transformation. Democratic transformations undergo three stages: the weakening and breakdown of the regime; the transition phase, which is safer when conducted by democratic means; and democratic stability, which materializes when new democratic structures become stable, cohesive, and in tune with the collective consciousness of society.
The Birth of the Syrian Revolution In an interview in the Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2011, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad declared that he considered Syria immune to the revolutions that other countries had witnessed in the region, such as Tunisia and Egypt, “because of the close proximity of the Syrian government to the people and their interests.” Several Arab regimes argued that the protests would never reach them because their countries presented different or special circumstances. However, these regimes have much more in common with each other than they have differences; they have similar controlling rule systems in various degrees, and they share in insulting human dignity through torture, extrajudicial killings, and discrimination. The effect of the revolution that started in Tunisia, succeeded in Egypt and Yemen, then infected the most repressive regime in the Arab world, Libya, did not spare Syria. It is true that the repression of the Syrian security apparatus was more severe in comparison with Egypt, Tunisia, or Yemen, but this was an additional instigator of unrest and protests. Syria was an ideal case for revolution. It had ongoing political and economic failures, providing the people with “neither bread nor freedom,” as it was put by the British journalist Alan George. In Syria, the corrupt conditions, the huge disparity between the rich and the poor, and the 30 percent of people living below the poverty line made the predisposing factors of anger in the country quite similar to what happened in Tunisia. There is a misunderstanding among many Arab regimes, Syria included, that what started in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen and later escalated was only a result of the deterioration of economic
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conditions, the increase in unemployment, and the loss of job opportunities. These conditions prompted the regimes to take certain temporary measures, including increased subsidies of basic foodstuffs, granting limited increases in income for public-sector employees, and the like. The regimes believed that by doing this, they would bring a permanent end to the popular protests. In fact, what happened was simply a revolution of human dignity. Dignity is of special value in the Arab world. The Tunisians, Egyptians, Syrians, and Libyans were exposed to long decades of insults from the various security branches, death under torture in police and criminal security precincts, flagrant discrimination against the right to education, the impossibility of promotion in government positions without party allegiance, and exposure to theft via corruption and nontransparency—and all these are related directly or indirectly to the denigration of human dignity. The totalitarian regimes neither fathom the value of human dignity nor discover its strength until after they have already been overthrown by popular revolt. The delay in the emergence of protests in Syria can be primarily attributed to fear of the security apparatus, which to this day boasts that it does not refrain from using violence against demonstrators. The memory of fear embedded among Syrians after the events of the 1980s, which left behind more than 30,000 dead, 125,000 political prisoners, and 17,000 missing— whose whereabouts are still unknown to their families—contributed to this fear and formed a psychological deterrent, reining in political movements.2 However, with the success of the young people in the southern town of Deraa in breaking through the barrier of fear, first hundreds and then thousands began to join demonstrations whose sole purpose was to demand freedom. The continuation and spread of these demonstrations to other cities—such as Banyas, Der ez-Zor, Homs, Damascus, Aleppo, and other cities in the Damascus countryside, such as Zabadani, Duma, and Daraya—point to the determination of Syrian youth to push on with their revolution with the necessary steadfastness to achieve success. It is not possible to repress this hope, in spite of the spread