From Damascus to Groningen: Assad’s Fall Sparks Celebrations Around the World

Syrian community of Groningen celebrating the fallen of Assad's regime © Jacques Malherbe

The regime of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad collapsed this week following a lighting fast assault on the capital, Damascus, by a coalition of anti-government forces. Reports that the deposed dictator had fled the country sparked impromptu celebrations amongst Syrians at home and abroad. 

Assad’s fall is hoped to close a bloody chapter of Syria’s history stretching back to 2011, when peaceful protests against the Assad regime devolved into a civil war which claimed the lives of over 500 000 people. Assad has become notorious for his use of violence as a tool to maintain power in the country, including through the use of chemical weapons against his own people. Torture and human rights abuses have also long been a feature of the regime’s attempts to silence dissent.

 It is against this backdrop that the Syrian community of Groningen, some of the over 5 million Syrians living abroad, came out in impromptu celebration on Sunday, 8 December 2024. Over 100 people gathered on the Vismarkt in the centre of Groningen with many sporting Syria’s green, white and black “independence flag”. The celebrations included singing, dancing and chanting in Arabic. “I came here to be with my people,” said Ahmed (18), “I wanted to be with them, to celebrate this achievement.”

Although the mood was celebratory, many Syrian’s thoughts turned to friends and relatives who had been killed or imprisoned over the last decade. One man, who preferred not to be named, spoke of his brother’s release from the notorious Sednaya prison, which has been called a “human slaughterhouse” by Amnesty International. “I don’t know how to describe this feeling. You want to cry, to shout, to smile, to laugh, to break things. All at the same time.”

While Syria’s future remains uncertain, many people in Groningen are hopeful that Assad’s fall will bring peace to a troubled land. “We have the opportunity to become one people and rebuild our country as we want,” one man said, “We want to come together. You could be a Muslim, a Christian, a Jew, an Alawite, a Kurd. We lived together and we can do that again.”