A woman living in the Syrian capital says that the speed with which the rebels reached Damascus was a huge surprise. He says people don’t know who the rebels really are.
Minna Pärssinen,
Sari Taussi
Reached by , a woman living in Damascus says she woke up last night to the sounds of gunfire. It was unclear what it was about.
– I thought it wasn’t about a fight. The gunfire sounded one-sided. It could have been an expression of joy, he says.
The woman appears in this story anonymously for security reasons. His identity is known to .
The woman says that the family followed the news closely all day yesterday. When the news came about Homs falling into the hands of the rebels, it was clear that anything could happen. The TV pictures said that the arrival of the rebels was celebrated in Homs.
It was still a huge surprise that the rebels were in Damascus within hours.
“It’s a mystery how they got here so quickly”
According to our interviewee, the biggest question now is where the rebel forces that took over the big cities in Syria really came from. The key question is whether the rebels have been in Damascus for a long time or whether they came from elsewhere.
– If it is the case that the men who ousted Assad have been here for years, I’m not afraid. But if it is the case that they came, for example, from the direction of Idlib, then I am afraid, he says.
Idlib has been the base of the extremist Islamic terrorist organization ISIS. The feared terrorist organization established a caliphate in parts of Syria and Iraq for years.
– I have to wonder if I should wear a scarf now, the woman says.
Finnish-Syrian woman: “The power seems to have changed”
Finnish-Syrian journalist living in Finland Nada Kettunen has followed the events of his country of birth very closely. To the question of whether there has been a change of power in Syria, he answers:
– Changed and changed. Can’t say it’s changed. But the previous president has left the country. If Syria gets out of the situation smartly, and we don’t follow the path of Iraq or Libya, that would be an ideal situation, says Kettunen.
The threat is that the Syrian opposition will disintegrate into a mutual power struggle. So far, there have been no signs of that.
– What has been seen now when the rebels were in Aleppo, and after that in the last few days their behavior has been very smart. There have only been isolated murders and thefts. That would indicate that hopefully the situation won’t turn ugly, says Kettunen.
The mood at the moment is enthusiastic.
– People are celebrating in the streets. It has been announced in the mosques that now the power is in our hands and the dictator has disappeared, says Kettunen.
Bashar al-Assad represented by the Alawite minority views the situation with suspicion. Many have fled, for example, from Homs to Latakia on the west coast of Syria, where many Alawites traditionally live.
According to Kettusen, the speed of change is amazing, in a few hours Damascus was occupied.
– I have to say that no one has an explanation for this, not even the politicians, they are also crazy, says Kettunen.
Nada Kettunen is married to a Finn Erkin with. When the civil war started in 2011, they moved to Syria, where they lived until 2019.
– I got fed up in 2019 and told Erki that I can’t live here anymore. There was a lack of everything and it was difficult. We came back to Finland, says Nada Kettunen.
He still has family and relatives living in Homs, Hama and Damascus.