Syria protests spurred by economic misery stir memories of the 2011 anti-government uprising

BEIRUT – Anti-government protests in southern Syria have stretched right into a 2nd week, with demonstrators waving the colourful flag of the minority Druze group, burning banners of President Bashar Assad’s authorities and at one level raiding a number of workplaces of his ruling celebration.

The protests have been first of all pushed by surging inflation and the war-torn nation’s spiraling financial system however briefly shifted center of attention, with marchers calling for the fall of the Assad authorities.

The demonstrations were targeted in the government-controlled province of Sweida, the heartland of Syria’s Druze, who had in large part stayed on the sidelines all the way through the long-running clash between Assad and the ones looking to topple him.

In a scene that after would were unthinkable in the Druze stronghold, protesters kicked individuals of Assad’s Baath celebration out of some of their workplaces, welded the doorways close and spray-painted anti-government slogans on the partitions.

The protests have rattled the Assad authorities, however do not appear to pose an existential risk. They come at a time when authorities forces have consolidated regulate over maximum of the nation. Meanwhile, Damascus has returned to the Arab fold and restored ties with maximum governments in the area.

Still, anger is construction, even amongst Syrians who didn’t sign up for the preliminary anti-Assad protests in 2011. Those demonstrations have been met with a harsh crackdown and plunged the nation into years of civil struggle.

For some, the ultimate straw got here two weeks in the past when the Syrian president additional scaled again the nation’s pricey gasoline and fuel subsidy program. Assad additionally doubled meager public sector wages and pensions, however the ones movements did little to cushion the blow, as a substitute accelerating inflation and additional weakening the already sinking Syrian pound. The effects additional piled on the economic force on hundreds of thousands dwelling in poverty.

Soon after, protests kicked off in Sweida and the neighboring province of Daraa.

Over the previous decade, Sweida had in large part remoted itself from Syria’s uprising-turned-conflict. The province witnessed sporadic protests decrying corruption and the nation’s economic backslide. This time, crowds briefly swelled into the masses, calling out political repression by Assad’s authorities and stirring echoes of the protests that rocked the nation in 2011.

“People have reached a point where they can no longer withstand the situation,” Rayan Maarouf, editor-in-chief of the local activist media collective Suwayda24, told The Associated Press. “Everything is crumbling.”

While Assad’s political fortunes have been on the rise in recent months, life for much of the country’s population has become increasingly miserable. At least 300,000 civilians have been killed in the conflict, half of Syria’s prewar population of 23 million has been displaced and large parts of the infrastructure have been crippled. Ninety percent of Syrians live in poverty. Rampant corruption and Western-led sanctions have also worsened poverty and inflation.

In Daraa — often referred to as the birthplace of the 2011 uprising but now under government control — at least 57 people were arrested in the current protests, according to the Britain-based Syrian Network for Human Rights. Unlike in 2011, government forces did not use lethal force.

In Sweida, the response has been more restrained, with Assad apparently wary of exerting too much force against the Druze. During the years of civil war, his government presented itself as a defender of religious minorities against Islamist extremism.

Over the years, the province’s young men also have armed themselves to defend their villages from Islamic State militants and Damascus-associated militias that produce and trade in illegal amphetamine pills, known as Captagon.

Joseph Daher, a Swiss-Syrian researcher and professor at the European University Institute in Florence, believes that this provides a layer of protection for protesters.

“Unlike other government-held areas, Sweida has some form of limited autonomy,” Daher said.

Meanwhile, in Damascus, Lattakia, Tartous and other urban government strongholds, some are voicing their discontent more quietly. They write messages of support for the protests on paper, take pictures of those notes on the streets of their towns, and share them on social media.

Others suffer in silence and focus on daily survival. In Damascus, some have taken to carrying backpacks instead of wallets to carry the wads of cash they need to make everyday purchases amid the rampant inflation, while families struggle to buy basic necessities.

“If I buy (my son) two containers of milk, I’d have spent my entire month’s salary,” Damascus resident Ghaswan al-Wadi told the AP while preparing her family dinner at home after a long day at work.

The ongoing protests highlight Assad’s vulnerability as a result of the failing economy, even in areas that tried to withstand the situation and not hold large-scale protests against his rule.

Could the protests eventually threaten his rule?

Daher said this could only happen if the protesters banded together.

“You have forms of solidarity from other cities (with Sweida),” Daher said. “But you can’t say it would have a real effect on the regime, unless there would be collaboration between (protesters in) different cities.”