“Syrians have fears, but are happy for the first time in decades”

DeOf Syria we too often only have scattered images. Those of a bloodthirsty regime in place for five decades, which was for a long time a privileged partner of France; the images of the popular revolutions of 2011 bloodily repressed by the former power; the destruction of the country's largest cities under the bombs of Bashar al-Assad and the Russians; the images of the jihadists of the Islamic State, those who plotted attacks in France from the city of Raqqa, which the terrorist group had made its capital.

For a week, we have now seen other photos, those of a people joyful at having overthrown the tyrant. But also the portraits of the new masters of Syria, fed on jihadism, and of whom we do not know what to think.

And then there are missing images, those of these tens or hundreds of thousands of ghosts, opponents, artists, intellectuals or demonstrators, imprisoned and disappeared: names on registers, traces of which families are now looking for in the basements of the regime's prisons.

Who are the new masters of Syria? What could be the future of the country in a Middle East in full upheaval? Will Syrians whose loved ones have been killed or tortured by the regime ever know the truth? Will they get justice?

A program prepared by Gwenaëlle Lenoir and Mathieu Magnaudeix, presented by Mathieu Magnaudeix.

Our guests:

• Very Yazigicreator of the site Creative Memory of the Syrian Revolution, author of Chronicles of the Syrian revolt: places and people, 2011-2015 (Ifpo Press) ;
• Hanane and Obeida Dabbaghrelatives of missing Syrians, who obtained the life sentence of three officials of the former Syrian regime for complicity in crimes against humanity, in May 2024;
• Ziad Majedpolitical scientist, teacher at the American University of Paris, author of Syria, the orphan revolution and co-author of In the head of Bashar al-Assad (Actes Sud editions);
• Gilles Dorronsoresearcher at the European Center for Sociology and Political Science, co-author of Syria. Anatomy of a civil war (CNRS editions).

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