The Syrian Civil War has continued and worsened. At news of the latest massacre in Homs, protests erupted around the world. I will not try to discuss events in general; others can do that better. I just want to highlight how Syrians have protested in other countries, how they have used political violence – against buildings, not people – to deny the murderous state’s legitimacy; and to physically establish a new, revolutionary democratic state (in both senses of the word). They have (a) style.
[Edited... immediately. These diaspora revolts are live; I will be behind the news, but I will try to keep up.]
I follow 100s around the world & my timeline is all #Syria, all #Homs, all #Hama. I want to live in a world where Assad can't survive this.—
Zeynep Tufekci (@techsoc) February 04, 2012
In my post on Armenian Genocide archaeology at risk, I gave a little background and a few sources on the Syrian Civil War; but the news is everywhere now. As Zeynep Tüfekçi (@techsoc) observed, ‘I follow 100s around the world & my timeline is all #Syria, all #Homs, all #Hama. I want to live in a world where Assad can’t survive this.’ I follow very few people connected with North Africa; but it has been the same for me. This is my minimal contribution.
Syrians’ efforts have ranged from simple protests, to suppressed or restricted revolts, to dislodging the autocratic regime from places of power, to installing the democratic revolution. Here, I have collated descriptions of the diaspora’s actions; at the end, I have drawn out the style of their revolutionary activity. And they do have great style.
#breaking: Libyan and Syrian protesters in Tripoli removed the Russian flag from the roof of Russia embassy #libya #syria—
Anes Alsharif (@aneselsharif) February 05, 2012
Anes Alsharif (@aneselsharif) has reported, ‘#breaking: Libyan and Syrian protesters in Tripoli removed the Russian flag from the roof of Russia embassy #libya #syria’; they replaced it with the flag of free Syria.
Simple protests
There have been protests outside Syrian embassies in Washington, D.C.; in Stockholm, Sweden; in Prague, Czech Republic; and in Hyde Park in Australia’s second city, Sydney (but as you will see, there was an outright revolt in its capital, Canberra).
There was a flash mob on Queen Street, Cardiff, Wales. The Morning Star reported that ‘protesters clashed with police’; but there was no sign of that in the video, and no reports of that on Twitter or YouTube.
“@RazanSpeaks: Flashmob for #Syria in Cardiff today. Gotta love our Welsh counterparts <3 youtu.be/MaSBEA1YWQ0”. PROUD OF MY WELSHIES!—
Amira El-khrouf (@AmiraElkhrouf) February 04, 2012
Communication specialist and human rights activist Leila Nachawati (@leila_na) livecast and tweeted a protest outside the Syrian Embassy in Madrid, Spain (which I heard about via the International Business Times).
Police pushed me against the wall and twisted my arm at Madrid embassy #Syria—
Leila Nachawati (@leila_na) February 04, 2012
Police was so angry that I was carrying my phone and kept yelling that it was illegal to cover what was happening. #Madrid #Spain #Syria—
Leila Nachawati (@leila_na) February 04, 2012
Find #Syria embassy in your country and go, until the regime falls. #occupysyrianembassy—
Leila Nachawati (@leila_na) February 04, 2012
In Beirut, Lebanon, there were simultaneous anti-regime and pro-regime protests outside the Russian Embassy. Apparently, the anti-regime protests were linked to al-Jamaa al-Islamiya. Syrians, Kurds and al-Jamaa al-Islamiya (the Lebanese Muslim Brotherhood) held the anti-regime protest. Either Russian Internal Security Forces or Lebanese security forces kept the protests apart.
Suppressed revolts
In Amman, Jordan, men and women protested outside the embassy. The regime’s Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) – which freely admits that it is ‘linked to the Ministry of Information‘ – produced anti-revolutionary propaganda about the protest. However, in doing so, it acknowledged that the ‘saboteurs‘ ‘tried to break into… the Syrian Embassy’ (though Jordanian security forces prevented the occupation).
In Saudi Arabia’s second city, Jeddah, security forces suppressed the protests.
Breaking news
Yesterday, there was a Syrian protest in Ankara, Turkey. And in Turkey’s second city, Istanbul, Turks joined Syrians in protest at the Syrian consulate. But there was no violence; they did not try to occupy the building, and the Turkish security forces did not try to drive them away.
Today, Turkish police have prevented protesters from occupying the Syrian Consulate in Istanbul; they tear-gassed the crowd.
Video: Police stop protesters from entering Syrian consulate in Istanbul bit.ly/yg6wby #Syria #Turkey #Homs—
Hurriyet Daily News (@HDNER) February 05, 2012
Restricted revolts
In Ottawa, Canada, ‘a few young guys with rage inside them’ red paint-bombed the embassy entrance. Protester Abdullah al-Haj stated that the building was ‘dirty with the blood of civilians killed in Syria’.
In London, England, protesters demanded that they wanted ‘to close the embassy‘ and realise a ‘free Syria’. They too paint-bombed the embassy’s door; and bottled and stoned the building, smashed windows, then broke into the building. British riot police drove them back, but they have laid siege to the embassy.
Overturning the established order, dislodging the regime
Even one restricted revolt was successful. In Tunis, Tunisia, protesters ripped down one of the regime’s flags from the embassy; then Tunisian police dispersed the protesters. However, Tunisia has since withdrawn recognition of the Assad regime; and the Syrian Embassy has lowered the regime’s flag.
Dislodging the regime, creating a symbol of democratic revolution
Some of the diaspora revolts have managed not only to dislodge the regime from the embassy, but also to turn the embassy into a symbolic site of revolution.
Syrian regime flag taken down and burnt at the Syrian Embassay in #Tripoli, and replaced with the Free #Syria flag via @misrati_free #libya—
Brown Moses (@Brown_Moses) February 04, 2012
In Cairo, Egypt, ‘enraged Syrians‘ stormed the embassy; broke down the gate; smashed furniture, computers and other equipment; and burned some of the building.
In Kuwait City, Kuwait, Kuwaiti and Syrian demonstrators broke windows and stormed the embassy; they destroyed facilities, tore down the Syrian dictatorship’s flag and raised the Syrian opposition’s.
In Berlin, Germany, protesters ‘broke into and vandalized‘, partially ‘demolish[ed]‘ the embassy; they defaced images of Assad, wrote red slogans calling for ‘revolution‘ on the wall, and hung a new flag from a window.
In Athens, Greece, protesters broke into the embassy, smashed windows and painted anti-regime slogans.
In Canberra, Australia, men forced entry and ‘smash[ed] up‘ the embassy; they caused ‘considerable damage‘.
Dislodging the regime, converting the embassy into a site of revolution
One revolt has even managed to convert the embassy into a site of permanent revolutionary activity.
Yesterday morning, in Tripoli, Libya, protesters broke the embassy’s windows, climbed onto its roof and changed its flag for the revolutionary one. Then, the Syrian regime’s security guards drove the protesters out of the embassy compound and changed the flag back. (At some point, the Assad staff left the building.) Yet yesterday afternoon, men, women and children returned, with the Syrian National Council’s authorisation to take over the building; and the Libyan guards let the protesters pass.
The SNC’s representatives entered and occupied the embassy, and began to search for documentary evidence of the Syrian regime’s crimes.
Style in the Syrian democratic revolution
To show their rejection of the legitimacy and the sanctity of the Syrian state’s embassies, protesters smashed their windows and paint-bombed their entrances.
(Many host states tried to protect the embassies, because it was a legal duty, and because they feared retaliation against their own embassies; but some security forces were overpowered; and some host states had withdrawn recognition from the Assad regime, and thus left the site to be converted into a site of permanent revolutionary activity.)
However they got in, the Syrian revolutionaries then physically destroyed the regime’s places of power, the tools of its operation. The revolutionaries removed symbols of the regime – tearing down flags, burning pictures; and they replaced them with symbols of the revolution – raising the flag of a free Syria, writing their uprising in revolutionary red.
A note on memory and amnesia
As the Agence France-Presse (AFP) observed,
The attack on the Syrian embassy in Canberra has echoes of another event almost 20 years ago when [Mujahideen-e-Khalq-linked Iranian] dissidents attacked the Iranian embassy.
On April 6, 1992, a group of about 10-15 men charged into the embassy, trashing the chancery, setting fire to papers, smashing furniture, scrawling slogans on walls and assaulting staff.
The Iranian dissidents tried to cripple the state by causing institutional amnesia; they hoped to prevent it from acting by preventing it from remembering. Some of the Syrian dissidents may have tried to do the same by destroying the regime’s computers; or the computers may have been other symbols of the regime.
Yet some of the Syrian revolutionaries tried to destroy the state by preserving its archives, by preserving its history.
