Reader about the Syrian Revolution

On the 8th of December 2024 the pale doctor, dictator and butcher Bashar al-Assad whose regime unleashed uncountable atrocities on the Syrian people, fled the country. Half a century of repressive family rule has ended with him. After the crushed revolution of 2011 and more than a decade of war, relentless violent oppression of dissident voices, the Syrians are finally are able to witness the fall of this regime. These are truly weeks in that decades happen and many stand in bewilderment, joyful, hopeful yet also worried of what is to come. What way will the power change go, how will life be in the years to come?

“Our Stalin or Bonaparte is not yet in power, and the Syrian masses still have the opportunity to get a better outcome than that of the Russian revolution. It is true that this is difficult and is becoming more so every minute, but the revolution itself was a miracle, and on this earth the oppressed can create their miracles from time to time.”

One of the texts of the reader contains this statement of an author in 2012. It seems now more urgent than ever. The fall of a dictatorship is one thing, but the other, and maybe even more difficult, is to build actual democracy. Most of what we can see in the media these days is the relief and sheer joy of the people who feel like they can finally breath. But will Hayat Tahrir al-Sham really act as an alternative, will they give way for truly democratic processes by the people? HTS was formed in 2017 as a split-off from al-Nusra, the Syrian arm of al-Qaeda. In 2012 Ahmed al-Sharaa (also know as Abu Mohammed al-Julani) had still coordinated with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS. Al-Sharaa now presents himself as a moderate, or as others have called him “woke” Jihadi, toward the West, trying to establish official relations and be taken off the terror groups lists.

Will they actually remain an “interim government”? Will they repeat what happened in Afghanistan and Iran representing as “moderate Islamists”, then hitting the country with more oppression and killing? And where are the revolutionaries of 2011 now, what is left of the local councils, the free radio stations and women-led media projects? Will there be a way of the Syrian opposition to work together with the Kurdish-led autonomous administration in North & Eastern Syria? Can all these actors gain a say in the new system to be build or will one system of oppression replace another?

The current situation has reignited the interest of the world in this region in upheaval. While we are following the developments, we shall not forget the efforts of the Syrian people who have given a huge and endless struggle for freedom since 2011. Through Western orientalist eyes the situation is “only natually” very “chaotic and complicated” by the multitude of cultures, ethnicities and religions. But there aren’t just “Islamists” and “warlords”; there is a democratic current within the Syrian people who were and are still striving for freedom, dignity, and justice for all. Many of their voices are included in this reader.

Now more than ever the Syrian people have to be “one”, stand together and shape their future.