DAMASCUS: 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.
‘Justice, dignity and peace’
Syria’s conflict began with peaceful demonstrations on March 15, 2011, in which thousands protested against Assad’s government, before it spiralled into civil war after his violent repression of the protests.
This year’s commemoration marks the first since Assad was toppled on December 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.
On Thursday, Sharaa signed into force a constitutional declaration regulating a five-year transition period before a permanent constitution is to be put into place.
Analysts have criticised the declaration, saying it grants too much power to Sharaa and fails to provide sufficient protection to the country’s minorities.
It also came a week after Syria’s Mediterranean coast, the heartland of Assad’s Alawite minority, was gripped by the worst wave of violence since his overthrow.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, security forces and allied groups killed at least 1,500 civilians, mainly Alawites, in the violence that began on March 6.
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 the occasion of the anniversary, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Council in northeast Syria reiterated its objection to the constitutional declaration, saying it “did not adequately reflect the aspirations of the Syrian people to build a just and democratic state”.
