Syria is undergoing a revolution by siege

Emma Salma,
Independent Journalist

28 June 2011 / Opinión CIDOB, nº 121

 

Since the bloodbath has significantly increased in Syria over the last few weeks, people keep asking themselves: is there any sign on the ground that the revolution may succeed?

The public opinion is divided in Syria. It is true that the number of people standing by the authorities is dropping from Friday to Friday, alienated by the regime’s brutality and its increasing despotism, but popular support for the revolution has not yet reached the point at which those opposing change become reluctant to speak out. Posters and banners can still be seen in the shops and streets of those neighbourhoods and villages where the majority of the population supports the dictatorship, including the centres of both Damascus and Aleppo, the strongholds of the regime.

The oligarchy, the bureaucratic apparatus, the political and military elites and the new upper middle class (which has emerged over the last decade as a result of a market-based economic reform) are standing shoulder to shoulder with the regime, but so are most of the religious minorities, including Christians (who are terrified of the possibility of the rise of an Islamic regime), the Druze and the Alawites (the Shiite sect to which President Bachar Al Assad belongs). This one third of the population, accustomed to the protection of impunity, does not yet perceive the threat posed by the revolutionaries as a serious challenge to the way of life they have, until now, taken for granted.

Outside the two biggest Syrian cities, in Deraa, Duma, Homs, Baniyas, Hama and other, an increasing percentage of the population (including poor peasants, educated unemployed youth, intellectuals longing for freedom of expression and political opponents) is becoming aware of the prevailing oppression, corruption and misery the current rulers bring about, and they are, slowly but with increasing resolve, taking to the streets.

(...)

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