December 23, 2024, Le Monde
The dictator has fallen, the man who killed his people and sold his land has finally left, he fled like a coward leaving behind a huge devastation. To this moment I still ask myself: Will we live without the rule of the Assad family?
I was born in 1970, the year Hafez al-Assad carried out his military coup, and since that moment I have known no rule other than that of the Assad family. For more than half a century we have lived under the rule of a mafia family military gang, who wanted the Syrians to live in humiliation as slaves on a large farm called Assad’s Syria.
In school I remember that we were young girls, in the early eighties of the last century, our uniform and imposed clothing as students was military clothing. Dark khaki, military hat! Every day, before entering the classroom, we would stand for those minutes called chanting the national anthem. Each row of girls would gather as a column of female soldiers, then we would raise our hands forward, and the hand should be slightly high. We would do that movement that resembles the “Heil Hitler” salute. Then there was one of us who was appointed by the military education teacher. We called her “the bully trainer”. The student would shout: Our leader forever? And we would answer in a loud, enthusiastic voice: President Hafez al-Assad! And so every day for years, we would repeat that sentence, Our leader forever, President Hafez al-Assad. Once, I was repeating that sentence, my voice was weak and I no longer remember the fatigue that made me not repeat that sentence, and raise my hand slowly, and mumble thinking that no one would notice me among the crowds of columns, at the end of repeating the slogan, the military education teacher approached me, and shouted at me because I neglected to repeat that national slogan, and then my punishment was to crawl on the ground, prostrate on the ground, using my elbows and knees, in the entire school yard, five times back and forth. When I was done, I did not cry, I returned to my school seat and I was not even allowed to clean myself. Until now I smell the blood that flowed from my knee, which I tried to wipe with my fingers through the torn fabric of my pants.
This is how we lived in Assad’s Syria! A simple detail passes through my memory from more heinous details, but eternity has finally fallen, the stage of eternity has ended, and I am thinking of returning to the same school where I was subjected to that punishment, in the city of Jableh, and I want to stand in the same schoolyard, to walk in it on two feet like any normal person who has the right to stand upright, with a noble soul, and to repeat this sentence: Long live Syria and Assad has fallen! My joy at the fall of the tyrant is confused, and I have no illusions that the agreement of international interests on dividing the Syrian land was behind Bashar al-Assad’s escape and his sudden fall. The Russians, Americans and Turks have finally agreed on that, yes, this is our good fortune! There is no doubt that the decision to get rid of Iranian influence in the region was decisive in this matter, and the struggles and sacrifices of the Syrian revolutionaries and the people played a major role. Assad has fallen and now the Syrian revolution has begun. The fall of Assad is the starting point. The road is long and dark, but it is finally open. We have gotten rid of the tyrant who killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions. Perhaps the time is right for the Syrians to think about returning to their country and contributing to building a free and democratic Syria. However, at the same time, it may be too early to demand that refugees return to Syria. We are waiting to see how things and conditions will turn out, so that we can say that Syria is a safe country for the return of Syrians, although hopes are promising so far. There were fears of a civil and sectarian war when Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham entered areas inhabited by minorities such as Alawites and Christians. What we saw on the ground seemed like a miracle. The armed battalions entered the villages and cities in complete peace, and their behavior was disciplined and conscious to the point that it astonished everyone. In a short and rapid time, despite the heavy Israeli bombardment of Syrian territory, And which accompanied the fall of Bashar al-Assad, where the Israelis hit 400 targets in Syria, there was a conscious and responsible plan by the young men and men who entered these villages and cities, and through their speech with the people they were trying to build bridges of civil peace between the components of the Syrian people, and their slogan that was repeated was: Syria is one for all Syrians and everyone will enjoy equal rights. I am not talking here about the statements of Ahmed al-Sharaa, the leader of (Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham), who emphasized the unity of the Syrian people, but I am talking about the facts and developments of the military operation to enter the cities and villages. This is a good omen and can be relied upon as a starting point for talking about a Syrian national identity. I can even venture to say that it is the foundation of this nationalism, which the father Assad regime has always tried to tear apart by using the Alawites as a holocaust and frightening them with killing and slaughter, and it did the same with the Christians, but in a different way. Not a single drop of blood was shed and no Alawite or Christian was killed, so what next? Here we are facing big questions and frightening challenges. We must not forget that we are facing a destroyed country, facing the difficulties of the fall of a dictatorial regime that has entrenched sectarianism and committed massacres, a regime accused of war crimes, its people are exhausted and its economy is destroyed, and it does not have the most basic and simple means of living, a country in which nine out of ten people are below the poverty line, half of the Syrian people are refugees or displaced, eight million Syrians live outside Syria, while in the meantime we are still waiting for the arrangements of the foreign countries that occupy it and fight over its wealth. In 2011, the Syrians began a peaceful revolution demanding justice, freedom and democracy. This revolution was crushed with unprecedented brutality amidst the complicity of the international community. Between March 2011 and the day the tyrant fled on December 8, 2024, Syria changed. We had entered a civil war, events became intertwined and the interests of countries became complicated. The Syrian people were killed and displaced, the country was destroyed and the international community stood silent in the face of these war crimes. Now, when the decision was made to get rid of Assad after he was provided with all the facilities and support to continue in power, while he ignored the demands of his Arab allies.