‘Nothing worse’ than Assad regime

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This article was published 10/12/2024 (360 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Maysoun Darweesh woke up Monday and immediately reached for her phone.

On Sunday, the brutal regime of Bashar al-Assad was toppled in her native Syria — something she never expected in her lifetime. Darweesh had to check the web to make sure she hadn’t been dreaming.

“We waited for this for an eternity,” Darweesh, the executive director of the Kurdish Initiative for Refugees, told the Free Press. “We are free. Our entire lives have been based on this moment. We’re hopeful.”

Syrians and millions displaced around the world following the Arab Spring in 2011 celebrated Sunday after Syrian rebels captured Damascus, the country’s capital.

A rebel alliance, headed by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a former al-Qaida affiliate, and other groups began its charge through Syria on Nov. 27. The two-week lightning offensive ended with Assad being ousted.

Syrians ransacked the presidential palace after he and his family fled to Russia, where they were granted asylum.

“This victory, my brothers, is a victory for the entire Islamic nation. This new triumph, my brothers, marks a new chapter in the history of the region,” said Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, leader of HTS, in a speech in Damascus.

Assad agreed to release his grip on power in the country, which Jolani said had become a “playground for Iranian ambitions, spreading sectarianism, stirring corruption,” on Monday.

Darweesh, her late husband Nour Ali and their two young daughters fled their home in Latakia in northeast Syria in 2008, before the revolution and prior to the country plunging into civil war in 2011.

They arrived in Winnipeg in late 2012.

“We’re all hoping this new government will represent all Syrians, different backgrounds, religious groups, ethnic groups,” Darweesh said. “Nothing can be worse than the Assad regime. We won’t allow what we experienced for 54 years to happen again in a different way.”

The Assad family, including Bashar al-Assad and his father, Hafez al-Assad, ruled the country with an iron fist since 1970.

Francois Zankih, an activist and policy analyst who escaped from Syria in early 2020, said Monday there’s reason to believe in al-Jolani, a former insurgent who was in U.S. custody in Iraq before breaking away from al-Qaida and the Islamic State.

The founder of Guardians of Equality Movement, Syria’s first and only LGBTTQ+ organization, Zankih said he was forced from his homeland after two kidnappings in 2016 and 2018, and ultimately having the death penalty imposed on him for his activist work.

“There was a lot of attention on me,” said Zankih, who splits his time between Winnipeg and Montreal. “I’m a survivor.”

Zankih said HTS’s behaviour changed years ago, including through work with Geneva Call, an independent humanitarian organization that works in northwestern Syria to protect civilians in armed conflict.

Zankih said it’s part of the reason to hope this liberation won’t be just another failed uprising in the region.

“(Transitioning) from a terrorist group to one that respects humanitarian principles is a huge shift,” Zankih said. “There’s no revenge. There’s no targeting minorities, even the minorities that were targeting (HTS).

“This is different because what we are seeing is different: high protection to minorities, high protection to their enemies, even.”

Hammoud Jumaa holds similar hope after Assad’s collapse.

He said only a week ago he couldn’t speak with his family for fear that they’d be subjected to revenge by Assad.

The PhD candidate at the University of Manitoba said Monday he hasn’t seen his parents since 2012, when he fled to Egypt to seek asylum and avoid being forced into military service under Assad.

“I rejected participating in the war against our people,” Jumaa said.

Jumaa arrived in Canada in 2016. His doctoral project focuses on the means of control and subjugation that have been used by the Syrian government since 1970 when Hafez al-Assad seized power, and how the success of the Assad regime destroyed the Syrian state and society.

Jumaa admits it’s unclear how things will unfold, but he sees a major difference in Syria’s hopes.

“The Syrian voice has always been present,” he said. “We have been learning from experiences in the region, from Egypt to Tunisia. We are noting those lessons. And we are leading a major role in the events. It’s not outsider-only.

“We’re hoping to make our voice more apparent and more influential, and that is the difference that we are counting on.”

Darweesh agreed.

“The group has a lot of question marks, but we are willing to seeing the light in the darkness,” she said.

Darweesh, now a Canadian citizen, hopes all Canadians will support the efforts in Syria.

“My message to all people in the community, to all our fellow Canadians: Don’t give up on us. Don’t stop believing in us, have hope in us,” she said. “We need your support in building our country, to move forward. We need you as an ally.”

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca