Saturday, March 19, 2011

The Friday of Dignity in Syria : The start of revolution

Do you remember when I told that what happened in Syria on Tuesday can turn in to a revolution on Friday !!? Well I told you so.
The Syrian people today revolted for the first time in decades and protests sprung through out the country in different areas especially from the South according to the news and tweeps coming from there. Protests expectedly started after the Friday prayers in the country and honestly knowing the fist of the regime there , I am surprised by the public reaction and also participation. It is more than great considering the amount of fear in the country .
There were protests in Damascus , Aleppo , Daraa , Baniyas , Homs, and Deir El Zor. If you look to the map , you will know that we are looking something different we have not seen before. These governorates are covering Syria with its distinguished diversified ethnic and sectarian background. Today there was no Arab o Kurd , Sunni or Shiite or Christian , today it was a real Syrian day for Syria.
Of course you can imagine the panic of the regime there , the live ammunition was used directly. Hundreds protested at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus and it seems that it was a battle there.
Syrians chanted "There is no God but Allah" and "Freedom". Of course this is the Al Assad regime and the most famous mosque in the capital , there were security forces , you know the infamous plain clothed SS agents who used to kidnap people from protests in Egypt , it is just the same.



It is no surprise that the thugs of the regime were let in to the mosque and its yard to take the peaceful protesters who were taking shelter in the house of God
Things are quite intense in the governorate of Daraa where thousands protested , here are videos showing a glimpse of how it was in Daraa at the old Amari mosque.

The Syrians were chantings "its protector is its theif",  "Freedom" and "Raise your voice"
And we have seen that scene before exactly in Egypt at Galaa bridge, of course it was bigger and uglier , still it is the same in its essence.

Here is a video showing the citizens destroying a police car

Between 4-6 protesters officially were killed alone while opposition forces in the city speak about a bigger number. Tens were submitted to the hospitals , the governorate is currently locked by the security forces.I read that protesters were heading to have a sit in a small plaza in the city , I am not sure of that thought
Army helicopters were seen landing at the local stadium there as you can see in that photo and in that video below it.
From twitter "I apologize I do not know who posted it"

There are huge deployments from the army there. The mobile phones are not working reportedly there.
Here is a photo from twitter from the city earlier today showing  black smoke coming from the city
This young is from the martyrs who were killed in the city by the security forces , his name is Hossam Ayash. He was killed at the Baath school , the activists decided to call it Hossam Ayash school. "I fully support them"
Hossam Ayash
Here are videos from Baniyas , there were hundreds in the streets today

The video below is showing a Sheikh who was actually reading a list of demands from simple demands like reducing electricity bills to conservative demands like canceling the coeducation to political demands like releasing political prisoners , cancelling the emergency laws and freedom of expression.
The demands of Baniyas
Do you know where was he standing ? He was standing at state security building which was taken over by the people.
Thousands of football fans also in Deir El-Zor surprised the regime and the national TV when they left the football game transfered on air and started to chant against the regime and Al Assad. We are speaking here about not less than 5000 football fans mostly from youth. The national TV had to cut the game

There are fears on Daraa to turn in to Hama of the 21st century.
Of course Syria is not open like Egypt or Yemen or Bahrain , it is more like Tunisia under the rule of Ben Ali, foreign correspondents are not that welcomed and local correspondents think very carefully when it comes to domestic unrests so you can imagine when you have an uprising that can turn in to a revolution how things will be. 
Syria is the only country in the world where a president can killed between 10,000 to 40,000 civilian and nobody in the world cares for them , oh yes it happened before in Hama.
FYI Al-Hasakah will witness insh Allah a march on March 21st.
You can follow the news on the Facebook through these pages: Sham NN ,The Syrian revolution and Sooryon 

13 comments:

  1. Zeinab,please for this,i dont want to confront with you,but i`m not agree with you:

    "Syria is the only country in the world where a president can killed between 10,000 to 40,000 civilian"

    You know very well history in Hama. Muslim brotherhood wants blood. Yes, regime is very strong,but this case in Hama was not happent without support of MB.

    "foreign correspondents are not that welcomed "

    I`m totally disagree. I`m every year in Syria and know very well that foreigners havent problems.

    OK,everyone of us wants freedom-me too.I`m activist too. But i`m not sure,really,that this way is better to fix problems in Syria.Sorry,this is my opinion. Its very danger and i know very well Muslim brotherhood in my village what they are doing there.

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  2. Amazing stuff! Great coverage Z. I have linked you on my blog - http://rubiconman.blogspot.com/2011/03/syria.html

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  3. Thank you so much for this very comprehensive post. I haven't seen all of these videos and details brought together anywhere else, and as I lived in Syria for three months this story is close to my heart.

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  4. great job ! thank you so much

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  5. @Z
    'Syria is the only country in the world where a president can killed between 10,000 to 40,000 civilian and nobody in the world cares for them , oh yes it happened before in Hama.'
    Did you forget what Pol Pot did to his people? His "cleansing" of his country resulted in the deaths of an estimated 1.7–2.5 million people.
    The Canadian.

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  6. How can the west go into Lybia and not go into these other contries and help the patriots who are being killed by their own leaders.

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  7. the 'west' is demonized if it does anything, if it went in then the west is crusaders if it does not go in then they are apathetic and in league with despots.....

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  8. will these changes in the Arab world help - eventually - to improve relations between Arabs and the 'West' ?

    I am British , rightly ashamed of what my country has done in many places,- the Falklands, Iraq, - but there is no place here for a long list

    Dai Wales UK

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  9. Thanks for this article,

    I'm syrian, and i can say that you cant imagine how this regime has installed fear in the heart of every syrian
    You know, in syria, if you want to open a bread store, or start any business, you have to go to the intelligence branch of your city and get the OK from them.
    Every jobs in the public sector is also submitted to the intelligence acknowledgment.
    The horror start when going to the mukhabarat, they will start speaking about you said and dont said, thanks to their 1 millions or 2 spy.

    Even abroad, when you speak to other syrians, you have to be very careful about whay you said, the main work of the syrian embassy is spying on syrian

    In brief, we live under occupation by the secret police

    There are web site like freesyria, and soryoon to get informed from the north korea of middle east

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  10. I'm from Poland (Europe).
    I was planning to visit Syria in April but when I heard about riots i don't know what to do.
    Is it safe to go now to Syria. Do foreign tourist should afraid of anything ?

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  11. I'm from Poland (Europe)
    I was planning to go to Syria on April. But now when I see in newspapers headlines about Syrian riots I don't know what to do. Do foreign tourist should be afraid of anything ? Is it safe to go to Syria now ?
    Please help me.
    PS: Sorry if this this comment is doubled

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  12. Those sick police men must be judged http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqXYhHh-qqs

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