Syrians flooded into streets, markets and mosques on Friday celebrating the recent overthrow of Bashar al-Assad and attending the first Friday prayers since his ouster on Sunday.
CBC senior international correspondent Margaret Evans, producer Jason Ho and videographer David Iacolucci spoke with people in Damascus outside the Umayyad Mosque, which was built in the early 700s and is the city’s largest, and the nearby Al-Hamidiyah market about their hopes and fears for the future.
Islam Marouf, 38
(Jason Ho/CBC)
Marouf is a journalist from Al Hasakah, in the northeast of the country.
He said Syria faces many challenges, including food and oil shortages, uncertainty over Abu Mohammed al-Golani, who led the rebel advance that toppled Assad, and concern that a unified Syria with its various ethnic and religious groups may not hold.
“There is fear from the future,” Marouf said. “We celebrate a new situation in Syria, but all the people have fear, especially the tradespeople.”
He said seeing the rebels release members of the military without exacting revenge and adhere to some of the initial promises made by Golani reassured him, even though he’s from a region where Golani’s group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), is not well known.
“Now, we have peace here in Damascus, that’s good. There is [forgiveness]. Until now, everything is good.”
Still, he said, it will take a lot to maintain that peace and keep Syria whole.
“The people have to work hard to build Syria.”
Joud, 27
(Jason Ho/CBC)
Joud, who did not want to give her last name, studied finance and hopes that in a post-Assad Syria, she’ll be able to find work in her field, earn a higher salary and start a family. When CBC spoke with her, she was savouring the simple pleasure of being able to move freely around the city.
“I’m happy today,” she told Margaret Evans through a translator. “As I left home today, I can walk and go wherever I want…. I’m so happy I can go anywhere. No one is monitoring me.”
Joud said she’s not worried that a new Islamist government might impose restrictions on women.
“It won’t affect me as a woman or anyone else,” she said. “We are going to live as we are living now, and there’ll be no rules — no extra rules — on us, I hope.”
Inas al-Hanash, 25
(Jason Ho/CBC)
Hanash was out celebrating with her kids, and like many of those on the streets of Damascus on Friday, she flashed a hopeful if subtle peace sign as she posed for a photo while other children milled around nearby. She said she’s looking forward to economic stability and actually having things in stores to buy with her money.
“The Syrian lira [pound] will be much better, God willing. Not the same as before. Even if you had money, you couldn’t buy anything.”
Hanash said she also hopes a new government will mean that basic services, such as electricity, are maintained.
“The economic situation will be much better, and we will live in peace and safety,” she said.
Abu Ahmad, 22
(Jason Ho/CBC)
Ahmad said he is a member of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the rebel group that led the advance that toppled the Assad regime. Originally from Idlib, Ahmad said he fought with the rebels as they made their way to Damascus and is now helping maintain security in the capital.
“There are a lot of people who are still supporting the regime, and a lot of thieves in the city,” he said. “We hope that once we do all of this [secure the city], we’ll return home.”
Many inside and outside Syria are waiting to see what happens to those who propped up the regime and had an active hand in the repressive tactics it used to hold on to power.
Ahmad said holding people accountable for their actions under the past regime is a necessary part of the transition.
“If we let supporters of the regime who have blood on their hands go free, we would betray our martyrs,” he said. “In the case of someone in the army who was forcibly conscripted, he can go back home and we won’t do anything to him. As for people with blood on their hands, we will hold them accountable.”
Raed al-Saleh, 42
(Jason Ho/CBC)
Saleh heads up the group known as the White Helmets, first responders whose mission has changed significantly in recent days from helping civilians survive the violence and instability of a prolonged and deadly civil war to rebuilding the country.
One of the first tasks was to help search Saydnaya, the notorious military prison outside Damascus, looking for underground cells and trying to ensure that every corner of the prison was cleared.
“It was one of the most important missions for us,” Saleh said. “We were working very hard to get all the prisoners out.”
Now, they’ll turn to unearthing some of the mass graves where victims of the Assad regime were buried, he said. That will involve collecting DNA samples in hopes of providing answers to the loved ones of the thousands of people who disappeared over the course of 14 years of civil war.
“We have more than 100,000 missing people that we don’t have any information on right now,” Saleh said.
Despite the grim work ahead, Saleh said he’s hopeful.
“The past 14 years, we were suffering a lot. But today … we are in a new phase. We are going to build a new Syria. We will bring back all Syrians and make sure it’s only one country, only one community, and that Syrians are making the decisions in this country.”