In 2024, a coalition of armed groups captured the capital, Damascus, ending one of the Middle East’s most enduring and violent authoritarian regimes. A year later, this date remains engraved in memories with popular celebrations, but also with concern and political uncertainty.
Giovanna Flaskspecial for RFI in Damascus, Syria
In Damascus, the streets are filled with celebrations that began this weekend and spread across the capital. Families, young people and the elderly travel by car or on foot, brandishing the flag that has become a symbol of the fall of the regime – the green, white and black stripes with three stars – as opposed to the flag adopted under a large part of the Assad government, marked by two stars and the colors red, black and white.
For many Syrians, the end of the dictatorship represents the end of an era of extreme repression. For five decades, the regime used brutal methods against its own population: systematic torture, forced disappearances, arbitrary arrests, barrel bombs and even the use of chemical weapons. The relief of the population is still felt, despite the deep tensions which mark the first year of the interim government.
The heart of the celebrations is Umayyad Square, one of the historic monuments of the capital and, since 2024, the gravitational center of popular demonstrations in support of the fall of the regime. This is where a large part of the population gathers today, for a party that is expected to last all night. Among minorities and the younger, more intellectual sections of society, there is less celebration.
Although the Assad era has ended, the country is experiencing an increase in sectarian conflicts. Assad, belonging to the Alawite minority, has maintained relative religious stability among minorities such as the Alawites, Christians, Druze and Shiites.
Under the new Sunni-led government, led by Ahmed al-Sharaa and staffed by figures from groups such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, the country has seen a series of massacres against minorities throughout this year. The most recent, in July 2025, affected Druze communities in southern Syria.
New alliances
The change of power in Syria has also reshaped the alliances on the geopolitical chessboard in the Middle East. Under the Assad regime, Syria was the strategic link between Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon – part of the so-called “Axis of Resistance” against Israeli expansion. With the fall of the regime, this corridor collapsed, stifling Hezbollah, which can no longer be supplied by Iran via Syrian territory.
Assad was also seen as one of the last anti-Western pillars in the region. The interim government represents, in many respects, a rapprochement with Western interests, particularly North American ones. In 2025 inclusive, Israel advanced militarily into southern Syria, closing within a few kilometers of Damascus.
The first anniversary of the fall of Bashar al-Assad therefore marks not only a chapter in Syrian history, but the consolidation of a new configuration in the Middle East – an order which began to take shape at the end of 2024 and continues to evolve.
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