The road to Damascus is lined with torn-down posters of Bashar al-Assad. The 120km car journey from Beirut, the capital of neighbouring Lebanon, should take only take two hours, but until early on Sunday the border crossing was dotted with checkpoints, including a dreaded one where arrivals had their names checked to find anyone “listed”.
“Even your mother will not know where you are if you get detained from this point,” said a taxi driver who made the crossing regularly.
Now, that site has been burned down, and the Syrian guards who terrorised people have disappeared. There were no passport checks to enter Syria on Monday morning: checkpoints and guard posts were abandoned.
[ Arab rulers fear Syria could slip into factional chaosOpens in new window ]
Men from local villages said they had voluntarily moved in to guard the area from looters. They gleefully waved guns they said they had found there, while children played and posed on tanks, flashing the “V” sign or chanting “freedom”. Around them, cars – already looted – were missing even their batteries. One man said they were ready to hand everything over when “the new state” arrives: he meant the new administration of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which led the opposition forces that ousted Assad this week. “People will be treated with fairness and justice,” the man anticipated.
HTS – an Islamist militant organisation that emerged out of what was once the al-Qaeda-aligned Jabhat al-Nusra – is recognised internationally as a terrorist group, raising myriad queries and concerns. But many Syrians believe HTS leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani when he says the group has evolved and will respect minorities and institutions. Many more are simply exuberant that more than half a century of the Assad regime’s brutal rule has ended.
Assad’s face – ubiquitous across regime-held Syria – still feels omnipresent. One man near the border shot at a portrait of him, before throwing fuel over it and setting it on fire. Another stamped on a poster. More scaled tall structures to tear others down.
Despite their efforts, Assad’s face also still gazes out from 2,000 lira banknotes, in a country whose economy contracted 85 per cent during more than 13 years of civil war under his rule.
[ Revolutions swept the Middle East in 2011. Will Syria’s end differently?Opens in new window ]
The roads around Damascus are dotted with discarded items of military clothing: trousers; jackets; stars from a uniform, indicating a military ranking; and even an ID – a sign of how hollowed out Assad’s power was by the end.
In Damascus on Monday, there were traffic jams and people out in the streets, though many shops were shuttered. Some cars were blaring pro-revolution songs; the three-starred flag of Syrian opposition groups had been newly painted on shutters, and various people waved the flag from cars or motorbikes.
The same flag had been draped from a bridge beside the Four Seasons hotel, believed to be the current location of outgoing prime minister Mohammad al-Jalali. He has agreed to help hand over power to any leadership chosen by the people.
Excited citizens were taking photographs of each other outside the presidential palace. “I remember the Syrians used to pass by here, they used to feel afraid to even look at the door. They would just drive quickly,” said one local.
There were also reminders of continuing regional tensions as Israeli air strikes were audible in the capital. Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, said they were hitting regime weapons depots. Smoke rose close to the notorious Sednaya prison, and the sky glowed orange, as Syria’s White Helmets civil defence workers searched for hidden floors and cells where prisoners may have been left to die by regime security forces.
Israel also responded to Assad’s ousting by seizing a previously demilitarised buffer zone in Syrian-controlled territory in the Golan Heights. “We will not allow any hostile force to establish itself on our border,” said Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday.
It was another reminder that, despite any jubilance, Syria is still a country beset with vast insecurity and economic problems, making it very unclear how everything will develop from here.
“Chaos and instability,” said a Syrian refugee in Lebanon, who has been selected for resettlement to Ireland and is still hoping to travel soon. “The situation is not safe there.”
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