The sky above Damascus roared again, but this time the bullets and rockets turned into firecrackers and fireworks. Syria commemorates the first anniversary of the fall of the regime Bashar al Assad and the epicenter of the mobilization was the square … of the Umayyads of the capital. From the start of the day, thousands of people took over this emblematic place to celebrate what is now registered in the Syrian calendar as Liberation Day. For a few hours, the lack of unity between communities, the serious economic problems and the instability generated by Israeli attacks and the occupation of the south of the country were left aside. Syria returned to the end of five decades of tyranny and the mobilization was massive.
Syrians came out voluntarily to show their happiness and danced to the rhythm of songs transformed into anthems like “We trample him”, in reference to Assad, and “raise, raise your forehead because you are a free Syrian”. The endless human procession brandished the tricolor national flags and the white banners of the jihadist group Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), responsible for the lightning offensive who overthrew the regime in less than two weeks. You can also see flags of Qatar and Saudi Arabia and some of Real Madrid and Barcelona. Damascus is a celebration.
“I am a teacher and, as a civil servant, I was forced to participate for years in demonstrations in favor of the old regime. It was a lie, a theater we did because we were afraid of reprisals. It’s true and we will celebrate it until we fall, we are protagonists of this change and we are proud of it,” he explains. Hana Abdoul Salamhigh school teacher.
Hana is accompanied by her son Hamed, 28 years old, who came from Germany to experience this moment. “I had to leave the country illegally in 2014 and arrived in Europe on a boat from Tunisia to Italy. I left, like thousands of young people, because I did not want to do military service. Today, above all, we celebrate freedom, the definitive disappearance of Assad. That’s why I already thought about returning, I will return to my country.
Military service was one of the great nightmares under the previous regime, especially after 2011, when once you entered the ranks, you were condemned to stay in the army because of the civil war.
Respect for the president
The man of the moment is the president Ahmed Al Sharaa. Unlike what happened with Assad, the demonstrators do not carry their photos. The dictator’s face was omnipresent like a trading card repeated a thousand times and which people hung up out of fear and not out of respect.
The Islamist leader does not like this cult of personality, even if many cars display his portrait on the rear windows. “I come to the square to show all my support for Al Sharaa, for the Syrian Ché Guevara, the one who gave us back our dignity and allows us to dream of a future. There are a lot of complications, but if we stay united around this person, we will move forward,” says the young man. Mohamed Al Sheikh Alimwho carries two flags in his hand. .
The president made a surprise visit to the Umayyad Mosque in the Old City to share prayer with worshipers and the temple welcomed him like a hero. Al Sharaa took off the suit and tie he wore during his travels around the world, including to the White House, to don the same green uniform he wore a year ago when he entered Damascus victorious and also went to pray at this mosque.
After the prayer, he addressed those present to promise that “from north to south and from east to west, we will rebuild a strong Syria with a structure worthy of its present and its past, a structure worthy of the ancient civilization that is Syria.” Al Sharaa called on the population to “unify” their efforts to strengthen stability.
Presence of minorities
Those who cannot reach this place due to the overwhelming feeling of the crowds choose to climb the new Freedom Bridge, formerly known as the President’s Bridge. The name changes introduced by the new government refer to everything related to Assad and the current challenge is to introduce new banknotes, because a year after their fall, Syrians pay with banknotes bearing Bashar’s face.
“We don’t have words to define this feeling, it’s something new we learned last year. It’s true that there are many things to resolve, the most urgent is to improve our living conditions, but above all I appreciate freedom. “We are free,” he explains. Fatima Alarashione of the rare women seen without a veil.
“I am Kurdish and I come with Alawite, Sunni and Palestinian friends. Make no mistake, we all suffered under the old regime, including the minorities,” he said with a rose in his hand, the symbol of Damascus.
The authorities called on the population to go to the square at eight in the afternoon, but from seven in the morning it was difficult to access because of the crowd. At that time, no one listened to the authorities. The party lasted until late at night because the residents of the capital did not want to stop celebrating the fact that the dictatorship was a thing of the past.
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