Historical clue formulations

• Mideast city with an eponymous pepper — 2023-01-01
• Syrian city with a historic citadel — 2022-03-06
• Third-largest city of the later Ottoman Empire, surpassed only by Constantinople and Cairo — 2020-02-15
• City under siege from 2012 to '16 — 2019-03-13
• War-torn Syrian city — 2018-12-23
• War-torn Mideast city — 2018-05-26
• War-torn Syrian city — 2018-04-03
• Battle-torn Syrian city — 2017-05-14
• City of Syria — 2012-05-24
• Largest city in Syria — 2011-03-25
• Syrian city of 2.5+ million — 2008-04-10
• Syrian city of 2 million — 2004-03-28
• Site of Syria's Great Mosque — 2003-07-18
• Syrian hub — 1998-09-24
• Syrian city — 1998-08-11
• City known in ancient times as Beroea — 1998-03-15
• Syria's second-largest city — 1995-09-16