The eighth anniversary of the Syrian revolution coincides with the Sudanese and Algerian people’ uprisings against the regimes that have been in power for decades despite of regimes’s threats to follow Syrian example, which means total destruction of society and its architecture in an attempt to deter the people and force them to accept submission and to resign to any change for fear of living the same fate.
By Victorios Shams
The Syrian revolution began in March 2011, influenced by the popular movements that began in Tunisia followed by Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Bahrain, and later expanded to Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and others, albeit at varying rates.
Despite of the similarities regarding the political, economic, social and cultural structures, and the regimes that have been ruling for decades in the Arab world, as totalitarian regimes that are based on enormous natural resources while their peoples suffer oppression, poverty and deprivation, the Syrian revolution is remarkable for the extreme violence employed against it by both the regime and foreign forces combined.
The American, Zionist, British, Russian, French, Turkish and Iranian armies, and many foreign sectarian militias are, most of them, involved in attacks and massacres against the Syrian people.
Some of these massacres were carried out in disguise of unintentional tactical mistakes, such as the US-led “coalition forces” bombings of villages and cities and the killing of hundreds of civilians, under the pretext of confronting extremist Islamic organizations.
Under the same pretexts other massacres were carried out without any disguise by both the Russian and Iranian armies and associated militias whose presence was required by the Syrian regime to confront the “global conspiracy” against it.
Albeit denied by the perpetrators, all these massacres were documented and exposed to the entire world through the media.
Syria has become a field for testing and marketing weapons as recognized by Russian forces more than once, openly and clearly. There are reports of experiments conducted on detainees as well.
In 2014, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) in Geneva stopped the census of martyrs in Syria after the number of victims was over 100,000 by the end of 2013 considering that
“its employees do not have sufficient access to combat areas to get themselves accurate figures on the number of victims of war in Syria.”
That means that the numbers were already much higher.
The NGO Human Rights Watch, based on a census published by the Syrian Center for Policy Research, published a report confirming that on February 2016, the death toll had reached 470,000 in addition to more than 90,000 detainees and about 60,000 forced disappearances (figures may be much higher).
Out of 90,000 arrested, more than 8,000 are women (about 300 minors) detained until mid-2018. Some of them were taken hostages, until their male relatives surrendered to the regime.
In addition, half of the Syrian population has been displaced both internal displacement and asylum abroad. The estimated cost of reconstruction is about half a trillion dollars.
The Syrian regime and its supporters believe that they had achieved their victory over the Syrian people by suppressing the revolution through excessive violence that forced the revolutionaries into what they call “reconciliation”.
Many of the ones who had been forced into “reconciliation” were arrested or had to flee.
Rebel-ruled Idlib province remains awaiting the final decision. Syrian regime is in wait while Russian jets bombards Western Euphrates and Turkish forces frequently make incursions and threats into several areas in the North.
Furthermore, Zionist forces strike Syrian territory regularly but both Syrian regime and Iranian forces seem to be used to them as they are carried out in agreement and previous communication with Russian forces.
The regime has restated to erect its statues in the areas where they were toppled as it happened recently when a new statue of former President Hafez al-Assad replaced the old statue destroyed by the revolutionaries in 2011 at Deraa city.
Together with statues, security officials.
In 2011 the Security Political Division, led by Bashar al-Assad’s relative General Atef Najib, arrested the children of Deraa and he told their parents the words that sparked the revolution:
“Forget the children! Make others or bring the mothers here and we will carry out the task on your behalf.”
Likewise, Major General Muhammad Mahla, head of the Intelligence General Division, visited Deraa city, leading a security delegation commissioned by Bashar al-Assad to meet with the city’s dignitaries in late February 2019.
Deraa representatives presented a 13-demand petition headed by freedom to political prisoners.
Mahla told them to forget the ones arrested before 2014 and commit himself to free the ones arrested after 2014 who are still alive.
He noted that the detainees before 2014 are “in a critical situation and perhaps most of them have died.”
which prompted people to come out again in demonstrations that look like the second wave of the revolution.
While the Syrian people was expected to be subjugated and relegated to the fold of obedience, and to become an example for other peoples who want freedom, the reality proved that the regime did not learn from the lessons of the last eight years.
The revolutions have troubled the entire Arab regimes from the ocean to the Gulf as once a revolution subsides, another erupts.
The demands are the same: a regime with democratic liberties and no place for corruption, guaranteeing human dignity in its homeland and ensuring justice and equality for all its people.
