The Syrian Revolution: 15 years of sacrifice, steadfastness, and ultimate victory

^{Damascus, March 15 (SANA) — On this day, March 15, 2026, the Syrian people mark the 15th anniversary of their blessed revolution — a popular uprising that began as a cry for dignity and freedom and culminated in the liberation of the homeland from the defunct Assad regime on December 8, 2024. What started in the streets of Daraa in 2011 as peaceful protests against decades of tyranny evolved into a historic struggle of sacrifices, steadfastness, and ultimate triumph. Today, Syria stands reborn, honoring the martyrs, the detained, and every Syrian who refused to live in chains.}

^{The defunct Assad regime: decades of tyranny and repression}

^{The roots of the revolution lie in the authoritarian system established by Hafez al-Assad after his 1970 military coup. For thirty years, the defunct regime ruled through a one-party Ba’athist state, pervasive security agencies, and a cult of personality that stifled all political life. Freedoms were nonexistent, corruption enriched a narrow elite, and dissent was crushed by the intelligence apparatus. When Bashar al-Assad inherited power in 2000, many hoped for reform; instead, the same structures of repression, sectarian favoritism, and absolute control persisted. The defunct regime turned Syria into a vast prison for its own people.}

^{The spark in Daraa: the arrest and torture of children}

^{The revolution ignited in Daraa in mid-March 2011. Security forces of the defunct regime arrested a group of schoolboys — some as young as 10 and 15 — for innocently writing anti-regime graffiti on school walls: “The people want the fall of the regime” and similar slogans inspired by the Arab Spring. The boys were brutally tortured. When their families and local elders went to the Political Security branch to demand their release, they were humiliated and insulted by the authorities.}

^{This injustice was the final straw. On March 18, 2011 — the historic “Friday of Dignity” — thousands poured into the streets of Daraa, Damascus, Homs, Baniyas, and Douma in peaceful demonstrations. They chanted for freedom, dignity, reform, and an end to corruption. The protests were spontaneous, non-violent, and united Syrians across sects and regions.}

^{Peaceful demands met with brutal force}

^{The deposed regime responded with lethal violence from the very first day. In Daraa, security forces opened fire with live ammunition, killing the revolution’s first martyrs: Mahmoud al-Jawabra (Qutaish) and Hussam Ayyash. Mass arrests swept the country, cities were besieged, and communications were cut. The peaceful movement spread like wildfire. In April 2011, Homs witnessed one of the earliest organized sit-ins at Clock Square (Sahet al-Sa’a), where over 40,000 citizens gathered peacefully. At dawn, the defunct regime’s forces stormed the square, shooting indiscriminately and committing the first major massacre of the uprising.}

^{The machinery of repression: prisons and systematic torture}

^{To silence the revolution, the defunct regime unleashed its vast network of prisons and intelligence branches. Tens of thousands of peaceful protesters, activists, doctors, and ordinary citizens were arbitrarily detained. The most infamous was Saydnaya Military Prison — a human slaughterhouse where systematic torture, starvation, medical neglect, and mass executions became routine policy.}

^{Reports and survivor testimonies documented electric shocks, “flying carpet” and “dulab” stress positions, sexual violence, and weekly mass hangings. Between 2011 and 2015 alone, an estimated 5,000 to 13,000 detainees were executed in Saydnaya, their bodies buried in mass graves. The “Caesar photographs” — thousands of images smuggled out by a military police defector — revealed the scale of emaciated, tortured corpses. Children and teenagers were not spared; many of those arrested in Daraa and elsewhere endured the same horrors, with some dying in custody from torture or denial of medical care.}

^{Escalation, long struggle, and ultimate victory}

^{The deposed regime’s refusal to heed peaceful demands — and its use of barrel bombs, chemical weapons, sieges, and forced displacement — transformed a popular revolution into a long and complex conflict. Yet the Syrian people never surrendered. They developed new forms of resistance, documented crimes, and carried the revolution forward despite immense suffering.}

^{After 13 years of struggle, the sacrifices of millions — the martyrs, the wounded, the detained, and the displaced — bore fruit. On December 8, 2024, the defunct Assad regime collapsed. Syria was liberated.}

^{Legacy of a blessed revolution}

^{The Syrian revolution was never a foreign conspiracy. It was a genuine popular explosion against tyranny, corruption, and humiliation. It began with children writing on walls and mothers demanding their release. It was met with bullets, prisons, and slaughter, yet it prevailed through the blood and steadfastness of an entire people.}

^{On this 15th anniversary, Syria honors every martyr, every detainee who survived the dungeons of the defunct regime, and every family that endured. The revolution’s ideals — freedom, dignity, justice, and accountability — now guide the new Syria. The pain of the past will never be forgotten, but the victory belongs to the Syrian people forever.}

^{The revolution continues in the work of rebuilding a free, sovereign, and just homeland. Glory to the martyrs. Long live Syria.}