Syrians in Malta took local streets to celebrate the toppling of longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad, driving bar-codes and waving Syrian flags.
Local Syrians were joining celebrations taking place worldwide, as Bashar reportedly fled to Moscow and other world leaders called for the now deposed ruler to face consequences.
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Bashar al-Assad ruled Syria from 2000, inheriting power from his father, Hafez al-Assad, who seized control in a 1970 coup.
Hafez’s regime was marked by paranoia and brutality, with dissenters often jailed or killed. His image became a ubiquitous symbol of the Assad dynasty’s dominance, plastered across institutions and public spaces. Bashar continued this legacy, overseeing a brutal crackdown on Syria’s 2011 democracy movement.
What began as peaceful protests escalated into one of the century’s deadliest wars, killing hundreds of thousands and displacing millions.
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In a symbolic rejection of decades of authoritarian rule, Syrians across the country toppled statues of the Assad family as Islamist-led rebels seized city after city, culminating in Damascus.
In Hama, the site of a 1982 massacre under Hafez’s rule, rebels celebrated by bringing down a statue of the former dictator. Similar scenes unfolded nationwide, from Aleppo to Daraa and Tartus, where protesters destroyed statues of both Hafez and his sons.
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Source: jamal.kasim63 TikTok
