet a significant part