ShareDAMASCUS/MAJDAL SHAMS: Syrians gathered on Saturday to commemorate the 14th anniversary of their uprising in public demonstrations in Damascus for the first time since president Bashar Al-Assad was toppled. The demonstration in Damascus’s Umayyad Square is the first in the capital after years of repression under Assad, during which the square was the sole preserve of the ousted president’s supporters.
Activists also called on people to gather in the cities of Homs, Idlib and Hama at demonstrations under the slogan “Syria is victorious”. By the afternoon, dozens of people had gathered in the capital’s Umayyad Square, amid a heavy security presence and with military helicopters overhead dropping leaflets bearing the slogan “there is no room for hate among us”.
Security forces were stationed at all entrances to the square, with some of them handing out flowers to demonstrators while speakers blared revolutionary and Islamic songs.
Many attendees waved the Syrian flag — officially changed from one used under Assad to the design from the independence era — and held signs reading “the revolution has triumphed”.
Hanaa Al-Daghri, 32, was among those in the square and told 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 said. “We are missing many friends who are no longer with us, but their bloodshed brought us to where we are today.”
Under bright sunlight, Abdul Moneim Nimr, 41, stood surrounded by his friends who raised a large flag and began 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 said. Syria’s conflict began with peaceful demonstrations on March 15, 2011, in which thousands protested against Assad’s government, before it spiraled into civil war after his violent repression of the protests.
This year’s commemoration marks the first since Assad was toppled on Dec 8 by Islamist-led rebels. Ahmed Al-Sharaa, who headed the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) which spearheaded the offensive, has since been named interim president. Hundreds also gathered at the main square in the rebels’ former stronghold of Idlib, an AFP journalist saw, raising the flags of Syria and HTS amid a heavy security presence and despite the Ramadan fast and relatively hot weather.
The United Nations special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, said 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 statement that despite the brutal civil war, “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 called for “an immediate end to all violence and for protection of civilians”.
On Friday, dozens of Syrian Druze clerics crossed the armistice line on the Golan Heights into the Zionist entity for their community’s first pilgrimage to a revered shrine in decades. On board three buses escorted by Zionist military vehicles, the clerics crossed at Majdal Shams in the Golan, and headed to the Zionist entity’s north.
According to a source close to the group, the delegation of around 60 clerics was due to meet the spiritual leader of the Zionist entity’s Druze community, Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif. They then headed to the tomb of Nabi Shuaib in the Galilee — the most important religious site for the Druze — where they arrived in the evening to pray.
Followers of the esoteric monotheistic faith are mainly divided between Syria, Lebanon, the Zionist entity and the Zionist-occupied Golan Heights. In Majdal Shams, the visitors were met by scores of Druze residents who sang songs to welcome them. Young boys waved the green, red, yellow, blue and white Druze flag, while the men wore traditional black garb and white and red headwear.
“We are really drowned by good feelings and we are hosting brothers after politics and the wire have separated us for a long time,” said Salim Zeidan, 74, a retired formerly teacher whose family was visiting from Syria. “We’ve been waiting to meet them for many years, it is a very emotional moment,” added Jamal Ayub, a 61-year-old farmer who had travelled from the Galilee to welcome his uncle.
The visit followed an invitation from the Druze community in the Zionist entity, according to a source close to the delegation, but has been met with opposition from other Druze in Syria. Residents of Hader village in Syria, from where the clerics departed on Friday, condemned the trip, saying in a statement that the clerics “represent only themselves”. They accused the Zionist entity of “exploiting this religious visit as a tool to sow division” and of “seeking to use the Druze community as a defensive line to achieve its expansionist interests in southern Syria”. – Agencies
