Place de la République in Paris: “today, it’s for joy”. The icy drops of Parisian rain burst on a word, repeated dozens of times on signs and flags: Freedom. On the Place de la République in Paris, more than a hundred people gathered spontaneously this Sunday to celebrate the fall of dictator Bashar al-Assad. Amid the smiles and songs, Majd Abazid films the demonstrators perched high on the statue in the square to better shout their joy. Without thinking, at 4 a.m., he rushed to the scene this morning to live “this most important day in Syrian history”as he puts it with a smile. “We are closing a 50-year-old tyranny. We know that there are going to be many challenges to face in the future, that it is not going to be easy. But today, it’s for joy”he assures.
He fled his country in 2013. “I was a student at Damascus University and a peace activist. With friends we organized rallies until the regime arrested 13 of them”says this engineer, now a naturalized Frenchman. Of his 13 friends, he still has no news from one of them today. “I will finally be able to find out what happened to him and, I hope, find him alive”he whispers. When he fled 12 years ago, he thought he would never see his native land again. Today, he tells himself that he will return there in two weeks. Par Elise Viniacourt.
