Joyous celebrations across Syria after al-Assad's fall

4 days ago

Aljazeera.com

Joyous celebrations in Syria [Ali Haj Suleimam/Al Jazeera]

Syrians poured out into the streets across Syria and around the world, jubilant at the end of Bashar al-Assad's rule.

Al Jazeera spoke to six people who were out in Homs and Damascus, celebrating the latest developments after a coalition of opposition fighters stormed through the country in a lightning offensive that overthrew the regime.

Here's what they said:

Nour Abdulmawla

[Ali Haj Suleimam/Al Jazeera]

Nour Abdulmawla, 32, from Homs, a fighter

By God, it's something indescribable. I still don't know if I'm dreaming or whether I'm still asleep. I'm from Homs, from the George Chiah neighbourhood, and I had to leave 10 years ago, in 2014. I had to leave my family behind and hadn't seen them for 10 years ... I finally just saw them now, thanks be to God.

There is no feeling like this. I have never experienced it in my life, praise be to God. I just hope that this feeling that we have, that God will honour our brothers and sisters in Palestine with this same feeling. May God grant them victory.

I mean, the thing that affects you the most is seeing the security branches that people were afraid to pass by, and now the young men are entering them and stepping on the picture of Hafez al-Assad. I hope that there is justice, there is freedom for the people and the era of tyranny ends.

You can see what it's like all around you. I mean, the people of Homs, the people who were so much affected by the regime, and now their joy is indescribable.

Majd Shahoud

[Ali Haj Suleimam/Al Jazeera]

Majd Shahoud, 38, from Bab Sbaa, Homs - out celebrating with her nephew Mohamed

How was the regime's treatment of people in Homs? It was cruel. Cruel, cruel, cruel. We had no electricity, no water, no internet, everything was an issue.

Yesterday we were waiting, hopeful, waiting for you, for the day that Syria can truly become Syria. Today is a day of joy, it's like a dream.

My Homs, my soul. My life is Homs, Syria is Homs. We are the children of this country, we're one, we don't want anyone hurt any more.

I dream that we can live, like other countries that have toppled their regimes, to be without fear, to not fear speaking out.

Today on the streets I just saw tears. Tears, tears, tears. Now I see that Syria really is ours, now I feel that this is my Syria and when I saw them, may God protect them, when I saw them come ... they have avenged my brother, my uncle.

They're both missing. My uncle has been missing for 14 years, the same as his son's age. He went missing just as the boy was born.

My other uncle was killed at the door to his home ... today I feel we have been avenged.

Youssef Beyraqdar

[Ali Haj Suleimam/Al Jazeera]

Youssef Beyraqdar, from Bab Sbaa, Homs

I had to leave my neighbourhood in 2012 because of the ethnic cleansing and massacres, and today I've come back to my liberated city.

In 2018, I had to leave the northern Homs countryside in a green bus [domestic transport buses used by al-Assad for forced population transfer]. But today, I have come back with my dignity intact, honoured and free.

My feelings as I came back were so mixed. We cried, we screamed in joy - feelings that cannot be described. Coming back and seeing our families - it's like a dream.

I saw my mother. I was able to visit my father's grave. He died while I was away, last year, and I wasn't able to come back.

Today I was able to visit him and tell him that I was here again, finally. Thanks be to God.

God willing, we will rebuild our city that was destroyed by the Assad regime, Russia, and the sectarian militias that he used and brought in to suppress the Syrian revolution and kill the Syrian people.

All there is to say is that we aspire for a Syria that is a civil, democratic state that respects all spectrums of the Syrian people. And we hope that the criminals and murderers will be brought to justice and accountability.

Zainab al-Hussein

[Ali Haj Suleimam/Al Jazeera]

Zainab al-Hussein from Qalaat al-Madiq, Hama countryside

Today we are in Damascus, praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds. We have liberated everywhere, everyone. The feeling cannot be described, our happiness.

O God, all praise is due to You.

We could not believe it was happening until we heard the sound of [celebratory] shooting outside, and we immediately came out and came to Ummayyad Square. Praise be to God. We are happy and the entire world is with us.

Our whole lives ... our whole lives we have been harassed and oppressed by Bashar al-Assad's regime, and praise be to God we got rid of him from the oppression, injustice, and corruption.

I was in a private university, studying business administration, but study stopped because of what was going on.

We are ready to stop our whole lives for this though! I hope that [Abu Mohammed] al-Julani will rule us.

And thanks be to God, Syria is free and down with Bashar al-Assad.

Hajja Majida Hilal

[Ali Haj Suleimam/Al Jazeera]

Hajja Majida Hilal, 65, a Palestinian in Damascus

We were so repressed! Oh my God, it was so, so, so bad, we were just repressed.

We could not even really tell our children the entire scope of what was happening to us, we were suffocating.

My son-in-law, my daughter's husband, he was just walking home in the [refugee] camp towards the beginning of the troubles ... and they shot him. Just like that, a field execution.

But now, such a great joy, we are happy, praise be to God. I was so happy when I heard. All I wanted to do was to buy sweets and distribute them to people in the street.

I pray that we have a good, safe future here in Syria. I would never fear the opposition who are here now, there is no fear from them as they liberated us.

Laith al-Balouth

[Ali Haj Suleimam/Al Jazeera]

Laith al-Balouth, from Sweida

I, in all modesty, can say that I am Laith Wahid al-Balouth from the hills of pride and dignity. I've come down to Damascus today to be with the people.

I am the son of the [Druze] martyr, Sheikh Boufayed Wahid al-Balouth, who sacrificed his blood to speak the truth and preserve the dignity of his stance with our Syrian people.

Today is a day to congratulate ourselves and the Syrian people for this victory that God Almighty gave us throughout the Syrian land by removing this tyrannical, criminal regime.

This victory from God Almighty, we congratulate the Syrian people and join hands with them and tell them that we stand for the dignity of every free, honourable person in Syria who stands for the dignity of his family and people, who stands for his homeland and does not differentiate between sects.

I would like to reaffirm the words of my martyred father. Syria is our mother and there is no other nation for us.

Either above the ground with dignity or underground with dignity.

We hope that the transitional government, may God ease their path, unites for the good of the people and society and that they stand as one heart and one hand for justice and security to our Syrian people.

The people have had enough of paying the tax of tyranny. We would like to have a unified position in Syria that obtains the rights of the people and protects the dignity of our Syrian people.