Not a civil war: It is Syrians’ struggle for freedom

As a Syrian close to seventy years old who at one time had a close working relationship with the Assad family, I am very familiar with what has gone on in Syria in the past 50 to 55 years. So I will start by telling you how the Syrian revolution began. 

While it is true that it came in the context of the Arab Spring, no one in the world expected Syrians to rise up against the brutal Assad regime that has programmed their lives for a long time not to say no. To the surprise of everybody, they finally said no and took to the streets because they wanted a better life. They were protesting against oppression and dictatorship and they were quite peaceful. Because this regime got used to using fire to quell dissension whenever anybody objected to what they were doing, they faced innocent unarmed peaceful civilians with bullets, artillery, and later on with weapons that had not been used since WW2.

For a long time, the protesters tried to keep their uprising a peaceful revolution. Ghiath Matar, one of the martyrs of the revolution, offered Assad soldiers flowers and water when they were in the streets marching for freedom. Matar, a baker, was tortured to death by the regime leaving behind a pregnant wife and a son who was born shortly after he died. And despite the regime’s attempts to kill the revolution, it kept growing.

When the Assad regime and its forces, the militias of Hezbollah, and the Revolutionary Guard of the Mullah Khomeini failed to suppress and defeat the people who were now in control of over half of Syria, they called upon Russia

When the regime saw that the revolution had spread all over Syria, it asked for the help of the Mullahs of Iran’s militias and Hezbollah. Under the pretext of protecting shrines and what they called holy sites, they interfered in Syria; and those same holy sites had for centuries been protected by Syrians, especially the majority of the population, Sunni Muslims.

Now they failed because of the dissent and people leaving the Assad army. This army by the way is a footnote. We spent about 75-80% of the Syrian budget on buying weapons, arming ourselves, etc., for the liberation of our land and Palestine we were told. And in the name of Palestine, in the name of the Golan, oppression was being exercised against Syrians. When the Assad regime and its forces, the militias of Hezbollah, and the Revolutionary Guard of the Mullah Khomeini failed to suppress and defeat the people who were now in control of over half of Syria, they called upon Russia. Probably it can be considered a superpower and this superpower interfered, paradoxically, and ironically, with the consent of Israel and the United States. 

the world turning a blind eye to the crimes being perpetrated by Russia in Syria triggered Putin’s ability and encouraged him to invade Ukraine

When Vladimir Putin bragged of using over 250 types of Russian weapons against Syrian souls, their blood, houses, markets, hospitals, and schools, because he was not stopped, he was encouraged to invade Ukraine. And so the world turning a blind eye to the crimes being perpetrated by Russia in Syria triggered Putin’s ability and encouraged him to invade Ukraine and the world is now in the mix of a possible, or a potential, third World War. 

The international community also interfered in the Syrian case. There were  envoys starting with the Arab League, who made certain conditions for political transition in Syria. The interference of the United Nations which sent envoys starting with Kofi Anan, Lakhdar Brahimi and Staffan de Mistura and now we have Geir Pedersen. Several resolutions were issued by the UN Security Council, the most important being Resolution 2254 on which all UN Security Council members agreed. But it was toothless. Although it called for a political transition in Syria, the regime pretended that they wanted peace, but actually they talk about peace and do war. 

There was a negotiations commission and a constitutional committee, but the purpose of all of them was to abort the main thing, which was a cease-fire and political transition. The cease-fire was instead turned into de-escalation areas. This idea was created by the Russians, especially in Astana, and also by the constitutional committee. They were quite selective in picking this item from the main items found in 2254, in particular political transition, turning the whole Syrian issue politically into a matter of constitutional writing — and we are still in that place. 

Syria now is being fragmented and it’s the war field for several powers that all have interests, and their interests come before any interests of Syrians who have been suffering all these years

Later on, states tried to normalize with this regime. There were resolutions from the United States— the captagon sanctions and then the anti-normalization act, yet many Arab countries are still trying to normalize with the regime. Turkey is trying but nothing is happening. The result of this tragedy is that over half the population is displaced and scattered all over the world. Almost half of Syria is destroyed. Poverty is at its worst and people are living a miserable life. All these things are happening in Syria with the world just turning a blind eye to the tragedy happening to Syrians. 

We had in Syria over 100 countries that named themselves as friends of the Syrian people, but they were not actual friends. The real friends were the Iranians and the Russians and they are friends with the Assad regime, aiding it in its oppression, aggression, brutality and domination of Syria. Syria now is being fragmented and it’s the war field for several powers that all have interests, and their interests come before any interests of Syrians who have been suffering all these years. This is the Syrian situation and we still believe as Syrians that we can bring our life back on track and that the oppression, aggression, and dictatorship will eventually end because Syrians are entitled to basic human rights — and many are committed to claiming those rights by bringing an end to the tyrannical dictatorship that has been destroying our homeland.