Damascus students celebrate after Assad’s ouster; Christians remain wary

Three-starred symbol of 2011 uprising begins to be seen in public; local Christian communities hold first services since overthrow, but worry about future under new Islamist rulers

Students drag a toppled statue of late president Hafez al-Assad on the street during a rally near the campus of the Damascus University in the Syrian capital on December 15, 2024. (Omar HAJ KADOUR / AFP)
Students drag a toppled statue of late president Hafez al-Assad on the street during a rally near the campus of the Damascus University in the Syrian capital on December 15, 2024. (Omar HAJ KADOUR / AFP)

DAMASCUS, Syria — Hundreds of students at Damascus University trampled on a statue of one of Syria’s former rulers on Sunday, expressing jubilation as they returned to class a week after rebels ousted Bashar al-Assad.

“The atmosphere is extraordinary. Everyone is happy — look at how joyful people are,” said medical student Rinad Abdallah, 18.

In front of her stood a large statue of Hafez al-Assad, who ruled Syria after seizing power in a bloodless military coup in 1970, vandalized and brought to the ground.

“I have an old photo where I’m posing in front of the statue. Now, I’m going to pose at the same place, but without the statue,” Abdallah said with glee.

Bashar al-Assad ruled from his father Hafez’s death in 2000 until last week, when rebels took the capital Damascus, more than 13 years after his repression of pro-democracy protests sparked Syria’s civil war.

Ali Allaham, dean of the arts faculty, told AFP that courses resumed Sunday with around 80 percent of staff and “a large number” of students.

Syrian students attend a march near the campus of the Damascus University in the Syrian capital on December 15, 2024. (LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)

In the courtyard, hundreds of students gathered, chanting revolutionary slogans and brandishing the three-starred independence flag, a symbol of the uprising that began in 2011.

“We’ve waited a really long time for this moment,” said Yasmine Shehab, 29, an English literature student.

Now, “there is no longer this statue that was oppressing us with its presence,” she said.

“We finally feel free! We can finally say what we think without fear,” added Shehab, expressing confidence in Syria’s future.

“There will be a place for all the communities who will go forward, hand in hand,” she said.

In a spontaneous rally, thousands of students headed towards the central Ummayad Square, where Syrians for days have been celebrating Assad’s fall.

Worried worshipers attend church services

Syrian Christians attended regular Sunday services for the first time since the dramatic overthrow of Assad a week ago, in an early test of assurances by the new Islamist rulers that the rights of minorities will be protected.

A Syrian priest attends the first Sunday Mass since Syrian President Bashar Assad’s ouster, at Mariamiya Orthodox Church in old Damascus, Syria, December 15, 2024. (Hussein Malla/AP)

As Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, swept to power last week, it sought to reassure Syria’s minority groups that their way of life would not be at risk.

Before Assad fell, historic religious minority groups, including Christians, worshipped freely, and some remain jittery at the prospect of an Islamist government.

Streets in the heavily Christian Damascus neighborhood of Bab Touma filled with worshippers returning from church on Sunday morning, but some struck a note of caution.

“We’re scared, we’re still scared,” said local resident Maha Barsa after attending Mass at the local Greek Melkite Catholic church.

Barsa said she had barely left her home since HTS took over one week ago, though she said that nothing had happened to warrant her concern, adding: “Things are ambiguous.”

Syrian Christians attend the first Sunday Mass since Syrian President Bashar Assad’s ouster, at Mariamiya Orthodox Church in old Damascus, Syria, December 15, 2024. (Hussein Malla/AP)

In the coastal city of Latakia, long an Assad stronghold, Lina Akhras, a parish council secretary at the St. George Greek Orthodox Cathedral, said on Sunday that Christians had been “comfortable” under his rule in terms of freedom of belief but that they just wanted to live in peace and harmony.

Assad’s fall “happened all of a sudden, we didn’t know what to expect… Thank God, we received a lot of assurances and we saw that members of the (HTS) committee reached out to our priest,” she told Reuters.

“God willing, we will return to our previous lives and live in our beautiful Syria,” Akhras added.

Syria is home to multiple ethnic and religious minorities, including Christians, Armenians, Kurds, and Shiite Muslims. The Assad family itself belongs to the minority Alawite faith, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, in Sunni Muslim-majority Syria.

Tens of thousands of mostly Shiite Muslims have fled Syria for Lebanon in the last week out of fear of persecution by the country’s new rulers, a senior Lebanese security official told Reuters last week.

Worshipers attend Sunday Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Dormition, known also as the Olive Church, in Syria’s capital Damascus on December 15, 2024. (LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)

The protection of Syria’s minorities was a key concern on Saturday when top diplomats from Arab nations, Turkey, the United States, and the European Union met in Jordan.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said they backed an inclusive and representative government that would respect minority rights and not offer “a base for terrorist groups.”

Schoolchildren back in classes

School students too, some in uniform, returned to class on Sunday for the first time since Assad’s ouster.

On their way to school, a group of girls gestured the “V” for victory sign. One had drawn a three-starred flag on her cheek, while others proudly waved one in the air.

Mother of three Raghida Ghosn, 56, said that “the school has asked us to send middle and upper pupils back to class. The younger ones will go back in two days.”

Inside a classroom, a large three-starred flag now hangs on the wall — a sight unthinkable in government-held areas during Assad’s iron-fisted rule.

Syrian schoolchildren attend class at a school in the capital Damascus’s Dweilaa neighborhood on December 15, 2024 (LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)

An employee at one school said that “no more than 30 percent” of schoolchildren were back in class on Sunday, but that “these numbers will rise gradually.”

Business life has resumed as well, with many people going to work as normal early on Sunday, the first day of the working week in Syria.

An AFP journalist saw around a dozen people lining up outside a bakery in the city’s Rokn-Eddine district.

Street vendors selling cans of gasoline were also plying their trade, in a country hit by fuel shortages and where power cuts remain common, with some outages lasting up to 20 hours a day in some areas.

Ending sanctions?

The country’s new de facto leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, faces a massive challenge to rebuild Syria after the civil war, in which hundreds of thousands were killed. Cities were bombed to ruins, the economy was gutted by international sanctions and millions of refugees still live in camps outside Syria.

As Syria starts trying to rebuild, its neighbors and other foreign powers are still working out a new stance on the country.

UN Syria envoy Geir Pedersen said on Sunday he hoped for a swift end to the sanctions to help facilitate economic recovery.

“We will hopefully see a quick end to sanctions so that we can see really rallying around building up Syria,” Pedersen said as he arrived in Damascus to meet Syria’s caretaker government and other officials.

In a statement, the Syrian ruling General Command said Sharaa discussed with Pedersen the need to reconsider a roadmap outlined by the Security Council for the country in 2015, known as UN Security Council Resolution 2254.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) meets with the United Nations (UN) Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen (R) in Jordan’s southern Red Sea coastal city of Aqaba on December 14, 2024. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / POOL / AFP)

Blinken has said the transition in Syria should lead to “credible, inclusive, and non-sectarian governance” consistent with UN Security Council Resolution 2254.

That resolution calls for a Syrian-led process facilitated by the United Nations, establishing within six months nonsectarian governance and setting a schedule for a process of drafting a new constitution. It also calls for free and fair elections.

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