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!
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.
A reminder that thanks to the Terrorist Travel Prevention Act of 2015, any travel to Syria will make you forever invalid for US ESTA (visa-free entry) and you'll need to go through the grueling, incredibly slow and expensive regular US visa process instead.
Don't they do like Cuba yet? I.e. not stamp your passport but rather a card that is removed on exit, leaving no trace on your passport. (Obviously you still leave traces in airline databases if flying direct, but that can be avoided.)
Man, HN is downvote-happy these days. To state what I thought was obvious, I'm not saying I approve of this state of affairs and in fact I'd love to visit Syria, but until the US drops their policy, I realistically cannot.
Readit News
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
But yeah, it's a clickbait headline.
Why shouldn't it count exactly?
Dead Comment