Can Syria's anti-regime protests maintain momentum?
Analysis: Protests against growing poverty and Assad’s authoritarian rule have spread from Suweida to regime-held areas of Syria. Will a new movement learn from past mistakes to achieve political change?
7 September 2023
For over a fortnight, protestors have gathered in the main square of southwestern Syrian city of Suweida, holding signs and joining in chants for the downfall of President Bashar al-Assad.
Around the city, images of the president have been defaced and the ruling Baath party’s slogans removed from the facades of public institutions. Last week, angry protestors even smashed the statue of Assad’s father, the country’s late president.
“After 53 years, we’ve faced every single type of suffering we could go through and seen every single way the government can oppress us,” said a 24-year-old protestor from Suweida, who preferred to remain anonymous due to fear of reprisal.
The protests were set in motion by Assad’s decision to cut fuel subsidies — a lifeline for the majority of Syrians who now live in poverty — but have quickly became a reflection of the broader dissatisfaction and anger with the regime.
The protests have spread to other governorates, including Dara’a in the south and Idlib in the northwest. In Dara’a on Friday protestors carried the three-star flag emblematic of the 2011 uprising, while singing the decade-old demands for political change with renewed vigour.
“It’s been the most beautiful two weeks of my entire life, because we finally have a chance at freedom,” the young protestor told The New Arab (TNA).
Statements against the regime have even leaked out of urban government strongholds, such as in Damascus and the coastal cities of Latakia and Tartous, where Assad’s security apparatus maintains a tight grip over the population.
Residents have written support messages on paper and read signs in front of the camera with phrases like: “Syria belongs to us, not to the ruling Ba’ath party”.