20 May 2011

Azadi Friday in film

The whole country has arisen! If you have more video, please post them in the comments, thanks!

Latakia


Homs






Barzeh Damascus









Rikn el Deen Damascus



Nahr Aiysha Damascus



Midan Damascus



Jisr el Shoughour



Amouda



Qamishli



Hama







Qaboon Damascus



Hajar Aswad Damascus



Marat el Noman



Saqba



Bab Sreygeh Damascus



AlQadam Damascus



Sief Dawla Aleppo





Salkeen Idleb



Ein Arab Aleppo



Tartous



Daria



Kisweh



Banyas



Dirbaseyeh



Arbeen




Kafr Nibol

After Assad Goes: 1. Inside Syria

What do we want, what do we hope to see for this country, for our beloved bilad, when the regime is gone?

Certainly, we use words that carry great meaning: freedom, democracy, non-sectarianism and so on …

But what can they mean? Are they just buzzwords? After all, wasn’t freedom in the slogan of the Baath? Wasn’t unity?

I cannot speak for everyone in Syria but I can speak for what I want and what those I’m in touch with want.

We want a government that doesn’t rule by force and fear but by the consent of the governed: we long to give that consent to our rulers. We want a government that is accountable and lives by law, where no one is above the law and the law is fair, where abuses of position are punished and where torture and unlawful detention are things of the past.

We want a democratic society, one where there is freedom of the press, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly. We want our artists and poets not to be afraid of criticizing the government; we want our newspapers and television to be honest and open. We want to be able to discuss what we think with those we want to talk to.

We want a government that is representative. We want regular elections and meaningful ones, not simply asking us to assent to premade decisions but letting us choose. We want a fully elected parliament where we choose every seat. We want a president we choose, not chosen in a backroom party deal or ingheriting power. We do not want generals to lead us but we want those we voted for.

We want a Syria of many parties. We want to be able to choose from many parties and to have them compete for our support. We want all viewpoints to be able to compete, none barred for being too religious or too anti-religious, too nationalist or too anti-nationalist. We want capitalists and communists, Islamists and nationalists, socialists and regionalists to compete.

We want a Syria where the half of us who are women can progress. We want a Syria where what a woman wears is not an issue of state concern, whether she is covered or veiled or bareheaded should be between her and her God.

We want a Syria that is truly secular, where neither one religion dictates to the rest nor does a philosophy against religion reign.

We want a Syria where Christians, Druze, Jews, Muslims, Sunnis, Shia, Alawis, Catholics, Orthodox, Armenian, all are welcome to be a part of our nation. We want a Syria where the poison of sectarianism is gone.

We want a Syria where all the languages of Syria, Arabic, Aramaic, Armenian, Kurdish and Turkish are free …

We want a Syria where education is available to all, where universities welcome the farmer’s daughter as much as the official’s son. We want a Syria where all of us can fulfill our potential.

We want a Syria where good ideas fuel economic growth, not political connections. We want a Syria where the richness of our minds and our culture lets us build a great and prosperous tomorrow.

We want a strong and prosperous Syria that once again leads the world. We want a free Syria that welcomes back our lost provinces. We want a Great Syria once again.

We will have much work to do in the days and months and years ahead.

But we can do it. We will need to rewrite the constitution to reflect a mature and free society, we will need to discuss how to have responsible local governments as well as national ones.

We will, though, succeed.

We will build a great Syria.

AZADI! HURRIYAH! AZADI! FREEDOM!

UPDATE: 12 dead today, in Homs and Dera'a and Damascus
.......

The Nation Awakes

View Syrian unrest 20/05/2011 in a larger map

Homs:


Idlib:


Banyas, thousands are marching, in Hama, in Aleppo, in Dera'a, in Latakia ... in Qamishli and all the east!

Here in Damascus, the regime's loyalists are attacking worshippers with steel pipes as they leave the mosques in Bab Sreijiyah, in Midan the police use tear gas ... where I am, I can hear the sound of gunfire ...

But the people are not bowed:
and the greatness of this nation emerges. Today, we chant that we are for Freedom, we use AZADI the Kurdish word, we are all together, Arabs and Kurds as one people,
we are not salafi, we are not atheists, we are not muslims, we are not christians, we are
SYRIANS

We will be free; we will not cease!

Friday: No choice but revolution

It’s Friday again and, of course, everyone has one thing in their minds:

Will we explode again?

The government says that they will forbid protests today. Does that mean they will kill us?

Maybe or maybe not …

They say that they are pulling out from Tel Kalikh … they denounce Obama’s speech …. They say that we are all dupes and fools of foreign conspiracies … they claim that there are no protests, no dissent, than we are all dupes and fools who believe the testimony of our own eyes … they claim that they just want to reform and if we’d just shut up and go away, everything will be fine. After all, they say, there’s no dissension in the army; the fighting between the fourth and fifth divisions in Dera’a was just an illusion; the mass graves were just a delusion; the way that they try to stir up sectarian hatreds is all in our minds;

We after all are, despite our words and our actions, the ones who want to kill, not them. We are supposed to be filled with bloodlust (for the blood of poor innocent secret policemen, or, according to their apologists, the blood of any Alawi to make our matzoh). When we assert that we want democracy, that we are peaceful, that we despise sectarianism, we, they say, are disingeuous. When we have sit-ins and protest marches and sing songs, we are trying to dupe them into letting down their guards, just as we beat ourselves and imprisoned ourselves and killed ourselves just to make the pure hearts of the security services look bad

They say that if we just calm down and agree to go back to the way things were, they will quickly bring ‘reform’.

But we cannot go back. If we stop, we know that there will be no reforms. They will be rounding up everyone who has spoken out, everyone who has protested. They will kill us all except those who can make it out of the country.

We have no choice but revolution; once, there was a chance for reform and peaceful change. Assad promised it over and over and over again. But did nothing. The torture, the detentions, the killings went on. Any credibility is gone.

We have no choice; we cannot stop any more, not until freedom comes.

We have no choice but revolution until victory.

We have no choice but freedom

We have no choice but the overthrow of the regime.

They must go; all that is left to discuss the matter in which they cede power to the Syrian people

Until then

Revolution until victory