On Sunday, folks throughout Syria will have a good time the fifteenth anniversary of the rebellion that, in late 2024, put an finish to President Bashar al-Assad’s rule.
On March 15, 2011, antigovernment protesters descended onto the streets of Deraa, Damascus and Aleppo.
Advisable Tales
checklist of 4 objectsfinish of checklist
After Tunisia and Egypt, the Arab Spring had arrived in Syria.
Lots of the preliminary demonstrations erupted after information emerged of the arrest and torture of teenage boys from Deraa, in southwestern Syria. The boys have been arrested for portray anti-Assad graffiti.
Because the protests grew to demand democratic reforms and the discharge of political prisoners, al-Assad and his forces started responding with brutal power and suppression. By July 2011, defectors from the Syrian military introduced the formation of the Free Syrian Military. Different armed teams additionally joined the fray, as did many countries and regional insurgent teams, and shortly, the nation fell right into a vicious battle during which tons of of hundreds have been killed and tens of millions displaced.
Then, in December 2024, a lightning offensive by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group eliminated al-Assad, who fled to Russia. The chief of the since-disbanded HTS, Ahmed al-Sharaa, is now the nation’s president and has led the trouble to rebuild a battered state, together with its safety.
Syrians instructed Al Jazeera on the rebellion’s anniversary that they’re proud to have deposed the Assad dynasty that dominated the nation for greater than 50 years.
Final yr, the capital was crammed with roses as Syrians celebrated the primary anniversary of the revolution with out al-Assad as their chief. And this time, with the anniversary coming amid the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, authorities have deliberate a giant iftar in Qatana, simply south of Damascus, with the households of individuals killed, in addition to a gathering of younger revolutionaries and activists in Barzeh.
“God keen, we’ll have a good time,” Bassem Hlyhl, an worker on the Ministry of Info, instructed Al Jazeera.
‘Worldwide legitimacy’
When al-Sharaa got here to energy, questions loomed over whether or not he would have the ability to overcome a number of the main challenges dealing with the nation, together with the extreme worldwide sanctions imposed on it.
However al-Sharaa rapidly gained worldwide legitimacy, constructing good relations with a number of regional nations, in addition to america below President Donald Trump.
“Al-Sharaa has achieved a stage of worldwide legitimacy no different Syrian president has reached earlier than him,” Omer Ozkizilcik, a non-resident senior fellow on the Atlantic Council’s Syria Mission, wrote in a December 2025 report.
Nonetheless, obstacles stay. Many Syrians say they not have to fret about al-Assad’s safety forces arresting or torturing them, however the nation’s safety remains to be tenuous.
“For me, it’s safer by daylight,” Ahmad Khallak, a Syrian from Idlib, instructed Al Jazeera.
“There are nonetheless lots of weapons with unknown folks or assailants.”
He talked about that some areas are safer than others, however there are nonetheless safety issues, together with the presence of ISIL (ISIS) fighters in elements of the nation. He additionally mentioned petty crime, akin to theft, was nonetheless current.
The Syrian authorities below al-Sharaa has labored to ascertain management over the state after some 14 years of battle. That included asserting management over the coast, the place combating in March 2025 led to mass violence, together with from members of Syrian safety forces, and makes an attempt to increase authorities management to Suwayda, within the south, the place violence spiralled final summer time.
Syria’s safety forces have recruited numerous members in a brief house of time, however observers say they’re nonetheless in want of extra recruits. Because of this elements of the nation’s periphery don’t take pleasure in the identical safety presence as, for instance, Damascus.
The federal government additionally undertook negotiations to include the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) into the Syrian military. The SDF managed a lot of the northeastern of Syria, however a January offensive by the federal government retook massive swaths of the world.
In November, the homicide of a pair in Homs threatened to spark sectarian violence, however the authorities and tribal leaders intervened to calm tensions.
“[T]he Ministry of Inside has moved to strengthen its inside methods and assert higher duty over the nation’s myriad safety actors,” Julien Barnes-Dacey wrote in a current report for the European Council on Overseas Relations.
“In some areas, akin to Homs, the place native tensions stay excessive, authorities forces’ skilled responses to safety incidents have prevented new cycles of escalation.
“And following the violence final March that noticed greater than 1,400 Alawites [a Shia minority] murdered, communal relations look like slowly bettering on the bottom – although minority teams nonetheless have deep issues over their standing within the new Sunni dominated nation and face ongoing safety threats,” he wrote.
