Statues Of Bashar Al-Assad’s Father Dragged Through Syria Roads

As Syrian President Bashar Al Assad fled the nation amid a regime change and insurgent forces moved in, statues of his father and former President Hafez Al-Assad in and across the capital had been pulled down by protesters welcoming the insurgent fighters.

Extra historical past within the making – Syrians in Jaramana, a SE #Damascus suburb, tear down the Hafez al-#Assad statue.

The tip is close to. pic.twitter.com/ySTpVKHImo

— Charles Lister (@Charles_Lister) December 7, 2024

Seizing energy via a coup in 1970, Hafez Al-Assad began as a Prime Minister after which remained Syria’s President until his dying in 2000. The three-decade rule, although autocratic, gave Syria an period of stability and established it as a serious pressure within the Center East. His son, Bashar Al Assad, succeeded him and dominated Syria for over 20 years until an armed rise up overthrew his regime.

That is the top of a statue of Hafez Al-Assad. The one that massacred their households within the 80s, the previous dictator and the daddy of the present dictator. Syrians won’t ever cease combating till freedom is achieved. That is #Hama pic.twitter.com/wxQJTGwlyj

— Omar Alshogre | عمر الشغري (@omarAlshogre) December 6, 2024

Dramatic scenes performed out within the streets of Damascus and different cities because the regime modified in Syria. In significantly symbolic visuals, a statue of former President Hafez al-Assad was pulled down in Syria’s fourth-largest metropolis Hama — over 200 km from Damascus. Celebratory firing and cries of ‘Allahu Akbar’ rang out loud because the statue was destroyed. A video confirmed a car dragging the statue’s decapitated head via the street as folks chased it to kick. Within the metropolis of Latakia too, a statue of the previous President was pulled down as protesters cheered and recorded the second on their telephones.   

The vandalism of statues is a symbolic act witnessed in regime modifications worldwide in latest historical past. When the Sheikh Hasina authorities in Bangladesh was overthrown earlier this yr, statues of the nation’s first president and Sheikh Hasina’s father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had been vandalised. The scenes in Syria are additionally harking back to the 2003 footage of a US armoured car toppling a statue of former dictator Saddam Hussein on the day Baghdad fell.

The rise up that proved to be Bashar Al Assad’s undoing started after peaceable anti-government protests in 2011 had been repressed. Over time, the motion snowballed into a posh battle drawing in overseas powers and leaving half 1,000,000 folks useless and lots of extra displaced.