As midday approaches in Damascus, Syria’s capital, thousands of people from all corners of the country converge on Umayyad Square, the city’s political and geographical heart. The square, once dominated by ministries of the ousted regime, now echoes with chants of, “Syrian, Syrian, Syrian, the Syrian people are one.”
It has just been five days since Bashar al-Assad fled the country and a coalition of rebel forces took control of the capital. Among the jubilant crowd is Abdullah Sakallah, a thirty-four-year-old photographer and videographer, who, like many, has come to celebrate his new sense of freedom. “This is the first time that everyone is gathering together” Sakallah says.
We are trying to connect with each other and see how people react. We don’t believe it. If you want to believe something, you want to see it, right? We want to believe that Assad is gone and there is no army on the streets. I have so many feelings, flashbacks and worries. Is it really happening?
Sakallah, like countless others, was forcefully conscripted into the military during the brutal thirteen-year-long civil war that followed the 2011 Arab Spring. He served for over a decade before being released from service in 2022. “I lost my youth because of military service. Every young man like me who has served in the army has lost 10 years of his life” he reflects, sipping a coffee. “But now, I have hope. We have a new start, a new dream.”
Under Assad’s rule, hundreds of thousands of young Syrians fled to neighboring countries like Lebanon, Turkey, or Jordan to avoid conscription and participation in Assad’s brutal war,…
Auteur: Omar Hamed Beato
