After 10 years of the Syrian uprising
The flame of the opposition against the Assad government is still alive
Syrian fighters opposed to Assad backed by Turkey in the opposition-held Tal Abyad.
A.F.B.
Syrian refugees in the Beka Valley, Lebanon.
Reuters
Pictures of devastation everywhere in Syria as a result of the civil war.
Reuters
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The city of Daraa was the first place in Syria to witness the protests that erupted in March 2011, against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad, as the demonstrators faced a fierce crackdown from Assad's forces.
These protests later turned into an armed rebellion and civil war.
The opposition fighters seized many areas, but Assad was able to crush them once he received support from his allies, Iran and Russia.
Now on the tenth anniversary of those first protests, a tiny fraction of Daraa has returned to government control, but the birthplace of the uprising still lies on the edge of an active volcano, boiling over resentment and despair over the suffocating economic crisis and the proliferation of armed groups.
Desperate investment
"Young people inside Syria are still in a state of despair," says Ahmed Al-Masalmeh, who helped organize protests in Daraa a decade ago and is now in exile in Jordan.
The pacifist still expects the victory of the opposition, despite the military victories of the government. He says, "We will invest in despair ... to restart the revolution again."
Al-Masalmeh, when the protests erupted, was a 35-year-old man who ran an electronics store, and was among the demonstrators at the Al-Omari Mosque in Daraa, on March 18, 2011, when security forces opened fire on the crowds.
In that incident, two people were killed, the first to die in a civil war that killed more than half a million people, internally displaced half of Syria's population, and caused the settlement of entire parts of some of the country's cities to the ground.
Al-Masalmeh predicted some violence, but believed that Assad could not escape what his father Hafez al-Assad did in 1982, who killed thousands in his quest to crush the rebellion.
"We thought that the world had become a small village, linked by social media and satellite stations," he told media sources.
"We did not expect the level of killing, brutality and hatred for the Syrian people to reach these levels," he continues.
The opposition stronghold
In some respects, Daraa has become a suitable stronghold for the opposition, as it is an isolated area compared to other Syrian cities located in the center of the country. Most of the residents of Daraa governorate are conservative Sunnis, most of whom are from the poor, largely in poverty, as they have been exposed for decades to government neglect.
While secular activists called for peaceful protests, Daraa protesters, when they were killed and tortured by the security services, resorted to forming armed militias to respond to what they had been subjected to.
Militant elements within armed militias across the country, including fighters linked to al-Qaeda, have dominated left-wing, secular, or nationalist groups.
The ferocity of the war fueled sectarian hatred, especially between Sunnis and Alawites, the minority to which Assad belongs.
"My fear turned into sectarian hatred," Nadel Al-Amari says.
Al-Ammari left the university in March 2011 and established a media center in Daraa that transmits images of protests to the world.
Al-Ammari was subjected to brutal arrest and torture for four months in 2011. He later fled Syria, and now lives in Germany.
In its heyday between 2013 and 2014, fighters controlled most of Syria east of the Euphrates, parts of Daraa Governorate, and a large part of the north.
And they fought in all the major cities, and even threatened Damascus from the surrounding countryside.
Assad's forces launched devastating air strikes with barrel bombs and chemical attacks.
The tide turned against the opposition when the government allies, Moscow and Tehran, intervened directly. First, Iran began with military experts and allied Shiite militias, then followed by Russia with its warplanes.
The siege and military campaigns against opposition-held cities and towns destroyed neighborhoods, starving the population and forcing them into submission.
The opposition areas shrank, until they became confined to a small pocket centered in Idlib Governorate in the northwest, dominated by Islamist militants, which survived due to Turkish protection.
One scenario
Russia-backed government forces overran Daraa Province in August 2018. Despite this, Daraa remained far from full control.
Instead, it reflects one scenario for Syria's near and volatile future: a war that Assad could dominate, but not win outright, while foreign powers make arrangements while the opposition remains steadfast in Assad’s rejection.
Daraa was subjected to a unique arrangement mediated by Russia, in part, due to pressure from Israel, which does not want the presence of Iranian militias on its doorstep, and pressure from Jordan, which wants to keep its border crossings open.
In parts of the governorate, fighters who agreed to "reconciliation" with the government remained responsible for security.
Some of them joined the Fifth Corps, which is technically part of the Syrian army but overseen by Russia.
State institutions and municipalities returned to work, but government forces remained outside.
Elsewhere, Russian and government forces are assuming responsibility together, forming a low-level government authority.
In the rest of the regions, the government is in complete control, and the Syrian army and Iranian-backed militias are spread out.
The organized presence of the opposition in Daraa allows for a margin of protests and expressions of anti-government sentiment, a situation difficult to find elsewhere in Syria.
Quiet rebellion
Some opponents rejected the agreement with Russia, and launched a rebellion that killed more than 600 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Among the dead were members of government forces, pro-Iranian militias and opponents, who signed agreements with Russian forces, and mayors and workers of municipalities who are considered loyal to the government.
As in other parts of the country, many are concerned about Tehran's growing influence.
Iranian-backed militias are recruiting young men to lure them with fixed salaries, and merchants linked to Assad and Iran take advantage of extreme poverty in Daraa to buy land.
A prominent lawyer from Daraa, Hassan al-Aswad, who now lives in exile in Germany, says that a new civil movement in the governorate is working to raise awareness against the sale of land and mobilize opposition to the upcoming presidential elections, in which Assad will be the only candidate.
But at the same time, the public is also feeling overwhelmed by the collapse of the economy across Syria, as inflation is on the rise, and there are few jobs, with the collapse of trade and agriculture and the deterioration of the infrastructure.
The architect is working in Germany to build a new life, but he is relentlessly connected to Syria.
He follows the events in his city, and breaks into tears when he talks about his home, and that he has not seen his family for 10 years, and on his arm there is a tattoo chronicling the first protests on 18 March 2011.
Iranian-backed militias are recruiting young men to lure them with fixed salaries, and merchants linked to Assad and Iran are taking advantage of extreme poverty in Daraa to buy land.
Russian-backed government forces invaded Daraa Governorate in August 2018. Nevertheless, Daraa remained far from full control.
The public also feels overwhelmed by the collapse of the economy across Syria, as inflation is on the rise, there are few jobs, with the collapse of trade, agriculture, and the deterioration of the infrastructure.
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