People react to the fall of Syrian regime in Umayyad Square on December 8, 2024 in Damascus, Syria. Rebel forces in Syria claimed that they had retaken the capital from longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, who was reported to have fled the country.
People react to the fall of Syrian regime in Umayyad Square on December 8, 2024 in Damascus, Syria. Rebel forces in Syria claimed that they had retaken the capital from longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, who was reported to have fled the country. © Ali Haj Suleiman/Getty Images
First Person

Syria: “Fuck the Future. Can I Just Be Happy Today?”

It’s like a miracle. Not a single drop of blood was shed in Damascus.

People react to the fall of Syrian regime in Umayyad Square on December 8, 2024 in Damascus, Syria. Rebel forces in Syria claimed that they had retaken the capital from longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, who was reported to have fled the country.
People react to the fall of Syrian regime in Umayyad Square on December 8, 2024 in Damascus, Syria. Rebel forces in Syria claimed that they had retaken the capital from longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, who was reported to have fled the country. © Ali Haj Suleiman/Getty Images
Monday, 9 December, 2024

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Monday, 9 December, 2024

I’m telling people – just let me be happy. Please don’t ask me what will happen tomorrow. Fuck the future. Can I just be happy today?

It’s like a miracle. Not a single drop of blood was shed in Damascus. Even when the fighters went to free the detainees from the prisons, they negotiated with the guards.

And all the fighters are Syrians; this is really important given all the supposed leftists in Europe and the Middle East who accused the opposition of being traitors who sold the country to foreigners. Already statues of Assad have been toppled in some Allawite areas – they know that there is no hope their faction will stay in power. There have been no sectarian tensions. All these factors make me happy.

I would describe myself as an extremist secularist, and I’m still happy even though the fighters are from an Islamist faction. Syrians will not let anyone else control them the way we were controlled by the Assad regime; they will rebel against them.

The fighters have also changed their narrative. Their leader al-Jolani is asking people to protect public property, and although I don’t trust him this intervention will have an impact on how people behave.

I’m originally from Tartous and I left in 1998. Any plans to go back will involve a delicate calculation. It’s not easy after 27 years away. The physical connection between me and Syria is dead, and I’m also concerned I will see a ruined country. It’s not the country that I left.

I am thankful to the fighters, although I can’t trust them. But can they be worse than Assad?

My ideal is that we have a transitional government of technocrats. I would like to see the UN strongly involved in rebuilding the country and its institutions. I don’t want the Gulf countries to be involved in any way beyond giving us money for reconstruction. Donald Trump said the US wouldn’t get involved and I’m happy about that. As for Europe, the left let us down massively – and the left in the Arab world even more.

Ghias Aljundi, 54, human rights consultant, lives in London.

Syria
Conflict, Regime
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