Syrians debate issue of 2,000 pound note
Central bank’s move seen as Al Assad’s message to the world that he is here to stay
Pro-regime bloggers tried to downplay the economic impact of the new move, claiming that it was unrelated to inflation.
Syrians are actively debating the release of a new 2,000 Syrian pound banknote issued by the Central Bank of Syria in early July.
It carried a purple portrait of the Grand Umayyad Mosque on one side, next to an image of President Bashar Al Assad and a drawing of the interior of Syria’s Parliament on the other, with its new value glowing in green. In the photo, Al Assad looks serious and stern, dressed in a suit and tie.
Opposition activists were furious, seeing the move as a clear message directed at those asking him to step down since the outbreak of hostilities in March 2011.
“It’s the president’s own way of telling them and the Geneva talks that he has no intention of doing so; not now or anytime in the future. He is winning this war and regaining territory, thanks to the Russians. He wants the world to remember that clearly, both inside Syria and abroad,” Mazen Al Shammat, a writer and member of the ruling Baath Party, told Gulf News yesterday.
Pro-regime bloggers tried to downplay the economic impact of the new move, claiming that it was unrelated to inflation but rather, linked to the upcoming 17th anniversary of Al Assad’s inauguration on July 17.
Meanwhile, at least three opposition entities have banned circulation of the new paper money.
A coalition of anti-regime businessmen called the Committee of Free Economists for Development, issued a statement saying that adopting the new currency was akin to “accepting [the] rule of the gangsters and their economic dominance”.