In Syria, Bashar al-Assad’s presidential palace, closed to residents under his regime, is now controlled by rebels from the Islamist group HTC, whose lightning offensive chased out the former president who fled the country.
Located on a hill overlooking western Damascus, the palace, completed in 1990, “has an area of 31,500 square meters”, underlines the German newspaper Der Spiegel. It was first stormed by locals and rebels, marching on torn posters and the red carpet strips of the marble floor still present. “Syrians are now sitting on their precious wooden furniture and taking selfies,” noted the daily at the start of the week. Furniture and works of art were taken. A reception room, where the head of state welcomed visitors, was set on fire, according to an AFP journalist. Before the building is controlled again by the new occupants of HTC.
According to the American daily Tea Wall Street Journalthe calm of the presidential palace on Tuesday “is part of a broader HTC initiative to avoid chaos during the transition to a new government.” A reporter from the American newspaper New York Times noted Tuesday that the rebels were guarding the door to the building, “preventing looters and curious civilians from entering.” They “sleep on couches in a cavernous reception room.”
A photo shows a view of a room inside the residential palace of deposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, December 8, 2024
© / afp.com/OMAR HAJ KADOUR
Biography and tablets against anxiety
In the abandoned office of Bashar al-Assad, a journalist from Wall Street Journal found “a history of the Russian army, a map of northeast Syria, a biography of himself”, and, on the desk, “benzodiazepine tablets for anxiety” still wrapped. The floor was littered with books and papers.
According to the journalist, “the palace has at least two rooms intended for cabinet meetings: one above ground and one underground”, in a bunker. Brass plaques indicate the seats “of the Minister of Defense and various military commanders. At the head of the table, Assad’s place is marked: Commander in Chief.” The basement room, three floors below the surface, “is connected to underground living quarters, with a bedroom and bathroom, as well as staff quarters.”
Chandeliers, gifts and luxury cars
According to the Spiegelwho cites an investigation by Guardian“the Assad family continued to live in luxury during Syria’s civil war.” In 2012, the British daily published emails from the dictator and his family, showing that the wife had spent more than 12,000 euros on candlesticks, tables and chandeliers. In an article published Tuesday, reporters from New York Times actually noted that “large chandeliers hang in reception rooms adorned with wooden Damascene furniture”, and that “modernist sculptures are still in place in offices and lounges”.
The journalist notes that a “large reserve” is filled “to the ceiling with gifts that Bashar el-Assad had received from visitors from all over the world”, statues, jewelry, a golden castle from Saudi Arabia… A video recently published on social networks and verified by CNN television channel also shows a garage with around forty luxury cars, including Aston Martins and a Lamborghini.
An abandoned cup of coffee
At the time of the foreign journalists’ visit, the palace still retained traces of the anxiety that pushed its occupants to flee as the rebels advanced in the country. “An office table contained a half-finished cup of coffee, a dozen cigarette butts and a remote control,” notes the New York Times. The television is now torn from the wall.