Press release
Syrian Opposition Coalition
Department of Media and Communications
March 15, 2022
On this day, Tuesday, and on this same date, a group of brave young men and women marched through the heart of Damascus, chanting for freedom and expressing the aspirations of the Syrian people for emancipation from the tyrannical regime and oppressive family rule. Meanwhile, the Assad regime’s security forces were detaining and torturing children in Dara’a for writing anti-regime graffiti on the walls of their school, thus declaring the start of the revolution against the regime of dictatorship and tyranny, only to be met them with repression, arrest and torture.
On Friday, March 18 activists announced that day the Friday of Dignity. The Syrian people answered the call for emancipation from tyranny, injustice and brutal security rule. Demonstrations took place in several Syrian cities: in Damascus and its suburbs, Dara’a, Homs, Baniyas, and Deir Ezzor, marking start of the great Syrian Revolution which continues to this date.
The first fallen hero was killed in Dara’a city on March 18 during demonstrations which the regime met with live bullets. His blood was the spark that aroused the Syrian people’s yearning for freedom and salvation from a regime that is only good at killing and bloodshed. The Assad regime did not only confront the defenseless demonstrators with live bullets, but also with tanks and then with barrel bombs, ballistic missiles and even internationally prohibited weapons, such as incendiary napalm, chlorine gas and sarin. The Assad regime has so far killed more than one million people.
The regime’s defeat and despair prompted it to seek assistance from Iran and the terrorist Hezbollah militia in its war against the Syrian people. Those also suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of Syria’s revolutionaries, which forced them to seek assistance from Russia, which started a brutal military aggression against the Syrian people, displacing more than half of Syria’s population from their homes. However, all this failed to extinguish the fire of the revolution or to dissuade the Syrian people from their just demands, foremost of which is the overthrow of the murderous regime.
Against this backdrop, the international community was dealing with the revolution as a crisis that erupted in a remote country, rather than a fire that erupted in a neighboring field. It therefore dealt with the revolution according to the approach of crisis management, rather than conflict resolution, which cost the Syrian people more sacrifices. This approach also proved very costly for the international community itself, and on several levels, the most recent of which what we are witnessing today in terms of Russian aggression on the outskirts of Europe in Ukraine, and the consequent threat to global peace and security and the threat of nuclear weapons.
The international community’s wrong choices and its inaction have led to many disasters in Syria, the region and beyond. However, the opportunity is still available to everyone by going with the right choices of providing real support for the Syrian people in order to end the rule of tyranny and terrorism represented by the Assad regime and its enablers: Iran and Russia, and to build a civil, democratic, and active state in the region and the world.
The world today is required more than ever to stand with the Syrian people who have made enormous sacrifices. It is about time that the world lift the cover from the murderous Assad regime and expel it from all international organizations, and to support the free people of Syria in their struggle for freedom. It is also imperative to confront Russia’s plans aimed at rehabilitating the regime and to stand up to the Iranian regime’s malicious plans to spread hatred and sectarianism.
As we celebrate the 11th anniversary of the Syrian Revolution, we hope that this year will bring with it an end to displacement, arrest persecution and torture. We hope that the next anniversary will bring with it freedom, justice and dignity for the Syrian people; political transition; the demise of this puppet regime; the withdrawal of occupation and aggression forces; and the opportunity for all Syrians to chant for freedom in Syria’s squares and streets.
May our wounded recover, our detainees be free, and our fallen heroes rest in peace.
Long live Syria and its people, free and with honor.
