EJIL

For those Syrians waking up to a shattered country devoid of its dictator or those exiled by war, no superlative can quite capture the enormity of events that have transpired in the last few days. Assad’s fall not only marks the end of the Ba’ath regime (as occurred across the border in Iraq in 2003), but it also signals a seismic shift in the fortunes of the country’s 14-year civil war and 54 years of brutal rule by father and by son. I myself lived in Damascus in 2008-2009 studying Arabic. The personal security and safety I had experienced during my time there before the civil war was only possible through palpable fear and extreme repression. An unspoken rule – or a ‘social contract’ of sorts – seemed to prevail: I could only continue to presume that the chances of being mugged or assaulted were miniscule while I continued to observe the requirement of political silence. In exchange for everyday safety as provided by an authoritarian regime, Syrians had to sacrifice any scope for criticising or challenging the nature of Ba’ath rule. Memories of the Sunni rebellion in 1982, which resulted in the regime’s annihilation of Hama’s old town and its population, prompted most Syrians to repress all political inclinations. Infamous interrogation centres and prisons were located in suburban streets or on the edge of towns, serving as ready reminders of the repercussions that would result in the wake of any form of dissent. Yet while this edifice of securitised repression appeared impregnable to me and to many Syrians, this illusion was shattered in 2011 once the regime responded to peaceful protests in the wake of Tunisia’s and Egypt’s uprisings with overwhelming force and depravity. Perhaps the level of brutality came as a shock, but once the regime responded so harshly, it was impossible to rewind the clock: violence spawned more violence such that once again the space for any form of political expression radically narrowed. The country soon slid into a stereotypically-wrenching civil war that was made far worse by an assortment of intervening states.

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