53 Years of Tyranny and the Fall of a Dynasty
Dana Mohammed Ahmed – Activist
For 53 years, a father-and-son rule dominated Syria—53 years marked by the oppression of the people, the spread of poverty, killings, torture, overflowing prisons, and the silencing of free voices. After decades of injustice, the people’s anger finally brought an end to the Assad family’s 53-year dynasty. Neither Bashar al-Assad nor his father, Hafez al-Assad, with all their militias, soldiers, and executioners, could withstand the power of the Syrian people’s uprising. After more than half a century, the Assad family was forced out of power.
How did it all begin? During the height of the Arab Spring, a group of children, none older than 15, wrote on the wall of a school in Daraa: “It’s your turn, doctor.” This message was directed at Bashar al-Assad, who had been a doctor before assuming the presidency. The oppressive Assad regime could not tolerate even the grievances of children. They arrested them all, igniting protests in Daraa that quickly spread across Syria. These protests eventually escalated into a civil war, leading to the downfall of the Assad regime.
Before Assad, similar regimes in countries like Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, and Yemen were also toppled by popular uprisings, one after another. Even figures like Gaddafi and Ali Abdullah Saleh were killed by their own people. These regimes, built over decades through oppression, impoverishment, and the filling of prisons, ultimately crumbled at the hands of those they had subjugated.
In our own region, we see regimes that mirror Assad’s and others like it. They oppress the people, impoverish them, silence free voices, and fill prisons. Anyone who dares to criticize or oppose their rule is met with fabricated charges and thrown into jail. The extent of the torture they endure is known only to God. The prisons of the KDP and PUK are filled with those who oppose their authority, including journalists and activists who, over 33 years of these two parties’ rule, have been silenced by bullets.
Kawa Germyani, a journalist, was shot in cold blood at his mother’s doorstep. Sardasht Osman, a young writer, was kidnapped in front of his university and brutally murdered in broad daylight, in full view of his friends. Later, the regime shamelessly labeled him a terrorist. Bakr Ali, Soran Mama Hama, and countless others were silenced simply for criticizing those in power. Protesters demanding their basic rights have been killed or injured by KDP and PUK forces. Many others, without evidence, have been falsely accused and remain imprisoned to this day. So, I ask: isn’t this what Assad and similar regimes did?
Exploiting the people, withholding salaries, suppressing freedoms, raising taxes, and systematically destroying the lives and achievements of citizens—these are the hallmarks of the two-party familial system. This strategy of oppression seems endless, but as the saying goes, the rope of tyranny eventually snaps under its own weight.
After 33 years of injustice and authoritarian rule, do the KDP and PUK feel the need to seek forgiveness from the people and change their ways? Or are they waiting for the people’s fury to burn down their rule, just as it has toppled similar regimes across the region?
Editor: Diyar Harki
