The dramatic and historic scenes coming out of Syria this week are a reminder of the horrors that country has been through in the last several decades. We were there for some key moments in recent history:
Syrians gather at Umayyad Square to celebrate the collapse of 61 years of Ba’ath Party rule in Damascus, Syria, on December 9, 2024. (Murat Sengul/Anadolu via Getty Images)
This week we got in touch with one of our important contacts in Syria during those times. He wrote, in an email, some pretty salient words: “It’s an extraordinary moment . . . so far so good.” The people of Syria are exulting over the end of a dictatorship. They are returning to homes they had been forced out of by fighting. They search feverishly, sometimes with joy, or with desperation, in prisons where their fellow citizens were incarcerated and tortured. A half million people have been killed in the last 13 years. Millions are injured and displaced. The economy is a disaster.
But my friend also went on to write, “I am a bit cautious about what may come . . . and fill the vacuum.” The HTS group which led this uprising had former ties with Al-Qaeda and is still on the U.S. terror list. Its leader, Ahmad al-Sharar, also known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, was a dyed-in-the-wool jihadist and has only in recent years transformed. He and the group, so far, have been talking a good line. Still, there are many factions, religious sects, and splinter groups who will all have to work together if a new free Syria is to be realized. A tall order. For the proud people of the country who we’ve come to know over the years, it is absolutely worth a try.
