Elias's biggest fear for his family in Aleppo is that they will be taken hostage.
That was the fate of a UAE-based Syrian friend of his recently when he went back to check on his business. The friend was released only after his family handed the Shabbiha (the pro-Assad militia) Dh250,000.
For female relatives, the overriding danger is rape. "Honour of a girl is the most important thing for us," said Elias, who lives in Dubai. "We would rather a hundred people killed before a girl is kidnapped."
Until recently, the city has been mostly peaceful, with the government firmly in control. But to retain their grip, a month before Ramadan tanks rolled into the city and people started to flee.
Since then the shelling has been relentless. "I fear the city will turn into Homs, they are doing to us now what they did to Homs before."
Most residents are largely without telephones, water and electricity. "Electricity would work for two hours, and then not for 10. Just because it had to be switched on for regime supporters."
And relatives living outside the country are sending money as often as possible - when the exchanges are open - to keep up with inflation.
"Whoever can leave, leaves," he said. "Tens of thousands have left."
The safest option is to go to Turkey's refugee camps, but many people have preferred to move to Aleppo's countryside areas, or to cities in Turkey.
"My [relative] was a businessman, he didn't go to the camps, he went to Turkey. Why would they go somewhere where they would have to wait to get a loaf of bread when they are well off already?" Others in his family have stayed to hang on to their jobs.
Although Elias dreams of the day he can be reunited with his family, get married and go to university, for now he fears he would be captured if he enters the country.
"They want me for the army, so I'd be either killed if I defect, or a killer if I turn on the people," he said.
"But I cannot complain, nothing compares to what is happening to people back home."
* Ola Salem
Company%20profile
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PROFILE OF CURE.FIT
Started: July 2016
Founders: Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori
Based: Bangalore, India
Sector: Health & wellness
Size: 500 employees
Investment: $250 million
Investors: Accel, Oaktree Capital (US); Chiratae Ventures, Epiq Capital, Innoven Capital, Kalaari Capital, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Piramal Group’s Anand Piramal, Pratithi Investment Trust, Ratan Tata (India); and Unilever Ventures (Unilever’s global venture capital arm)
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Family reunited
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was born and raised in Tehran and studied English literature before working as a translator in the relief effort for the Japanese International Co-operation Agency in 2003.
She moved to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies before moving to the World Health Organisation as a communications officer.
She came to the UK in 2007 after securing a scholarship at London Metropolitan University to study a master's in communication management and met her future husband through mutual friends a month later.
The couple were married in August 2009 in Winchester and their daughter was born in June 2014.
She was held in her native country a year later.
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
