(Zaman Al Wasl)- In the hard and variable equation, the opposition’s stance has been changing according to regional and international agendas over the past nine years but the Syrian revolution has been constant and hard.
The Syrian revolution is an idea and ideas do not die, Amna Allawi says.
According to the Moroccan university student, the Syrian opposition is a fraudulent entity whose existence cannot amount to the suffering of the rebels.
Yet another year dawns upon the Syrian revolution that has overthrown over 40 years of a repressive dictatorial regime. In March 2011, the revolutionaries peacefully raised roses demanding freedom and justice, but the army, which they believed would be on their side, took the side of their executioner, and shot them carelessly.
Then, raids and unjust arrests of civilians expanded the repression and the violations of human rights, and pushed the revolutionaries to take up arms in defense. Military defections rose and Revolutionary Command Councils and armed revolutionary battalions were formed, and the sound of bullets and cannons rose louder than the cries.
The Syrian National Council was established in October 2012, followed by the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces in November 2012, forming a rally of revolutionaries and various opposition platforms. In March 2013, the Syrian Interim Government and local councils were established.
In its second year, the revolutionaries raised their banners on about 85% of Syrian territory, defeating the regime and Lebanese Hezbollah. In 2013, the regime was again defeated by the Jerusalem Corps, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and cross-border sectarian militias. The regime-occupied territories continued to fall until Russian forces interfered in 2015, with the spread of jihadi and separatist organizations, which have been used against the revolutionaries, as well as the fake red lines that international powers announced were violated by the regime by using internationally prohibited weapons.
Many revolutionary areas were besieged and starved by the regime, which resulted in one million civilian casualties, hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians arrested, and millions of refugees and displaced. The Syrian pound steadily declined and poverty reached 83%, according to the latest UN report.
The revolution was under the mercy of international and regional tensions. Saudi Arabia was tasked by the Vienna Conference in October 2015 with forming a negotiating body for the opposition, named “Riyadh 1”. In October 2017 the opposition attended the first Astana summit, which reached version 13 of the 2015 UN resolution 2254 to start peace negotiations by the beginning of 2016. The constitutional committee was formed with Russia and Iran continuously seizing large areas of the remaining lands outside of the regime’s control, in Idlib and the southwestern countryside of Aleppo, while Euphrates Shield, Olive Branch, and Peace Spring areas remained relatively safe. Meanwhile, the regime recuperated, the revolutionaries’ voices were lost, the opposition split, and chaos reigned with no one able to provide solutions.
Journalist Ahmed Mazhar Saadou says the revolution did not fail, that it persists. Unfortunately, the opposition, however, has failed, incapable of keeping pace with the people, making mistake after mistake without self-reflecting or taking responsibility, running behind its pragmatic interests and agendas, at the expense of all the sacrifices of the people.
He explained that the opposition has to acknowledge its mistakes and to establish a national action accessible by the simple people who sacrificed a lot for a homeland that was stolen by the Assad family as well as Iranians, Russians and sectarian militias.
Journalist Sakhr Idris agrees on the success of the revolution, which ended the undeserved reverence for names and broke the shackles of censorship against criticizing politicians, ideologies and some clerics who attempted to distort the path of the revolution. The Syrian people have lost sight of this early victory due to the conditions in which they live, inside and outside Syria. The fact is that Syria, despite the obstacles it faces, will never return to the decades of oppression.
Idris says that “failure” presumes an attempt from the opposition’s part, which was not the case as it was unsuccessful from the beginning, falsely claiming to represent the revolutionaries while attempting to steal the
revolution from the people.
Lawyer Ayman Fahmy Abu Hashem believes that the special situation of the Syrian revolution echo in some ways the Palestinian cause and reveals the extent of the sacrifices of the Palestinian people during their long struggle and their disappointments in the political outcomes.
He considers that there are several points of victory in the Syrian revolution, but the unsatisfactory performance of the opposition contributed to the bitter outcome. It is difficult to separate the revolution and the opposition, which embodies political negotiations that directly affect the reality of the revolution and its fate. The lawyer explains that the opposition’s impact would have been less dangerous if there were the alternative of a national project that matches the ideals of the revolution, which unfortunately is but inexistent. However, this fact does not overshadow the historical impact of the Syrian revolution, which awakened in the Syrian collective awareness its potential strength to face tyranny.
(By Fadi Shbat)
Zaman A Wasl
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