Syria one year on from liberation
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Listen now wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. We're recording this at 16 Hours GMT on Monday 8th December. Syria marks the first anniversary of the end of the Assad regime. The Nigerian government secures the release of 100 children kidnapped from a Catholic school last month. And Ukraine's President Zelensky meets key European allies in London. Also in the podcast... If we offer single portion sizes which are really to fulfil the requirements of average men, We're nudging more and more people to eat more than they need. Could cutting down portion sizes help tackle obesity? But first, it is a year since a lightning offensive by Islamist-led rebels in Syria ended five decades of brutal rule by the Assad family.
The new authorities have been marking the anniversary with a military parade in the capital Damascus. A huge crowd gathered in Umayyad Square, waving flags and beating drums.
However, despite that celebration of new freedoms, the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad 12 months ago hasn't brought an end to the challenges facing Syria. Dr Omar Imadi is at the Centre for Syrian Studies at St Andrews University in Scotland.
I think it's important to keep in mind that what fell on December 8th, 2024 was not simply an authoritarian regime. This was a system, a 61-year-old system that used weaponized sectarian differences, committed war crimes against its own population, imposed a very extreme version of a socialist nationalist ideology on the vast majority of the citizens. So when this finally falls... It's not, I think, reasonable to expect that everything will suddenly be okay. It doesn't work that way. There's a lot of grievances. There's deep divides in society. And I think given all of this, it's remarkable really what we have achieved in one year only.
Well, Syria's new president, Ahmad Ashara, a former al-Qaeda fighter, has managed to win the support of President Trump, while millions of Syrians have now returned home. But the country is struggling with the slow pace of reconstruction, according to the outgoing head of the UN's refugee agency. Filippo Grandi, high commissioner of the UNHCR, says Syria is at risk of going backwards. He spoke to our chief international correspondent, Lise Doucette, who is in Damascus. Who would have thought just a year and a day ago that this would happen? And I think that even after the fall of the Assad regime, we thought people would return, but not in these numbers. And they keep going back, and they have gone back throughout the year.
So, you know, this puts us in front of some important questions. Do they stay back in their homes and not to leave again as they might if things do not improve inside Syria?
But you're already warning the situation is perilous.
You go back, I've been several times this year to Syria. They go back to almost nothing, to houses that have become shells of what they used to be. Entire cities destroyed or parts of cities are destroyed. Services are on their knees.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–7:54
2
What significant events marked the anniversary of the Assad regime's fall in Syria?
7:54–13:52
3
What challenges does Syria face one year after the regime change?
13:52–18:49
4
How has the new Syrian leadership been received internationally?
18:49–31:01
Speakers
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