SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
It has been a historic week in Syria, the primary week in a half-century that the Assad household didn’t rule the nation. As rebels took maintain of Damascus and Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia, hundreds of political prisoners had been launched into freedom, and Syrian folks had been dancing within the streets.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Whoo (ph).
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DETROW: Morning Version host Leila Fadel is in Damascus, and she or he joins us on the road now. Hey, Leila.
LEILA FADEL, BYLINE: Hello.
DETROW: What’s Damascus like? Let’s simply begin there.
FADEL: I imply, it is truly actually exhausting to explain. It is this place of maximum happiness – folks for the primary time having a style of freedom, having the ability to inform their very own youngsters what they actually suppose – as a result of this was a rustic the place folks mentioned the partitions had ears. They had been afraid even to talk freely at house in case one thing was mentioned at college, for instance…
DETROW: Yeah.
FADEL: …And that will put them in jail – any kind of criticism of the Assad regime – and now folks can converse freely. They will chant. They will dance within the streets to songs that curse the Assad household. And I need to speak to you about Friday prayers at this historic Ummayed Mosque within the outdated metropolis the place there’s the Saladin tomb. And other people simply thronged inside, some who may by no means pray there due to safety causes, scared that they’d be taken. And it was simply hundreds of individuals attempting to get into the prayer room. And we obtained ourselves in. We’re sitting amongst these hundreds of individuals praying. And on the finish of their first Friday prayer on what they’re calling the Day of Victory, the gang burst into cheers.
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FADEL: It nonetheless offers me chills. I’ve by no means heard something like that. However inside this happiness, there’s grief as a result of so many – hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of individuals – disappeared throughout this 14-year civil struggle that began as peaceable demonstrations, was met with violence and become civil struggle. And they also’re trying to find their beloved one which’re lacking, that went to jail, and they do not know the place they’re. Some are discovering our bodies. Some are discovering nothing. And the actually fortunate ones are discovering their folks damaged however alive. And so these searches proceed for a lot of town. And it is also a metropolis that is holding its breath about what could come subsequent as a result of the brand new authorities are unknown to them.
DETROW: Proper. And let’s flip to that as a result of a lot emotion is being let loose, however there are plenty of questions concerning the future. With Assad now gone…
FADEL: Yeah.
DETROW: …Who’s in cost?
FADEL: Yeah. I imply, the opposition, which is now the de facto authorities, is being led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, an Islamist group that was as soon as linked to al-Qaida however broke ties years in the past and have form of rebranded. And now they’ve gone from ragtag fighters born in a brutal struggle in opposition to Assad’s regime to the de facto authorities. And now they’re engaged on governing, securing town. They have checkpoints searching for weapons amongst civilians as a result of so lots of the navy bases simply opened up, and other people took weapons. They’re – they have a transitional authorities for 3 months, they usually say they need to deal with Syria and rebuilding they usually need to be welcomed into the worldwide group.
DETROW: Have you ever met and talked to anybody from HTS throughout your time in Syria?
FADEL: Yeah, I imply, I’ve talked to plenty of the insurgent fighters. And I do not even know ought to – if we name them rebels anymore as a result of they’re actually the de facto authorities, they usually’re at these checkpoints all by town. I used to be on the Air Power Intelligence constructing in Damascus, and I met this younger insurgent who goes by Abu Mustafa. He is from Idlib, which is in northwest Syria, and he was a toddler – he was 11 years outdated when the rebellion started in opposition to former President Bashar al-Assad’s repressive authorities. And I simply need you to listen to what he says.
ABU MUSTAFA: (Non-English language spoken).
FADEL: So proper there, he is telling me he was 11 when it began, and three years later, he took up weapons with out the permission of his mother and father, he ran away from house as a result of he says he needed to defend his household, his land, that air strikes had been destroying his metropolis, killing his folks. And so he determined he wanted to struggle. And so this younger man, who’s solely 24 years outdated, was normal underneath this type of brutality. And immediately, these younger folks, lots of who had actually by no means been to Damascus, are actually accountable for securing the capital metropolis.
DETROW: I imply, Leila, that simply will get to the truth that this has been happening for therefore lengthy now. The preliminary starting of the tip of the Assad regime started in Arab Spring greater than a decade in the past. That’s one thing you lined so carefully.
FADEL: Yeah.
DETROW: You have a look at so many different nations that modified management in very alternative ways throughout that time period. , Assad dug in and keep in energy. However you noticed the completely different instructions that these new governments went. It was plenty of battle. What do you suppose that claims about what may come subsequent for Syria?
FADEL: I imply, there hasn’t been one true success story out of this wave of uprisings at the moment in 2011. Libya – they obtained freedom, lived with repression however become chaos, and now are a divided state with all these militias. You have a look at Iraq, invaded and occupied by the U.S. after which had its personal rebellion and, once more, remains to be struggling. There’s been inner combating among the many Syrian opposition. It is not united, and when you look throughout the nation, that continues. There are points with the safety vacuum. Do overseas fighters, do ISIS, reap the benefits of this second? Are there counterrevolutionary forces? So so much may go incorrect, however Syrians hope that they’re the exception, that so much may go proper.
DETROW: That’s Morning Version host Leila Fadel speaking to us from Damascus. Leila, thanks a lot to your reporting.
FADEL: Thanks.
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