DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Trucks and bulldozers zigzag at a building site in southwestern Damascus, ferrying sand and stones for a luxury development of residential high-rises and shopping centers.
The area was up until recently a working-class neighborhood of informal settlements and irregular housing running through orchards and farmland — one that early on in Syria’s conflict was a hub for protests against the government.
Over the past year, thousands of residents have been evicted and their property razed to make way for the multimillion-dollar project — the Marota City.
It’s Syria’s largest investment project and it’s seen as a blueprint for how the government will undertake rebuilding of areas devastated in the civil war. Critics say President Bashar Assad is using such projects to consolidate post-war power, expropriate property and reshape Syria’s demographics.
