The people of Syria, or most of them at least, are jubilant.
They should enjoy the moment. They deserve it. It recalls the celebrations that accompanied the fall of Iraq's Saddam Hussein and Libya's Muammar Gaddafi. Yet such memories carry a warning and a threat.
The warning is that joy can quickly turn to tears, and liberation to renewed repression, should the sudden collapse of hated but relatively stable authoritarian structures trigger a descent into chaos. The threat is that the ensuing political and military vacuum will be contested by self-seeking actors interested not in justice and reconciliation, but power and retribution.
The beginning of the campaign to oust Assad can be traced back to Daraa, in south-western Syria, the scene of a popular revolt in 2011. In that context, the successful advance of the militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) from its base in Idlib, in north-west Syria, to the capital, Damascus, is a fitting ending: a popular revolution by the people, for the people. Yet no one can yet tell what kind of Syrian future is envisaged by the HTS leader, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, formerly an al-Qaida-linked jihadist and a wanted terrorist now rebranded as national liberator. HTS has a record of human rights abuses and authoritarian rule in Idlib.
Bu hikaye The Guardian Weekly dergisinin December 13, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Bu hikaye The Guardian Weekly dergisinin December 13, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
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