Syrians gathered on Saturday to commemorate the 14th anniversary of their rebellion in public demonstrations in Damascus for the primary time since Baath regime chief Bashar al-Assad was toppled.
The demonstration in Damascus’s Umayyad Square is the primary within the capital after years of repression below Assad, throughout which the sq. was the only protect of the ousted president’s supporters.
Activists additionally known as on folks to collect within the cities of Homs, Idlib and Hama at demonstrations below the slogan “Syria is victorious”.
By the afternoon, dozens of individuals had gathered within the capital’s Umayyad Square, amid a heavy safety presence and with army helicopters overhead dropping leaflets bearing the slogan “there is no room for hate among us”.
Security forces have been stationed in any respect entrances to the sq., with a few of them handing out flowers to demonstrators whereas audio system blared revolutionary and Islamic songs.
Many attendees waved the Syrian flag — formally modified from one used below Assad to the design from the independence period — and held indicators studying “the revolution has triumphed”.
Hanaa al-Daghri, 32, was amongst these within the sq. and instructed AFP “what is happening now is a dream we never dared to imagine”.
“I left Damascus 12 years ago because I was wanted, and I would have never had any hope of returning were it not for the liberation,” she mentioned.
“We are missing many friends who are no longer with us, but their bloodshed brought us to where we are today.”
Under vivid daylight, Abdul Moneim Nimr, 41, stood surrounded by his associates who raised a big flag and started dancing and singing.
“We used to celebrate the anniversary of the revolution in northern Syria and today we are celebrating in Umayyad Square. This is a blessed victory,” he mentioned.
– ‘Justice, dignity and peace’ –
Syria’s battle started with peaceable demonstrations on March 15, 2011, by which hundreds protested in opposition to Assad’s authorities, earlier than it spiralled into civil struggle after his violent repression of the protests.
This 12 months’s commemoration marks the primary since Assad was toppled on December 8 by Islamist-led rebels.
Ahmed al-Sharaa, who headed the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) which spearheaded the offensive, has since been named interim president.
Hundreds additionally gathered on the essential sq. within the rebels’ former stronghold of Idlib, an AFP journalist noticed, elevating the flags of Syria and HTS amid a heavy safety presence and regardless of the Ramadan quick and comparatively sizzling climate.
On Thursday, Sharaa signed into pressure a constitutional declaration regulating a five-year transition interval earlier than a everlasting structure is to be put into place.
Analysts have criticised the declaration, saying it grants an excessive amount of energy to Sharaa and fails to offer enough safety to the nation’s minorities.
It additionally got here every week after Syria’s Mediterranean coast, the heartland of Assad’s Alawite minority, was gripped by the worst wave of violence since his overthrow.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights struggle monitor, safety forces and allied teams killed not less than 1,500 civilians, primarily Alawites, within the violence that started on March 6.
The United Nations particular envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, mentioned on Friday: “It is fourteen years since Syrians took to the streets in peaceful protest, demanding dignity, freedom and a better future.”
He added in a press release that regardless of the brutal civil struggle, “the resilience of Syrians and their pursuit of justice, dignity and peace endure. And they now deserve a transition that is worthy of this.”
He known as for “an immediate end to all violence and for protection of civilians”.
Source: www.anews.com.tr