{"id":819788,"date":"2025-01-14T09:12:43","date_gmt":"2025-01-14T15:12:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/14\/new-year-hope-and-joy-reign-in-a-damascus-freed-from-assad\/"},"modified":"2025-01-14T09:12:43","modified_gmt":"2025-01-14T15:12:43","slug":"new-year-hope-and-joy-reign-in-a-damascus-freed-from-assad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/14\/new-year-hope-and-joy-reign-in-a-damascus-freed-from-assad\/","title":{"rendered":"New year hope and joy reign in a Damascus freed from Assad"},"content":{"rendered":"
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People celebrate the New Year near Umayyad Square in Damascus, Syria – Copyright AFP ANWAR AMRO<\/small><\/em><\/p>\n

Umayyad Square in Damascus hummed to the throngs of people brandishing \u201crevolution\u201d flags as Syria saw in the new year with hope following 13 years of civil war.<\/p>\n

Gunshots rang out from Mount Qasioun overlooking the capital where hundreds of people gazed up at fireworks, an AFP reporter at the square saw.<\/p>\n

It was the first new year\u2019s celebration without an Assad in power for more than 50 years after the fall of Bashar al-Assad in December.<\/p>\n

\u201cLong live Syria, Assad has fallen,\u201d shouted some children.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did not expect such a miracle to happen, today the Syrians have found their smile again,\u201d Layane el Hijazi, a 22-year-old agricultural engineering student, told AFP from Umayyad Square.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were able to obtain our rights, we can now talk. I am letting off steam these last three weeks and tonight by bringing out everything I had buried,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Despite the revelry, soldiers patrolled the streets of Damascus less than a month after Assad\u2019s rapid demise.<\/p>\n

The green, white and black \u201crevolution\u201d flag with its three red stars flies all over the capital.<\/p>\n

Such a sight \u2014 the symbol of the Syrian people\u2019s uprising against the Assad dynasty\u2019s iron-fisted rule \u2014 was unthinkable a month ago.<\/p>\n

The fall of Assad brought an end to more than half a century of unchallenged rule by his family\u2019s clan over Syria, where dissent was repressed and public freedoms were heavily curtailed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever happens, it will be better than before,\u201d said Imane Zeidane, 46, a cartoonist, who came to Umayyad Square with her husband and their daughter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am starting the new year with serenity and optimism,\u201d she said,\u00a0adding that she has \u201cconfidence\u201d in the new government under de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.<\/p>\n

She also remembers that new year\u2019s celebrations in previous years were \u201cnot like this\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe joy is double now \u2014 you come down to celebrate the new year with your heart, and celebrate the hope it carries,\u201d Zeidane said.<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u2018Fears have dissipated\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n

The revolutionary song \u201cLift your head, you are a free Syrian\u201d by Syrian singer Assala Nasri rang out loud on Umayyad Square.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery year, we aged suddenly by 10 years,\u201d taxi driver Qassem al-Qassem, 34, told AFP in reference to the tough living conditions in a country whose economy collapsed under Assad.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut with the fall of regime, all our fears have dissipated,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow I have a lot of hope. But all we want now is peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than half a million people died in the 13-year civil war as the country split into different regions controlled by various warring parties.<\/p>\n

Many families are still waiting for news of loved ones who went missing under Assad\u2019s rule, during which time tens of thousands of prisoners disappeared.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that Syria in 2025 will be non-denominational, pluralist, for everyone, without exception,\u201d said Havan Mohammad, a Kurdish student from the northeast studying pharmacy in the capital.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"AFP\"\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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With 2,400 staff representing 100 different nationalities, AFP covers the world as a leading global news agency. AFP provides fast, comprehensive and verified coverage of the issues affecting our daily lives.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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AFP
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People celebrate the New Year near Umayyad Square in Damascus, Syria – Copyright AFP ANWAR AMRO Umayyad Square in Damascus hummed to the throngs of people brandishing \u201crevolution\u201d flags as Syria saw in the new year with hope following 13 years of civil war. Gunshots rang out from Mount Qasioun overlooking the capital where hundreds<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":819789,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[140914,26406],"tags":[140913,10605],"class_list":{"0":"post-819788","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-damascus","8":"category-reign","9":"tag-damascus","10":"tag-reign"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=819788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/819789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}