‘We are shocked at our new freedom’, says Syrian activist

Joining us is Fuad Sayed Issa – a Syrian activist and founder of VIOLET, an organisation which supports human rights and refugees in Syria.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy: How are you feeling tonight, what state is this country in?

Fuad Sayed Issa: It’s a big shock for every Syrian here, but we’re so happy that we’re in the first days without Assad here. The Syrians are happy everywhere, we’re feeling that from the people. For me, also personally, it’s my first time since 2011 to be able to be here in Damascus, that’s a great feeling. We were trying all the time to continue in following the humanitarian needs around during these ten days and we were doing our best. But things could be better in the next days, and this is what the people are telling us.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy: There is an extraordinary atmosphere here. No soldiers, no checkpoints, no instruments of the state. People are ignoring traffic lights, which is sort of an indication of the mood people are in. Do you trust it?

Fuad Sayed Issa: We’re shocked. All of us are not believing what’s happening, how you can drive your car from here to Idlib and going back to Daraa and going all through Syria without any checkpoints, without any soldiers. The freedom here and everyone telling the stories, we don’t understand what’s happened and how it could be in the future. But the people have very great hopes for the future.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy: You as VIOLET, as a humanitarian organisation, you have a lot of experience of working with these people in HTS. Tell us about them in terms of how trustworthy, how competent, how moderate they are.

Fuad Sayed Issa: I think there is a huge change in their mindset during the last three years and how we find, like the things happening here in Damascus is so different from what we see before in Idlib and other places. Now they are acting very well as we are seeing. We have full freedom as a humanitarian organisation to work on the ground, to do our response and also to work with the people. There are some worries from the people on what could happen in the future, how things are going. And also especially with the services, because all the government is falling down now and we need to look for our future. But in general the people are very comfortable and we are, in VIOLET, trying also to expand our services in all of Syria.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy: But this is also very fragile, isn’t it? Our correspondents have been reporting a very febrile atmosphere, a lot of anger, particularly around the prison and the whole question of prisoners and real fury amongst the people affected by that. Do you think that will turn into something bigger?

Fuad Sayed Issa: I’m not sure what will happen. But as a humanitarian organisation, we are trying all the time to focus on how we can be able to work with Syrians and to support them and how all of those refugees could be back to their home. That’s happening now, the people are coming from all the borders, from Turkey, Lebanon and other places to just arrive to their cities, and that’s what matters for us.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy: What about the bombing by Israel? They say that this is ‘responsible bombing’. That this is the taking out of chemical weapons stores, of any weapons of mass destruction that could be used by extremists either against Israel or Western targets. What do you make of that explanation and how do people here feel about this?

Fuad Sayed Issa: That’s unfortunately a crime against the Syrian people, when you destroyed all of the services and things in Syria. But the military is also as well. But in the end, the people are not so much interested in that, to be honest. Because they are feeling, unless the people in Idlib and other [places] were all the time just thinking about the bombing coming to them, as a humanitarian, people, the normal life. Now it’s a different story, the normal civilians are not just so connected with that and there is not much communication about these things.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy: And what can you tell us about the new prime minister? Do you know anything about him?

Fuad Sayed Issa: The prime minister was working in Aleppo in the last two years or less, and we worked, we were coordinating in the area of their control and they were helping us, especially the last two years. In the beginning they were struggling with this government, for humanitarian organisation sometimes, but the last two years were great to Idlib and to the area. They were working to develop the area and they were supporting the humanitarian organisation.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy: Do you believe they will help the whole country or just the people from their community.

Fuad Sayed Issa: We do hope so. Because how they are acting now in Damascus, how they are trying to do the work. Today we were in many places in Syria as VIOLET, we were in Latakia, we were in Tartous and the other cities where that was something unbelievable to have someone from Idlib helping the people in this area. All day our teams were just distributing the bread and helping the people. And that was with acceptance from this government. They were saying that ‘no problem, go and help the people and the need everywhere in Syria’. And that’s somehow giving us the hope that Syria will be back for all Syrians and they will act as we hope, as a Syrian, and also they will have international relations in a better way with the other governments. Especially the governments who are supporting the Syrians, the humanitarian organisations, during all of these years.