'A perfect ending': Syrians in Ottawa celebrate fall of Assad regime

For Abdul Nour Sakhniya, the last few days have been "a dream come true."

Sakhniya was one of dozens who gathered Sunday afternoon in the parking lot of the Billings Bridge Shopping Centre, where they cheered, waved flags, and honked car horns in jubilation over the sudden fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime.

For many community members — including those who fled the 13-year civil war and settled in Canada — the news brought overwhelming relief and a renewed sense of hope for the country's future.

"It's just unbelievable," said Sakhniya. "Everyone is in shock. It's a perfect ending to a very sad story."

Having watched the brutal conflict unfold since 2011, Sakhniya said many Syrians never thought they would see the day  the regime would fall.

Faihaa Mustafa, who fled Syria in 2013, was overjoyed to hear that two of her cousins whom she'd feared were dead had actually been imprisoned — and had been freed after the regime's collapse.

"We lost hope and thought they were dead… but after seven years, they're now free," said Mustafa, adding that her cousins are sick but are also finally home.

Mustafa, who fled the country with her two young daughters, said she now dreams of taking a trip back to Syria to show her daughters their father's grave site.

Transition of government

Multiple groups fighting against the Assad regime appeared to move against it at the same time, although it did not appear they were "working in co-ordination with each other," said Samer Abboud, an associate professor of global studies and director at the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies at Villanova University.

Born in Ottawa, Abboud has been researching the life of Syrian refugees in the nation's capital.

He said the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in the northwest led the offensive, which also involved the Syrian Democratic Forces in the northeast and the Syrian National Army, a group "knowingly controlled by Turkey." 

Abboud said the Syrian regime's main allies — Russia and the Iran-backed group Hezbollah from Lebanon — had effectively "abandoned" Assad.

Hezbollah withdrew all its forces from Syria on Saturday. Russia's embassy in Damascus urged its nationals to leave Syria on Friday.

Both have been fighting in other conflicts: Russia with Ukraine and Hezbollah with Israel. U.S. President Joe Biden credited the U.S. and allies for weakening Syria's allies. 

Abboud found it hard to say whether the fall of the regime was good, bad, or somewhere in between.

"When we see images of prisoners being liberated from these torture dungeons, that is a good thing," he said.

"There's no reason to believe that this isn't what people want. But these kind of moments create opportunities for chaos. And I think that's what's extremely scary."

As an example, he cited the declaration from Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu that his country's disengagement agreement with Syria was "null and void" in the wake of the government's fall.

It's also unclear, Abboud said, what the future looks like for Syrians living outside the country.

He said he woke up Sunday to an emotional voice message from one friend, a Syrian living in Europe.

"He was crying through the whole thing. He couldn't speak [because] he felt so much relief [and] was already making plans to return to visit his family," Abboud said.

"These are things that people have been fighting for and wishing for and dying for in Syria."