Speech “Original in Arabic”
Khaled Khoja
President of the Syrian Coalition
July 17, 2015
To my brothers and sisters in beloved Syria, remaining steadfast and resolute in the face of extreme aggression and unmatched tyranny.
To the beacons of freedom, to the brave detainees.
To the mothers and families of our fallen heroes:
Despite all the pain and suffering, it is your right to joyfully celebrate Eid that God has granted to us, and to see your children rejoicing while the cruel tyrant is trying to suppress their smiles.
Ramadan has been a month of victory and empowerment, and of defeating the tyrant, his associates and the death squads he imports from everywhere. Rebel battalions have made progress in Idlib, Aleppo and Dara’a rebels, and repelled the invading Hezbollah and the sectarian militias in Qalamoun and Zabadani.
Despairing of ever crushing the revolution, the regime and its backers have resorted to escalating their crimes to an unprecedented scale. The number of people killed during Ramadan exceeds 2,420, including 300 children and women, while a third of the victims were in Aleppo alone.
Aleppo, Zabadani, rural Idlib, eastern Ghouta and Dara’a were hit with hundreds of rockets and barrel bombs. Having lost control of more than 75% of Syrian territory, and a similar proportion of its troops, the regime failed to recover an inch of territory lost over the past six months.
O Syrians, you and the heroic fighters defending the land and honor are in the process of completing your revolution. Just as it no longer exists in most of Syria’s territory, the regime no longer exists in your hearts or minds and has lost all legitimacy and justification to stay in power.
I feel the suffering of every Syrian mother who has lost her son, of the displaced on the outside or living in tents, of all the detainees in the dungeons of Assad and his tyrannical regime. Going forward with the revolution and fighting is for our children to live a decent free life.
Working for a free Syria is not limited to a particular component or a faction, but includes all Syrians to whom I extend my hand to work together, engage in dialogue and renounce extremism and division that the regime, its allies and the forces of terror lean on. On top of this comes ISIS and the sectarian death squads that we are determined to fight. We reaffirm our commitment to a future Syria, a free homeland for all its citizens, built by them and elevated by their hard work and initiatives.
The Assad regime and its Iranian ally, bear the greatest responsibility for the ongoing crimes against the Syrian people, but this must not exempt the international community of the responsibility to protect the lives of the Syrian people under international law.
The United Nations should shoulder its responsibility towards the refugees and displaced persons after most of the UN aid was cut off from the refugee camps.
I thank the neighboring countries that are hosting their Syrian brothers, most notably Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and northern Iraq, as well as the friendly and brotherly countries that support our revolution and stand by our people and its legitimate aspirations.
We bow in respect for our steadfast fighters and heroes in the battlefields of dignity and glory.
Blessed Eid to Syria, free and proud.
