Protests in north-west Syria mark 13 years since start of fight for democracy
Thousands of people have taken to the streets of Syria’s rebel-held north-west to mark 13 years since pro-democracy protests swept the country, chanting against President Bashar al-Assad and the region’s jihadist rulers.
The government’s brutal suppression of the 2011 uprising triggered a civil war that has killed more than half a million people, drawn in foreign armies and jihadists, and divided the country.
The former al-Qaida affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) now controls a significant swathe of the north-west, where hundreds have protested in recent weeks against its leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani. Anger is still simmering over the death of a man in the group’s custody.
Hundreds of protesters paraded through the city of Idlib, many of them brandishing placards that read “Down with Jolani … Assad.”
Mohammed Harnoush, 35, who attended the protest, said the anniversary was a reminder that “our revolution is against everyone … whether it is Bashar al-Assad or Jolani”.
“This people shall not be ruled by iron and fire,” he said, speaking in the city’s main square.
The rebel-held region around Idlib hosts about three million people, many of whom have fled other parts of the country held or recaptured by Assad’s Russian and Iranian-backed government.
Khalidia Agha, 72, was also among the protesters. She said government forces had killed one of her sons, and that two others had disappeared into
HTS prisons six years ago. She has not heard from them since.
“I am protesting today because my children are jailed … All I ask for is to see them and know where they are,” she said.
In the southern, government-held city of Sweida, hundreds took to the streets to mark the anniversary, footage from the Suwayda24 media outlet showed.
It followed about seven months of anti-government demonstrations in the wider Sweida region, the heartland of Syria’s Druze minority, which has largely been spared from the war.
Protests against deteriorating economic conditions have erupted sporadically in Sweida since 2020. The latest wave started after the government cut fuel subsidies in August.
In a joint statement to mark the anniversary, Britain, France, Germany and the US said the Sweida protests “show that the demands for peace, freedom and dignity that led to protests 13 years ago endure”.
“The war in Syria is not over,” the quartet said, pointing to government bombardments of rebel-held areas and Islamic State attacks.
They rejected any normalisation of relations with the Assad government, which was readmitted to the Arab League last year, until “there is authentic, meaningful and enduring progress towards a political solution”.
The UN special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, said on Friday that after 13 years of war, the country was “without a political solution in sight”.
“We must prioritise peace. If we do not do so, the grim downward trends across nearly all indicators in Syria will only continue in the year ahead,” Pedersen said.
About 7.2 million people have sought refuge from the fighting inside Syria while millions more have fled the country.
The UN has said that 16.7 million people in Syria will require some type of humanitarian assistance or protection this year, the largest number since the start of the conflict.
About 90% of Syrians live in poverty, according to UN figures.
Almost 7.5 million children in Syria will need humanitarian assistance in 2024, more than at any other time during the conflict, according to Unicef.