The unexpected demise of the Assad regime in Syria has thoroughly upset the already confused political map of the Middle East. Following the fall of Damascus on 8th December to the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the departure of Bashar Al-Assad to Moscow, where his wife and children had preceded him some days earlier, nations around the world are falling over themselves to hail the end of the Assad dictatorship and express their hopes for a stable and peaceful future for Syria. While the initial moves by the rebel group, which was formerly associated with Al Qaida, seem positive – setting up a caretaker government and freeing prisoners from the fallen regime’s notorious prisons – commentators are pointing out that the country’s future course remains uncertain.
In the meantime there have been scenes of rejoicing among Syrian migrants and refugees in Europe and elsewhere, and thousands of them are already streaming back into the country from Turkey in the conviction that it is finally safe to go home. In Athens, dozens of Syrians living in the capital gathered in Syntagma Square, singing, dancing and waving the rebel Syrian flag. Earlier, a group of Syrians had entered the Syrian embassy and hoisted the rebel flag from the rooftop. Police entered the embassy compound and detained four people, but left the flag flying, according to a Reuters reporter at the scene.
There were similar scenes in Chania, where local Syrians gathered in front of the Agora on Sunday afternoon to celebrate the fall of the Assad regime. According to a report in Haniotika Nea, the Syrians, most of them young, began to gather before 6 pm, waving flags, singing and dancing while loosing off a barrage of fireworks.
“A day has dawned after 54 years, without the Assad family, without the dictatorship,” Hussein, who lives and works in Chania, told the paper. “It was a dictatorship for 30 years under the father, and then another 24 years with the son. Without elections, without anything. I am 54 years old and I can’t remember ever voting. I went to vote once and his men saw me coming from far off and said ‘You’ve already voted, go away.'” And he added: “A new day has dawned for Syria. You couldn’t live in Syria because you had a knife at your throat and your mouth shut.”
Asked whether there is a danger of the civil war continuing because there are many different organisations, different races and religions, the demonstrators said: “The whole of Syria is one people! The civil war and the terrorism were done by Assad and those who supported him, Iran and Hezbollah. The whole world understood that the Syrians want to live in freedom. They are not a terrorist people, as they said, they want to live like the rest of the world in their homeland.”
“The Syrians are a peaceable people,” said one. “I have been in Chania for 39 years and I have not heard of any terrorist act carried out by a Syrian. The Syrian people are peaceful, they want to live. They are Muslims, Christians, they used to live all together. The mosque was next door to the church. Then the Assad family came and set one religion against the other to gain power. Kurds, Muslims Christians, we’ll be fine living together. Syria has a population of 24 million, 23 million are against Assad, and only 1 million were with him.”
(Haniotika Nea, 09/11/24)