Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Syrian Revolution : A tale of two protests

Today there were two protests at the same street about the same thing and the protesters were from the same country but they were now in different country , this the tale of the two protests I have seen and witnessed today at the Syrian embassy.
Yesterday President/dictator/doctor Bashar El Assad gave his third speech. “We do not know if the third time will be the charm and he will enjoy his uncles Ben Ali and Mubarak”
Bashar El Assad 3rd Speech : Booooooooooring
He gave his speech and as usual his regime launched couple of pathetic support protests to be transferred on TVs in order to give the false impression to the world and the Syrians that all Syria is with Bashar El Assad. It was no wonder that the Syrian embassies all over the globe to act in the same and to organize pro-El Assad protests today . “I am sure there are written orders that will surface one day to the public , I bet they had orders that as soon as the president speak , you organize a pro support protest”
Youssef El Ahmed , the Syrian ambassador in Cairo “who also is married to one of El Assad’s ladies” organized a pro El Assad protest especially his embassy did not see any Pro-protest for a long time for months !!! Organizing a protest is not hard because the employees of the embassy and the Syrian delegation to the Arab League can bring their wives and kids , you will have a big number but this was not enough. The embassy needed the youth , the Syrian youth in Cairo so they would look impressive in front of the media . Thus what did the embassy officials do !?
They intimidated the Syrian students with official scholarships in Cairo and forced them to come otherwise their names would be reported to Damascus and they would not be allowed to enter Syria from any port !!!!
The Syrian students had to go because they know they can end up stuck in a foreign country as refugees and not every country is Turkey unfortunately. Still they informed the other wonderful Syrian youth and members of Syrian community in Egypt about that intimidation and asked them to have another counter protest to show the world that Syrians in Egypt are against El Assad and with the revolution.  
And so I went today not to cover one protest but rather two , I wanted to know what was going to happen and I feared there would be a clash like the first protest took place in front of the embassy but I was happy to see Egyptian security take in consideration this possibility. Police force along with military police secured and separated between the two protest with barriers , cordons and  a space between both protests.
I went first to the pro-democratic anti El Assad protest. It was not that big like previous protests but it was full of impressive determination. Syrian protesters , real Syrian protesters brought with Syrian flags “ New and old” along with a big Turkish flag. They brought also banners with photos the victims of El Assad’s killing machine. There were also banners thanking Turkish officials and Angelina Jolie. “She had her share from the attack from El Assad’s media machine”
There were chants saluting the Syrian cities especially Aleppo that has joined officially the rebel cities in the country. They also saluted Turkey , Egypt and Tripoli in Lebanon. The protesters of course attacked Bashar El Assad and his father in his chants. They also attacked the Syrian media as well as Iran and Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah for their support to Bashar El Assad.  Their chants were loud so were the Hi-Fi speakers and microphones brought by the embassy.
I decided to go to the other protest and I had to go around a whole block to get in to. The embassy employees were reporters friendly and got me to in to their fiesta, indeed it was fiesta. Pathetic Pro-El Assad songs , Bashar El Assad t-shirts, Dabka songs and big flags. The man speaking in the mic inside the embassy kept praising El Assad and this lion is from whoever whatever. It was indeed bigger than the other protest considering the number of women , children “The embassy employees’ families”and Syrian youth from students in Cairo. “ I swear that I saw some of their faces in the previous protest I covered before”
El Dunia TV channel was there to film with women and children who carried Bashar’s photos and thanked him for his great speech. I felt that people were there and wanted to be filmed like some sort of attendance check !!
I asked the people there about their opinion regarding the other protest and one told me they were not Syrians !! Of course I told him that I was there at their protest and they were all Syrians except very few Egyptians that can be counted on hands. He answered me that those Syrians were paid by Syrian opposition abroad !! I forget to ask them about the martyrs especially the children and the refugees who reached to 10,000 according to the latest numbers from Turkey.
This fiesta was sponsored by the money of the Syrian people in the end of the day.
At the end both teams stood at the barriers facing each other , one with Bashar’s photos and the other with the martyrs’ photos and shoes lifted up. I believe this time insh Allah the martyrs will win this time.
I am biased to the opposition team, to the real Syrian team that raised the photos of Hamzah El Khatib. I will say it loudly and proudly. God bless them and help them in breaking the chains of fears in Syria.
Photos and videos are coming in the way.
By the way I have read today a very disturbing news at El Shorouk newspaper that blogger Tal Mallohi was killed in prison from a month ago, is that true !? I hope it is not.
Here are the photos

Side note : A police officer was sitting between the two protests seemed to fed up from heat , from protests and from photographers altogether “Enough photos , enough protests ,  they are taking photos with their mobile phones, you brought the country down !!”

8 comments:

  1. What is common among all democracies is the show of solidarity towards those who are still aspiring one, and this made me worry:

    "Silence: from the Arab world — and jarringly so from Egypt and Tunisia, whose successful revolts built the notion of an Arab Spring and raised the possibility of a wave of democratic solidarity supporting rebellions against despotism in places like Syria." (3 Responses, All Bad, to the Syrian Revolt -New York Times)

    This has lead me to think where is Egyptian show of solidarity towards Syria? Is it being inhibited by old media in Egypt? Some sort of solidarity Friday would be needed.

    It is necessary to wake the Arab league about the situation! It could condemn the violence if it sees the Arab people are against it, Arab league does nothing if not pressured by Arab people.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good stuff, Zeinobia. Syria is a difficult issue to raise up, the regime has dangerous,gangster allies.
    This is why Arabs are quiet. Noone wants
    to be in the firing line. They remember too well
    that gentleman Hariri. Who killed him? Why?
    I have a great deal more respect for Erdogan, now.

    ReplyDelete
  3. @pirooz, that is the old obedient Arab strategy, be quiet and let the ruling minority to rule. Really stupid. Syria would stand no chance if Arab people, like Egypt and Arab league were to condemn them for their violence, condemning is just words. None is talking about military intervention, it's out of question Syria has credible army.

    Today the Foreign Minister of Syria, Mualem proudly said that: All Arab countries support Syria and no exceptions.

    And stupidities like this: the intl pressure will stop when they see that their plot has failed

    Follow @RulaAmin about the speech FM gave.

    ReplyDelete
  4. @yqxo That is why I admire Erdogans stand. It doesn't matter who is doing the killing. It is outrageous.Principle. Noone wants to make the situation worse, that could be part of it. The Syrian FM is bluffing, he is trying to take the heart out of the protesters. As if it was a game. They are doing what they are doing because they have no choice- slow death or quick death is not much of a choice. Iran,Syria,
    and Saudi are going to be in total contradiction to Arabic Spring if they don't democratise.

    ReplyDelete
  5. saudis democratise? is that a joke? that's like asking lucifer to be good.
    Imagine if Egypt was called Mubarakian republic... for starters if they do democratise, they will need to change the name of their "country".

    ReplyDelete
  6. Some sectors of saudi society want it, even at the highest levels. Stranger things have happened in the past. Revolution from above.
    Who is more at ease in the West than the Saudi elite? Iran & Syria are different story. The regimes have convinced themselves that democracy (even Turkish style)would be the end.
    Saudis try to buy consent. At least they try.
    I don't like their system but maybe many of their people do.Its more far-fetched to think things will never change. Those that assume that are in for unpleasant surprises.

    ReplyDelete
  7. You are biased and ignorant, Syria in 10 % sunnies who hate the regime, 70 % sunnies who like stability, 20 % Christians,alwites and Druz who really want ASSAD regime to continue, so your revolution is doomed

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous said...

    You are biased and ignorant, Syria in 10 % sunnies who hate the regime, 70 % sunnies who like stability, 20 % Christians,alwites and Druz who really want ASSAD regime to continue, so your revolution is doomed


    no kidding? any scientific survey or poll to back your claims?

    ReplyDelete

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