...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
Thursday's ceasefire began at 12am local time (22:00 GMT), and, if it holds, will be followed by peace negotiations in Kazakhstan's capital Astana within one month.
Turkey and Russia have pledged to act as guarantors to the cessation of hostilities.
Previous UN-backed attempts to end the Syrian civil war, which started as a largely unarmed uprising against
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Scourge of Qusayr...
in March 2011, have failed and often led to fierce fighting.
The Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) group and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham
...formerly al-Nusra, the current false nose and mustache of al-Qaeda in the Levant...
group [formerly al-Nusra
...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ...
Front] have been excluded from the ceasefire, according to reports.