Razan S

Some notes on the events in Syria the past 72 hours (and three months): a thread this morning by @razanspeaks.bsky.social.
x.com/razanspeaks/...

Following the fall of the Assad regime, Razan Saffour, a Syrian, kicks off 2025 by setting foot on Syrian soil for the first time in her life.

These are exceptional moments for Syrians everywhere.

Absolutely overwhelming to see @razanspeaks.bsky.social arriving in Syria.

Alf mabrouk, ya Razan!

#solidarity #imnotcryingyourcrying

Thank you so much Andy!

This is the first time in 14 years the New Year in Syria doesn’t begin with bombing, massacres and death by Assad, Iran and Russia.

i’ve been desperately trying to figure out how to get my elderly parents and i into Syria the last couple weeks. in a way easy for them. and now all i can think of is maybe actually i’m not ready for this, maybe i can’t handle my parents’ grief from all these decades. maybe this is all too much

and my ever articulate and poetic mother who has a word for everything, didn’t today. she just forwarded us the voice note with a sad emoji. unable to express as her unprocessed grief all these decades has come flooding back 💔

my uncle tells my mother of the pain he felt not knowing where to stand in the graveyard to speak to their mother. to water her grave for the first time. and so he prayed anyway knowing God will accept

but they don’t know where my grandmother is buried, my grandmother who passed away whilst 4 of her 7 children were exiled for then, 20 years, one tortured to death, one then just released from prison after 17 years & my aunt - living then with the grief of her own husband missing in Assad’s prisons

my uncle, 78, visited Aleppo for the first time since ~1979. he sent my mother a message telling her how he felt standing at my grandfather’s grave for the first time. my grandfather passed away in 1984, in his death waited 40 years for his grave to be prayed on by his eldest son

Israeli occupation prisons, some kidnapped during Israeli incursions in Quneitra before the Assad regime fell and after. Only two of them have lawyers. Amongst them are minors. via @akramsaud آرام @aramshakib2 بعد التواصل مع محامي هيئة شؤون الاسرى والمعتقلين في فلسطين المحتلة، تبيّن ان هناك ما بين ١٠ ل١٥ معتقل سوري الجنسية في سجون الاحتلال الاسرائيلي. بعضهم خُطفوا من القنيطرة اثناء توغّلات جيش الاحتلال، قبل سقوط النظام السوري وبعده. فقط ٢ منهم لديهم محامٍ وتواصل. #القنيطرة #الجولان Translate post 21:08 • 18/12/2024 • 8,1K Views 66 © 102 Most relevant replies v @aramshakib2.4hا. 贝8 企 وبينهم قاصرون t? 10 © 18 thl 1K

Israel has kidnapped Syrians in the Golan Heights including minors

Via @razanspeaks.bsky.social

A tribute to the martyr Khaled Nabhan and all of Gaza from Al-3asi square yesterday in Hama, Syria. 🤍💔❤️‍🩹💚

Poster reads: “Gaza, oh soul of our soul.”

📸 Nour Alwan
H/T
@razanspeaks.bsky.social

“And today in Syria, for the first time ever, nobody fears live bullets, snipers, tear gas and bombs as they take to reclaim their streets. Our streets in our Syria.”

Thread by @razanspeaks.bsky.social.
x.com/RazanSpeaks/...

Today is the first Assad-free Friday in Syria since March 1971.

Hafez Assad came into power in March 1971. Ever since, Syria had been held hostage to the Assad regime — until 8th December 2024.

Today is the Friday in an Assad-free Syria.

Visiting my grandmother’s grave is my father’s priority upon returning to Syria. His mother who he was deprived from for decades, deprived even from speaking to her given his work that rendered contact with his family a threat to them.

My incredible father, Walid Saffour, 74, tells Reuters.

Damascus has been liberated. Syria is free of the Assad regime.

I can’t process anything.

After 54 years of the Assad family holding Syrians hostage - we are free.

@razanspeaks.bsky.social on X:
Baba Amr was one of the most brutalised towns in Homs. The Assad regime, Iran & Hezb pounded it so viciously - bombardment; massacres; sieges - before forcing her to succumb.
Now 13 years later, minarets in Baba Amr are reverberating with the proclamation of victory.

A video from the Baba Amr neighborhood in Homs, one of the most significant areas that witnessed protests during the Syrian revolution. The regime bombarded it with artillery and airstrikes, forcing its residents to flee. Today, its residents are returning as the city of Homs is liberated.

My father’s hometown is liberated from the Assad regime. Homs is liberated.

After 44 years of torture and exile, my father can return home.

As Syrian rebels make their way into rural Homs liberating Rastan and Talbiseh after yesterday’s Hama victory, Russian warplanes bomb both Rastan and rural Hama.

Tell me who the occupying ‘terrorists’ are. Tell me who the violent imperialist foreign powers are.

Hama. The city that gave 40,000 souls in 1982. The city that was besieged, destroyed, entire lineages wiped out in the space of 3 weeks by Assad’s father. Hama the city that broke us all, the city that Syrians have been asking for forgiveness from since 2011. Our Hama is being liberated.

Aleppo’s Christians Weigh an Uncertain Future The city’s takeover by Islamist rebel groups is reviving minority fears of being reduced to second-class citizens

“Christians’ main concerns are not about being able to go to church,” writes Fadi Hallisso. “They are about a possible return to the Ottoman millet system, whereby Christians would be regarded not as having full rights… but rather as second-class citizens.”
newlinesmag.com/spotlight/al...

From my Interview today with The News Movement on life in Aleppo under the regime and since liberation, fear and context.

Grateful for all the media outlets across the world reaching out to hear Syrian perspectives.

After 10 years of forced displacement a mother is reunited with her son in Aleppo

YouTube video by The Thinking Muslim Syria: Can The Tyrant Assad Fall? With Razan Saffour

Syria: Can The Tyrant Assad Fall? with Razan Saffour. Episode is out now: youtu.be/rpvZRWf-M9w?...

Syrian activist @razanspeaks.bsky.social was on the Thinking Muslim Podcast today - show out soon Insha’Allah

Aleppo is just the beginning The advance on the city is a Syrian drama, reflecting both rebel success and regime failure.

I wrote this for the New Statesman. www.newstatesman.com/world/middle...

Regime forces have targeted Idlib's university hospital and a number of other health facilities.
The only method the regime knows to retain power is to terrorize civilians

From my (7am!) interview today for the BBC, on the situation in north Syria.

Correction to be made: over the last few years the monthly* death toll has been 30-200 civilians, not daily, due primarily to Assad and Russian bombardment.