The 53 year long father-and-son Assad regime in Syria ended a few days ago, much to the fervent delight of much of the population of that country. After an amazingly rapid offensive against government troops, led by a coalition led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Assad fled. He sought, and got, asylum in Russia, a country that had previously provided military support to the Syrian regime. But the rebels rightly figured that Russia and other previous Assad-supporting weapons-providing governments such as Iran were distracted with their own conflicts. Many of Assad’s soldiers discarded their uniforms and stood down. Countless prisoners were freed. The palaces were taken over. And people celebrated.
Families searched the prisons, including the infamous Sednaya prison known as the “human slaughterhouse”, for the innumerable political prisoners taken and tortured by the regime. Some were reunited. Some unfortunately will never be; morgues of tortured bodies were found. There’s also the numerous “disappeared” citizens that it feel unlikely will ever be found, alive, or more likely, otherwise. An estimated 300,000 deaths and 100,000 disappearances occurred since 2011. Half of the country had been displaced from their homes, with most of them attempting to leave for a safer country.
It’s the start of a brave new chapter in the history of the country, although what comes next is uncertain and causing some consternation for some. The dominant group, HTS, is Islamist in a religiously diverse country - and far from historically blameless when it comes to respecting human rights - although they have made comment that they intend to run the place for all. But first we - and especially those who lived under Assad’s appalling regime - can celebrate the fall of a cruel and inhumane dictatorship that led to nothing but tortured misery for many of its citizens.
“The feelings, they’re indescribable,” said Mohammed Ahmad, a resident of Kafr Halab, in northern Syria. “I am angry, I am happy and I am sad. But now that the regime has fallen, I can rest.”