You can breathe': On the streets of Damascus after Assad
The BBC spoke to people in the Syrian capital after the end of the Assad family's five decades in power.
www.bbc.com
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I approached a couple with four young children, their parents fairly bursting with joy.
"It's an indescribable feeling. We are so happy," said the man. "After all the years of dictatorship we have lived in our lives! We were in prison in 2014 and now we're out thank God. We won because of our men, our fighters, and now we are at the moment that we are going to build the greatest Syria!"
"We call our sisters and brothers who left the country to come back," he added. "Our hearts and homes are open for you."
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"Bashar al-Assad?" I prompted.
"Yes, you see I'm still scared to even mention this," he said. "But the fact that he just left, that is selfish. Our president should have taken the proper measures that are needed for him to give at least the army or the police control over those areas until a new presidency comes in."
He paused. "You know, two days back, I wasn't able to say that he's selfish, it would have been a big problem. A lot of everything is different.
"You can actually breathe, you can walk around. You can actually give your opinion. You can say what bothers you without being scared. So, yes, there is a change. I hope it's a good change. But we've been living under false hope for 13 years [of civil war]."
This country is caught between joy and fear, hoping for peace and worried about chaos.
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The Syrian people are happy, that's what matters most to me. Only supporters of the dictator are concerned, they are the vast minority.
And what has led to the fall of a brutal dictatorship that murdered millions of his own people?
Israel's destruction of Hezbollah
Iran's diminishing influence, in large part because Bibi took out Hezbollah
Russia's obsession with the Ukraine, and their lack of resources and manpower to defend Syria
I try to educate people, but there's a lot of stubborness found in Q-tards. I think it's a genetic flaw