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More than ten years after the outbreak of the war in Syria, during which the Syrian regime has committed the most heinous crimes against the Syrian civilian population.
Many Syrians believe that the real start of their “revolution” was on March 18, 2011, when popular demonstrations were held that day in the city of Daraa, after the regime refused to release the children who had written On the wall of his school anti-regime phrases against the head of the regime, Bashar al-Assad.
The decision of the Damascus authorities to crush the peaceful protests in the beginning led to the transformation of the Syrian protests into a bloody war involving regional and international parties, killing more than half a million people and causing the displacement of half of the citizen. the population.
Although the regime managed to control the governorate of Daraa, in the south of the country, after settlement agreements under Russian supervision, it is still witnessing an escalation of protests, insecurity, battles and confrontations between local factions (formerly opposition) and the regime forces and their allies, resulting in hundreds of deaths and injuries on both sides so far.
“Young people inside Syria still live in a state of despair,” says activist Ahmed Al-Masalma, who helped organize protests in Daraa a decade ago and now lives in exile in Jordan. We will take advantage of this desperation to restart the revolution again ”.
“The Hama massacres were repeated.”
From the first day of the uprising, Ahmed Al-Masalmeh used to go to the Al-Omari Mosque in Daraa to organize anti-government demonstrations in the center of Daraa, and he was at the Al-Omari Mosque that bloody day (March 18) , when the security forces opened fire on the protesters, killing two of them and wounding at least 20 others, being the first victims of the conflict, which has entered its eleventh year.
Al-Masalmeh explained that he had expected the occurrence of violence, but thought that the security forces would settle for firing tear gas and rubber bullets, thinking that Bashar al-Assad would not repeat the massacres committed by his father Hafez al-Assad. in Hama in 1982.
Al-Masalmeh, who was 35 when the events broke, said: “We used to believe that the world had become a small village thanks to social networking sites, and that Bashar would not dare to do what his father did. …
Daraa shaped the course of the revolution, and at a time when secular activists called for peaceful protests, protesters in Daraa resorted to taking up arms to respond to violence by security services and the killing of civilians while participating in demonstrations. peaceful.
Subsequently, fighters from the opposition militia Salafi groups, including those loyal to “Al Qaeda”, succeeded in marginalizing the role of leftist, secular or nationalist groups. The ferocity of the war added fuel to the fire of sectarian hatred, especially among Sunnis and Alawites, the minority to which Assad belongs.
At the height of the Syrian revolution between 2013 and 2014, the Syrian opposition controlled most of the lands east of the Euphrates, parts of Daraa governorate, and much of the north. Battles were fought for control of the major cities, and even Damascus threatened from the surrounding countryside.
Assad’s forces launched devastating airstrikes with barrel bombs and chemical attacks. The toll of the battle turned in their favor when Hezbollah, Iran and later Syria militias intervened to support the regime.
Sectarian hatred
The ferocity of the war and violence fueled feelings of hatred in the mainly Sunni province. “He hated the Shiites and he hated the Alawites (the sect Bashar al-Assad belongs to),” says Nidal al-Omari, who currently resides in Germany after receiving asylum there.
Al-Omari had dropped out of university studies in March 2011 and established a media center in Daraa to broadcast images of the protests to the world, before regime forces arrested him and subjected him to brutal torture for four months, according to him. , before he managed to leave the country.
He confirmed that he had not seen his family for 10 years, showing a tattoo on his arm with the date of March 18 (anniversary of the start of the protests in Daraa), before adding: “We live but inside us we are dead. . “
On the other hand, merchants linked to Assad and Iran took advantage of abject poverty in Daraa to buy land for Iranian militias.
Lawyer and human rights defender Hassan Al-Aswad said that a new civil movement in the governorate is working to raise awareness against the sale of land and mobilize opposition to the upcoming presidential elections, in which Assad will be the only one. candidate. ,
The well-known lawyer in Daraa, and now a resident of Germany, says that the economic crisis has exhausted people across Syria, as infrastructure has been destroyed and the agricultural and industrial sector has deteriorated.
Due to Daraa’s location, its proximity to the Israeli border, and the expansion of Hezbollah militias, the Revolutionary Guard, and other groups loyal to Iran, Russia has tried to find a kind of balance in the “interests of the various parties there. , “in the opinion of some activists.
In some parts of Daraa governorate, opposition fighters who agreed to “reconciliation” remained responsible for security, as some of them joined forces from the “Fifth Corps”, which is technically part of the Syrian regime’s army but it is effectively supervised by Russia.
In these areas, state institutions and municipal officials returned, and Assad’s forces remained outside.
Elsewhere, Russian and government forces are taking responsibility together. While the Assad government, Al-Assad, completely controls other areas, with the expansion of its forces, backed by militias loyal to Iran, the regions, the government completely controls and the Syrian army and Iran-backed militias have spread. .
The organized presence of the armed opposition leaves room for repeated protests and expressions of anti-government sentiment that are difficult to find elsewhere. Some opponents rejected the deal with Russia and launched multiple attacks that killed more than 600 people, according to the Syrian Observatory. for Human Rights.
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