If Syria’s Assad again chose force to crush the ongoing protests, he might not survive this time, says a Syria expert
Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad has survived a nine-year-long civil war after brutally suppressing a countrywide protest movement. But a new wave of protests fuelled by economic distress has once again exposed the regime leader to the bitter reality — that beggars can't be choosers.
Most recently, the losses of the Syrian currency have reached enormous dimensions, decreasing people’s purchasing power by extreme margins. “At the beginning of the civil war, one US dollar was equal to 47 Syrian pounds. Last week, one US dollar was equal to 3200 Syrian pounds, seeing a huge hike in its losses of the value of the country’s currency,” Erkmen said.
The Baath Party in Syria has been stained by internal strife between different power holders or political clans ever since it began ruling the country. These rivalries sometimes morphed into full-blown clashes mainly between Bashar al Assad's father Hafez al Assad and his uncle Rifaat Ali al Assad. “In this sense, we can find similarities between the past and the current, referring to the struggle between Assad and Makhlouf,” Erkmen suggested.
A picture taken on July 17, 2010, shows Syrian businessman Rami Makhlouf attending the ceremony of raising a Syrian flag on a 107-metre pole over Damascus to celebrate regime leader Bashar al Assad's 10th year in power. “Right after a crucial operation in Idlib, changing generals, who occupy critical positions in the army, does not appear to be logical as long as some serious issues do not exist inside the regime,” Erkmen analyses.
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