At Umayyad Square in central Damascus, tens of thousands of people had the party of a lifetime on Friday. Filling the roundabout to the brink, they partied late into the evening, celebrating the moment many thought would never come: the exit of their brutal dictator Bashar al-Assad.
“I always thought that I am going to die, and my children are going to die, and many more generations will die and he will still be here. I thought it will never end,” Esraa Alsliman, a student, told CNN at the square.
“It’s like a dream. I wake up every day thinking it was a dream, even today I woke up thinking it was a dream,” she said.
Families brought little children to the square with flags painted on their cheeks. Young students were joined by the elderly. Women dressed in conservative Muslim fashion celebrated next to those wearing trendy western clothes. Many said they travelled across the country to witness the jubilations.
Many were waving the three-starred flag of the Syrian Arab Republic – an opposition flag that had been used when the country was under French mandate, and was replaced by a two-starred version during the Assad era.
“I really believe that at this time, we will support each other, stay with each other and get to the top. Syria will have a good name in the world,” Alsliman said. “I always thought that to have a future, to have a successful life, I will have to go abroad. Now I can stay here, in my country.”
For half a century, the Assad family had ruled over Syria with an iron fist, with long-documented reports of mass incarceration, torture, extra-judicial killings and atrocities against their own people.
On Sunday, after 13 years of civil war that fractured the country, the regime came crashing down. Rebel fighters declared Damacus “liberated” in a video statement on state television, sending Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fleeing to Russia.
Friday’s huge crowds started gathering at the square after midday prayers at the historical Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, just days after the rebel leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani declared a “victory for the entire Islamic nation” there.
The congregational prayers – seen as the pinnacle of the Islamic week – were the first since the fall of the Assadregime. The sermon at the mosque was delivered by Syria’s new caretaker Prime Minister, Mohamed Al-Bashir, who called the moment “the birth of a nation.”
But despite overwhelming joy, there also signs of the country’s current fragility. The rebel coalition that has taken over Syria is made up of many groups with varying ideologies and goals – and nobody seems to know for sure what will happen next.
Dozens of armed men wearing military-style fatigues joined in the celebrations, some letting excited little boys pose with their Kalashnikovs, the children flashing bright smiles and victory signs into the cameras.
Every now and then, celebratory gunfire rang through the air. At one point in the afternoon, some in the crowd grew angry, appearing to chase an individual down. “They found a military guy!” someone in the crowd shouted out.
But soon the crowd was back to dancing, clapping and chanting.
“The donkey is gone! Donkey! Donkey!” the crowd chanted at one point, with many still in disbelief that the deposed president’s pejorative nickname can be shouted out loud in the open, rather than whispered in secrecy.
Fatima Baghdadi told CNN she had come to the square to see the moment for herself. The 80-year-old has lived most of her adult life under the regime. One of her sons was killed in the war and her grandson lost a leg in an attack.
“I was 30 when the big donkey came into power. For 50 years, we were squeezed, and I was praying all the time, asking God to get rid of him. And now he had. We can breathe again,” she said, her eyes moist with tears.
Rauda Alaita contributed to this report.
