'Finally we can breathe' Country gets back to work after president is ousted

When Hayyan Maqsoud, the director of Syria's postal service, returned to work, the first thing he did was remove the portraits of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, and his father, Hafez, from the walls of his Damascus office.

- William Christou

"Finally we can breathe," said Maqsoud, a lifelong civil servant, gazing at the spot where the portraits used to sit, the nails still in the wall and the outline of the frames still visible against the faded yellow paint. Maqsoud asked his employees to return to work on Tuesday, two days after Bashar al-Assad fled, ending his family's 54-year rule over the country.

Despite the upheaval in Syria, mail must be delivered, Maqsoud said, proudly rattling off a list of services on which Syrians depend. "Pensions, packages, letters, business documents," all had to be distributed through the 210 offices that made up Syria's national postal network, he explained.

He had closed the post office headquarters and told employees to go home, unsure of what would happen as Syrian rebels in the north blew through government forces. He had no idea, that just a few days later, the despotic regime he grew up under would be toppled.

Maqsoud's staff were among the thousands of civil servants who returned to work as Syrians in the capital tried to resume normal life. The rebel leader, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, said ministers would be kept in their posts and in civilian institutions during a three-month transitional government, to be led by a new prime minister.