The severe earthquake in February 2023 has also brought northern Syria back into the international spotlight, a region that has long gone largely unnoticed. Yet a conflict has been smouldering here for years that could escalate at any time and have international repercussions: The terrorist organisation known as IS, which had its stronghold here and has been defeated militarily, could regain strength from here.

A look back over nine years of the Syrian Civil War, an inextricable conflict, like a black box, due to the competing interests of the many factions in presence and those of the foreign powers.