Syrian graffiti artist pays tribute to Maradona

By Mehmet Burak Karacaoglu, Ahmet Karaahmet

IDLIB, Syria (AA) – A Syrian graffiti artist residing in northwestern Idlib city of Syria paid tribute to the legendary football player Maradona, who recently died of heart failure, drawing his image on walls of houses collapsed following strikes of the regime.

Aziz al-Asmar earned his reputation for painting international and local agenda items on walls of ruined houses following regime strikes, and his latest work is devoted to Diego Armanda Maradona, who passed away at the age of 60 on Wednesday.

Al-Asmar told Anadolu Agency reporter that he used to watch the matches of the legendary football player back when he was still actively playing, he wanted to immortalize the Argentinian player.

“As people of Idlib, we drew Maradona’s picture on walls collapsed by Assad regime and its supporters,” he said, adding admirers of Maradona in the northwestern city lost their houses to the regime strikes, and he wanted the global community to be aware of this.

Syria has been embroiled in a vicious civil war since early 2011 when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity. Since then, over 5 million civilians have become homeless.

* Writing by Ali Murat Alhas