after 50 years of dictatorship, Syrians want to believe it

Since the rebel victory of December 8, the Syrian capital has been making up for lost time at an accelerated pace. Freed from tyranny, it suddenly became the keystone of democratic hopes in the Arab world. For more than thirteen years, the Syrian capital, under the yoke of the Assad clan, was cut off from the world. In the spring of 2011, the spark of revolution broke out in Daraa, in the south of the country, and quickly spread to Damascus. On Umayyad Square, the population peacefully demands the end of the dictatorship. Bashar El Assad, who succeeded his father Hafez in 2000, bloodily repressed the rallies and plunged Syria into war.

Between 2011 and 2024, the conflict will cause more than 500,000 deaths according to NGO estimates. Half the population has been displaced, and five to six million Syrians have fled the country, a quarter of the population. In the inner suburbs of Damascus, rebel neighborhoods were razed by the regime and its allies, Russia and Lebanese Hezbollah, but the capital remained intact. Stifled by a dictatorial lead, it has become the symbol of a frozen and murderous power.

Under the Assad dictatorship, a local saying went: “the walls have ears”, in reference to the intelligence services which had penetrated the family units. Today, on every street corner, the thirst for speech is tangible, but between two bursts of joy, the Damascenes question themselves. The new masters of Damascus, more or less moderate Islamist groups, promise the establishment of a rule of law, amnesty for Bashar El Assad’s conscripts and the protection of minorities. Despite these wishes for democracy, social peace remains fragile in the Syrian capital.