Exultant protests in Syria have spiralled into civil war
BEIRUT Abed Hakawati spends his days in a devastated, rebel- held neighbourhood of Aleppo, writing graffiti on the walls to remind residents and rebels alike of the original goals of the uprising that erupted four years ago: “Freedom, dignity and social equality.”
The 37- year- old, once an actor in the theatre, is now a fugitive, on the run both from Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces and Islamic State group militants who have taken advantage of the civil war to take over much of northern and eastern Syria.
Hakawati is among the secular activists with a dream of a democratic Syria who were the backbone of the peaceful protest movement that erupted in March 2011 against Assad’s autocratic rule. Their dream didn’t just fail, it exploded. They watched it perverted in ways that reached new depths of horror year after year, from barrel bombs smashing historic cities to Islamic radicals beheading and burning opponents.
Four years later, many Syrians believe the conflict has become a choice between rule by Assad and rule by Islamic radicals, and many, the activists admit, prefer the former. Hopes of democracy seem distant in a wrecked nation where more than 220,000 people have been killed, countless others maimed and millions dispersed in the worst humanitarian crisis of the 21st century. The conflict has bred extremism that has touched countries across the globe and instilled chaos that may redraw the map of the Middle East.
Those original activists lucky enough to have survived or escaped abroad now struggle to come to terms with what went wrong.
“Quite simply, all the moderate voices that have called for a civil, democratic state have been either silenced or radicalized,” said Hakawati. “This was Bashar Assad’s plan, and it worked.”
Inspired by the Arab Spring uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, Syria’s revolt erupted in March 2011, when security forces arrested a group of teenagers who scrawled anti- Assad graffiti on a wall in the southern city of Daraa. A small protest took place in Damascus’s old city on March 15 calling for reforms, considered by many the start of the uprising. Three days later, security forces opened fire on a protest in Daraa, killing four people, the first deaths of the revolt.
Protests grew and spread in towns and cities across provinces, met by batons and bullets. Protests were often joyous.
Across opposition areas, the army moved in, terrorized protesters and closed down mosques, and residents began to take up arms to defend themselves, joined by defectors from the military.
Assad’s security forces deployed tanks, snipers and eventually warplanes and helicopter- dropped barrel bombs. Activists, bloggers and opposition figures went underground to avoid arrest.
In Kafranbel, Fares and a group of friends began drawing witty, colourful protest signs skewering the Assad regime and satirizing the war. The posters were an instant hit on social media and shot Kafranbel to fame.
But as moderates were suppressed, radicals moved into the void. In opposition- held areas around the country, mini- wars erupted between moderates and extremists, first the al- Qaidalinked Nusra Front, then the Islamic State group, distracting from the fight against Assad.
Now extremists control about half of Syria. The Islamic State group, which also holds about onethird of Iraq, is imposing its brutal rule in the large swath it controls, and the Nusra Front’s rule over its own areas is hardly better. In that light, some Syrians see Assad as the lesser of two evils, with his grip bringing a degree of calm in Damascus and other main cities.
As the death toll mounts, some young activists acknowledge some naiveté in their decision to challenge one of the region’s most brutal police states, but defend the right to take up arms in selfdefence.