When the decades-long Assad family dictatorship fell in December, it sparked hopes for a better Syria. But did it bring hope to all Syrians?
The outbreak of peaceful protests in Syria in 2011 demonstrated the Syrian people's wish for a government that truly represents them. With the rise of radical groups in Syria in the early years of the consequent civil war, most prominently Daesh, which took control over large parts of Syria, many people perceived the alternative to the Assad regime to be disastrous. The regime used the rise of Daesh and even supported its survival in an attempt to categorise all Syrian opposition forces as “terrorists".
Assad's strategy was effective, and he gained support both domestically and internationally by pushing the notion that ethnic and religious minorities in Syria would be persecuted without him and his regime. Syria's diverse ethnic and religious demographics — such as Assyrians, Armenians, Kurds, Christians, Druze, Ismailis and Alawites — played a major role in the success of this strategy. These communities were caught in a life-and-death dilemma, where the familiar rule of dictatorship, despite its oppression, appeared preferable to the uncertainty of the terrorist Daesh.
On 8 December last year, though, the scenario changed dramatically. Assad fled to Moscow and his regime collapsed. The new government led by Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham's leader, interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa, presents a very different reality.
When the decades-long Assad family dictatorship fell in December, it sparked hopes for a better Syria. But did it bring hope to all Syrians?
The outbreak of peaceful protests in Syria in 2011 demonstrated the Syrian people's wish for a government that truly represents them. With the rise of radical groups in Syria in the early years of the consequent civil war, most prominently Daesh, which took control over large parts of Syria, many people perceived the alternative to the Assad regime to be disastrous. The regime used the rise of Daesh and even supported its survival in an attempt to categorise all Syrian opposition forces as “terrorists".
Assad's strategy was effective, and he gained support both domestically and internationally by pushing the notion that ethnic and religious minorities in Syria would be persecuted without him and his regime. Syria's diverse ethnic and religious demographics — such as Assyrians, Armenians, Kurds, Christians, Druze, Ismailis and Alawites — played a major role in the success of this strategy. These communities were caught in a life-and-death dilemma, where the familiar rule of dictatorship, despite its oppression, appeared preferable to the uncertainty of the terrorist Daesh.
On 8 December last year, though, the scenario changed dramatically. Assad fled to Moscow and his regime collapsed. The new government led by Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham's leader, interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa, presents a very different reality...