It’s been almost every week because the gorgeous collapse of the Assad regime.
The finish of greater than half a century of brutal dictatorship in Syria is—to state the plain—a significant geopolitical second. It has embarrassed Tehran; caught Washington off guard; and upended many assumptions concerning the area.
The fallout is simply starting. In Damascus, the victorious Islamist rebels are trying to consolidate political energy. In a video message Friday, their chief Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, congratulated “the good Syrian individuals for the victory of the blessed revolution” and invited them “to go to the squares to point out their happiness with out taking pictures bullets and scaring individuals.”
But there’s extra to the story than merely a nation rejoicing—nevertheless welcome Bashar al-Assad’s departure could also be. Many are apprehensive that the newest chaos may enable for the reemergence of ISIS—which explains why America hit ISIS camps in Syria with airstrikes earlier this week. Meanwhile, within the north of the nation, Turkish-backed rebels are preventing U.S.-backed Kurds. And in southwestern Syria, Druze villages are voting to request that Israel annex their territory. Indicators of a nation—and a area—in flux.
Among these anxiously questioning what comes subsequent are Syria’s 500,000 Christians.
For her report for The Free Press right this moment, Madeleine Rowley spoke to Syrian Christians who’re apprehensive concerning the future. One of them is Elias, a 21-year-old dwelling in Berlin however whose household is in Damascus. “If something occurs to us, don’t come again to Syria,” his mom advised him in a voice message earlier this week. “Do not come to bury us.”
Elias fears the worst. “We haven’t any motive to belief al-Jolani,” he tells The Free Press. “He is a terrorist.”
Read Madeleine Rowley’s full story on what’s subsequent for Syria’s Christians right here.
Many of these wanting ahead with trepidation are additionally wanting again with horror. In the times because the fall of Assad, the extent of the evil of his regime has come into focus. Nowhere is that clearer than in Sednaya—the regime’s most infamous jail, torture complicated, and demise camp.
This week, Syrians flocked there to seek for lacking family members—and for a full accounting of the regime’s violent brutality. Our cameraman was amongst these crowds and, in collaboration with The Center for Peace Communications, we gained unprecedented entry to Sednaya and heard from survivors of this manufacturing facility of demise.
Click right here to look at our unique, firsthand look inside Assad’s most infamous jail.
