by Wolfgang Sannwald
They didn’t sleep at all. Or only for a short time, with their cell phones next to their pillows. The overthrow of the Assad regime in Syria and the last hours of the Assad regime deprived our Syrian colleagues at the tuenews workshops in Heilbronn of sleep. How are family members in Damascus, Aleppo or in the towns near the coast? Are they safe?
This weekend belongs to Syria, especially the night from Saturday, December 7th to Sunday, December 8th, 2024. One of the topics on the agenda was the developments in the country. They overwhelmed us. We are experiencing contemporary history together, the last hours of Bashar al Assad’s regime. We experience it in the perception of some people in Syria who write about it to their friends in our editorial staff via social media and tell them on the phone: How the powerful rebel movement HTS is moving from Idlib into Homs. How the handover in the Alawite-inhabited areas near the coast is going peacefully. How Syrians from the south of the country, for example from Daraa, are the first to advance on Damascus. We see videos of presidential guards taking off their uniforms on the street, throwing them into the ditch and dispersing in civilian clothes. We see insurgents freeing hundreds of women in the state prison. And questions arise: where is Assad, and why did his plane disappear from the radar screen?
The day before, our colleagues had given us insights into the perspectives of people from different cities in Syria, in Iraq and Iran. Who were these militias and whose money was making them strong? Iran had clearly paid and sent Hezbollah to Syria. Assad’s regime relied on their coercion and violence, and many people in Syria are angry at Hezbollah. Israel’s attack on members and positions of this militia weakened them so much that their fighters left Syria. Russia supported Assad’s regime, but its military power was tied up in the war of aggression against Ukraine. So the Turkish-financed militias remained capable of attack, Kurdish fighters with American support, some smaller groups and – according to our colleagues – above all the militia Hajat Tahrir al-Scham (HTS). Their financing remains a mystery for the time being. The head of HTS, Al-Dscholani, is said to have once headed a branch of the terrorist network Al-Qaeda. In 2016, he is said to have broken with Al-Qaeda. tuenews colleagues show photos of a change: how Al-Jolani discarded the turban of the jihadists, now wears a military uniform, smoothed his beard and image, and now goes by the name Ahmed al-Scharaa. “Can he be trusted?” Depending on their point of view, some people’s joy is mixed with fear: will the HTS bring freedom or is there a possibility of new oppression?
The hopeful outlook of the people in Syria is focused on everyday life: in Idlib, the HTS had established a functioning civil administration and a bishop became the head of a civil administration. In Aleppo, where electricity and the internet were cut off by the hour during Assad’s time, the new civil administration is providing people with services around the clock. The garbage disposal is working again. While we see photos of empty supermarket shelves in Damascus, the people in Aleppo are well supplied. It remains to be seen whether the people will be economically better off and whether they will have more freedom.
The question of whether the fall of Assad suggests a return to Syria is answered by many rather cautiously and very differently. Some rule out the possibility because of the lack of security. Others have economic reasons: many people in Syria can only survive on the money that refugees from all over the world transfer to them. And then there are the children who have been living in Germany since 2013, 2014, 2015, have grown up here and have become German. Do they speak enough Arabic? Would they find their way in the country of origin? On the other hand, not a few feel marginalized in Germany, especially since the murders of the terrorist group Hamas against Israeli people and the subsequent war of Israel in Gaza. Members of the tuenews editorial team reversed their perspective: How high would the losses be for Germany if many of the highly educated and loyal people from Syria returned to their old homeland and left our state?
But first and foremost, the feeling of liberation and joy prevails. On the return trip on Sunday, some get off in Stuttgart, where a solidarity demonstration has been rededicated as a Syrian celebration of joy. This weekend belongs to Syria.
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Photo: Celebration of joy on December 8, 2024 in Stuttgart.
