Bashar Assad has fled Syria. At a time when more voices, Arab and Western, were advocating the reintegration of the Syrian regime and were preparing to articulate accommodation formulas, 50 years of tyranny have fallen. It is a historic event, a great victory for the Syrian people: denying them joy and protagonism would not only be petty and unfair, but would also trip once again over the well-known orientalist stone that denies the Arab peoples any ability to be masters of their own history. .
Trusting the understanding of what has happened to geopolitics alone leaves out of logic the first and determining factor of this historical moment: the resilience of the Syrians, men and women who have endured during the last 13 years hardly imaginable levels of death, exile, prison and violation of human rights. Those who best know the internal dynamics of current Syria, diplomats as reliable as Geir O. Pedersen, United Nations envoy for Syria, have indicated from the first moments that “the resistance of the Syrian people today offers a path towards a united and peaceful Syria.” ”.
The peaceful transfer of powers to a transitional government is the priority at this time, and this has been stated by both the highest political body of the Syrian National Coalition, the Syrian opposition in exile, and Muhammad Gazi al Jalali, prime minister of the former regime, which is negotiating with the rebels. For his part, Muhammad al Golani, leader of Harakat Tahrir al Sham (HTS), the Islamist front that has coordinated the armed operations that led to the fall of Assad, made a declaration of intent in the same sense in a surprising interview. granted to CNN last week. Surprising because of what it means that this American news channel interviewed the leader of a terrorist group for whose capture a reward of 10 million dollars was offered just a few weeks ago. Which does not mean, at least in principle, that this new salaphotechnocrat be a puppet of the Trump-Erdogan anti-Iran entente. Rather, it could be interpreted that in jihadism in general, and in Syria in particular, a nationalist path has been opened, the extent of which remains to be seen.
The anti-imperialist conspiracy theorists agree with the liberal analysts of think tank in which, once again, the future of Syria is played out outside Syria. For years, although for opposite reasons, both have overlooked the fact that the Syrian regime, which claimed to be a bastion of resistance against Israel, never launched an operation to recover the Golan, the Syrian territory that Israel annexed in 1981. and that now Netanyahu is preparing to expand. Israel has already deployed its army to create a new security zone in more Syrian territory. It will be necessary to see in the coming days how the new power reacts to this.
There are two other aspects that will determine the most immediate future: the management of the social, confessional and ethnic plurality of the country, which is accompanied by the territorial integrity of Syria; and the return of the 5.5 million refugees and the seven million displaced people, in total 60% of the population. On both issues, the different internal voices have also shown an unusual agreement regarding United Nations Resolution 2254 (2015), which emphasizes “the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic.” Among the slogans chanted in cities across the country, including in Qamishli, the “capital” of Syrian Kurdistan controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces opposed to the HTS, one that was at the heart of the 2011 revolution has been repeated: “The Syrian people are one.”
