-Analysis-
DAMASCUS — We are living Syria’s worst nightmare — one that betrays the hopes of those who, on December 8, 2024, dreamed of a new nation with no trace of Bashar al-Assad’s legacy.
Syria’s modern history has been marked by so many roaming massacres.
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We thought that after the fall of the Ba’ath regime and Assad’s tyranny, blood-soaked massacres like Houla, Tadamon, Ghouta, Khan Sheikhoun, and dozens of others would remain a collective memory — a sacred reminder that no Syrian should spill the blood of another Syrian. We believed that Assad’s downfall would be a chance to come together and heal the wounds of the victims’ families.
Black Thursday betrayal
That was our hope before Black Thursday, March 6, 2025 — the day the perpetrators of those very massacres set their new ambushes. The same people who thrived on Syrian blood, knowing their survival depends on spilling even more.
They are criminals by their own admission — figures like Ghiath Dalla and Miqdad Fattihah, along with other former officers of the regime’s army who committed massacres against Syrians. In one video circulating on social media, Fattihah even boasts that he has seen more intestines of Syrians than faces.
A group now labeled as “Assad’s remnants” rallied their forces — likely with the backing of forces in other countries in the region — and launched calls for mobilization along the Syrian coastline.
Days of chaos
Some of those who had previously settled their scores with the new government in Damascus followed these calls. They protested against the rule of Syria’s new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, who had provided no assurances three months after taking control of our country. A one-color government had emerged, with entire graduating classes from the military and security forces belonging to the same group.
The Ba’ath Party’s eradication in Iraq remains a clear example of how such an approach fails
Meanwhile, thousands of public sector employees were dismissed, many of whom had worked under the previous regime.
Anyone familiar with recent regional history understands the dangers of purging government employees, doctors, military personnel, and specialists in the wake of a dictatorship that lasted for decades.
The Ba’ath Party’s eradication in Iraq remains a clear example of how such an approach fails, leading inevitably to the chaos we have witnessed the last five days.
The darkest hour
Yes, we are living in Syria’s worst nightmare. Those who live in the coastal Mediterranean regions woke up on Friday to a flood of violations and deliberate killings. No home was spared, even those whose doors had been closed in the belief that they shared in the joy of Assad’s fall and the desire to eliminate figures like Fattihah and Dalla — men who had terrorized and robbed them for years.
When I first heard the news, I called a friend in the seaside city of Tartus, a member of a family long opposed to the Ba’ath regime, to check on him. His response was chilling:”If we don’t make it out alive today, know this — it’s not the revolution. It’s the Ba’ath’s Iraqi branch.”
The regime had planted sectarianism and division.
Scrolling through social media, I came across a comment from a Christian friend, a devout believer in both Christianity and the democratic revolution that began in 2011. A son of the coast, he wrote: “This is the Great Friday — the day Christ is led to crucifixion by those for whom he sacrificed himself, after being betrayed by Judas and denied by Peter.”
His words capture what the poor Alawites of the coast have endured for decades — blackmailed by the regime, terrorized into fearing their fellow Syrians, and conditioned to believe that their survival depended on Assad.
The regime had planted sectarianism and division, leading them to this massacre — one so horrific that it has unified all Syrians in collective trauma.
Now, the question remains: Will we survive this nightmare?
