On The Third Anniversary Of The Syrian Revolution - Ahmed Jarba, President of the opposition Syrian National Coalition
20 March 2014
By Ahmed Jarba
After 50 years of tyranny and despotism, after five
decades of having all aspects of freedom blotted out
and the political, economic, social and cultural
aspects of life in Syria eliminated, the revolution
emerged.
The revolution emerged from a complex material,
political and cultural reality in Syria. After the
outbreak of the Arab Spring, Syria was expected to be
among the first countries to witness a revolution.
While Tunisia had a "dignity revolution," Egypt's
sought economic prosperity and Libya's broke out for
political reasons, Syria's revolution is the result of
these three problems combined.
From the beginning, Syrian youth changing "Syria wants
freedom!" took to the streets to demand freedom and
the downfall of an authoritarian regime. Beyond any
national, religious or sectarian agenda, the Syrian
people chanted: "One, one, one, the Syrian people are
one."
The regime responded with suppression and with
arrests, viewing the young revolutionaries as
modern-day Don Quixotes, tilting at windmills and
living in a waking dream. What the regime forgot is
that it is the dreamers who have the capacity to alter
reality.
The regime failed to quell the youth, and the more it
imprisoned and murdered Syria's young people the more
determined to follow the path of freedom the Syrian
people became.
The train of revolution was gathering steam, and the
only option the regime had left was to try to derail
it. That regime tried to entrench sectarianism by
involving Hezbollah, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards,
and the Abu Fadl Al-Abbas Brigade. It committed one
massacre after another in hope of provoking an
overwhelming reaction.
The regime tried to drive a wedge between the Syrian
people; it strived to tarnish the image of the
revolution and ultimately militarize it. It sought to
force the youth to take up arms, but to no avail. Its
failure forced it to commit even greater violence, and
eventually to adopt a scorched-earth policy. In
retrospect, the regime's excessive killing and
destruction and barbarity were directly responsible
for the revolutionaries' decision to take up arms
after six months of peaceful protest.
After having militarized the revolution and created
the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and similar
radical organizations, the regime continued killing on
the pretext of combatting "terrorism," committing the
most barbaric crimes using all variety of weapons. In
doing so, it displaced the Syrian people, destroyed
their homes and ruined their businesses. Since the
first day of the revolution, the regime's only
strategy has been to waste time and let the crisis
drag on until the people are completely fed up and the
rebels exhausted and spent.
Prisoners die every day, hour and minute across Syria
as a result of the regime's starvation policy.
This regime is barbaric. It did not, has not and will
not understand reality, and nor does it want to. It
keeps singing its resistance songs and playing fake
triumphal marches. It keeps repeating its anti-terror
discourse. But it has failed miserably in the face of
the ongoing civil movement, the protests, and the
rebel bullets that have all disturbed Bashar Al-Assad's
sleep over the past three years.
We tried to make real the Syrian refugees' dream of
returning to their homeland when we sat around the
table at the Geneva II conference. The Syrian
opposition tried to put an end to the murder and the
violence by proposing a political solution centered on
the establishment of a transitional executive body
with full powers. It was the Assad regime that ensured
the failure of Geneva II by holding firm to its
tiresome and hackneyed discourse, failing to make any
commitments or offer any compromises. It continues to
speak the only language it knows: the language of
killing. After having used chemical weapons on its own
people, it invented barrel bombs, seeking only to
terrify Syrians by any and all means.
Because the great Syrian people are so full of dignity
and magnanimity, we depend on them as they continue
their civil struggle. We support all their choices
regarding any and all possible solutions. This
revolution cannot suffer between the hammer of
regional polarization and the anvil of international
interests.
The revolution will continue. The Syrian people, after
all the sacrifices they have given, will not give up
their dreams of freedom and dignity. In the name of
the greatest revolution in the history of the world,
they are heroes demonstrating in the name of freedom.
The "One, one, one, the Syrian people are one!" slogan
that has echoed across Syrian from the first day of
the revolution will live on, until victory has been
achieved.
Ahmed Jarba is President of the opposition Syrian
National Coalition.
©
EsinIslam.Com
Add Comments