New Year sparks optimism in Syria - 13th January 2025

Celebrations for the New Year took on momentous significance in Damascus, Syria, going far beyond a mere date change. Combined rebel insurgents had swept through the capital on 8th December, forcing President Assad and his family to beat a hasty retreat abroad, so terminating over half a century of a repressive political regime.

Power was first seized by General Hafez al-Assad in 1970; he was succeeded by his son Bashar al-Assad in 2000. The eruption of the Arab Spring in 2011 precipitated a multi-sided civil war which prompted the diaspora of six million Syrians and caused 580,000 fatalities, including 306,000 victims caught in the crossfire.

Yamamah al-Ubaid is a Syrian reformer.

Yamamah al-Ubaid: "Today is the first day of 2025. Last year, the Syrian people witnessed an important event - the fall of the regime of Bashar al-Assad and the end of the Assad era, which lasted 54 years. However, we will not forget and we will continue to remember and demand that all officials whose hands were stained with the blood of the Syrian people be held accountable."

The most powerful faction in the rebel alliance that toppled the Assad stronghold is Hayat Tahir al-Shan (HTS), under the leadership of Ahmed al-Sharaa. Beginning as a splinter group of the militant organisation al-Qaeda and designated a terrorist organisation by numerous countries, the group's de facto leader is calling for HTS to be delisted. He boldly refutes claims that he intends to reduce Syria to an Afghanistan-like nation.

Whilst a percentage of Syrians are doubtful that HTS has genuinely parted ways with its former ideology, many, like student Nour Haloum, dare to hope that 2025 might see their basic rights as civilians reinstated.

Nour Haloum: "We are now witnessing the first moments of 2025 and we hope that the country's situation will improve and its institutions will reopen. That all things become easy for citizens and we can obtain our rights. We do not want more than that, just our basic rights."

The decisions of Syria's new leaders will be analysed at every turn in the forthcoming months, by nationals both inside its borders and overseas.