Crumbling economy reignites anti-government protests in Syria’s Suweida

Asmaa al-Omar

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — For a second consecutive day, protesters have poured onto the streets in the southern Syrian city of Suweida, chanting anti-government slogans and calling for the departure of President Bashar al-Assad. 

Leading the chants were young men no older than 20 years old, who came into adulthood after an adolescence in a country that has been left devastated, divided and bankrupt after nine years of war. The protesters chanted anti-regime slogans, saying "Get out Bashar,", "The people want the fall of the regime," and "Syria is for us, it is not for Assad's family."

They also demanded that Iranian and Russian forces, with their heavy militarized presence, leave Syrian streets.

Monday's protest lasted just an hour, and ended without intervention from security forces. But the rare show of defiance underscores just how badly Syria's economy has deteriorated.

After nine years of war, Syria is in the thick of an economic crisis compounded by a coronavirus lockdown and a capital liquidity crunch in neighboring Lebanon, Syria's main trading partner.

 

Syria has seen soaring inflation in recent weeks, with the Syrian Pound (SP) dipping further into record lows with each passing day.

Although the official foreign exchange indices list the value at 700 SP to 1 US Dollar, the actual market value trading inside of Syria soared past 2,300 SP over the weekend, AFP reported.

At the start of the holy month of Ramadan, in late April, a canister of cooking oil was 2,000 SP — and has now doubled to 4,000 SP, sources in the capital, Damascus told Rudaw English. Yesterday, large shops and fuel stores in most of Syria's provinces were partly closed amid widespread fuel shortages.

Before conflict broke out in Syria, the exchange rate was around 50 SP to the dollar. While the price of everyday goods has only gone up, workers' salaries have stagnated. In 2015, the government ordered a raise for public employees amounting to a 50 percent increase in the average salary. But with prices inflated by more than 4,000 per cent, life is increasingly difficult for average Syrians.

Local Syrian media have also reported small protests in the town of Tafas in Daraa province in solidarity with Suweida protesters, calling for Syrian unity and denouncing sectarianism.

Last month, the regime dismissed two government employees, a teacher and an employee in the water directorate, following their participation in silent demonstrations in Suweida.

"For this generation, protesting is a million times more dangerous than in the past," a reporter for the local news site Suweida 24 told Rudaw English via an encrypted messaging app.

Suweida has seen far less of the urban warfare that has left many of Syria's other cities in ruins. It is home to most of Syria's Druze minority, who have been unique among the pastiche of sects held together by loyalty to the regime in Assad's Syria in that the community has been able to reserve the right to criticize those in power because of its alliance with the Alawite sect that holds power in Damascus.

During protests in 2011 in Suweida, the regime restrained itself from violence to avoid risking a backlash from the tight-knit elders of the Druze community.

"We don't exactly call it an uprising," the source at Suweida 24 told Rudaw English on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation by regime intelligence. "But the difference is that there was support from the street today for the protesting youth because people can't take it anymore," they said.

In areas considered to be loyal to the regime such as Latakia, Homs, Hama, and Damascus, shops have had to repeatedly hike prices to unprecedented levels as the cost of importing goods keeps rising with inflation.

New US sanctions against the Syrian government and companies involved in reconstruction are expected when the Caesar Act - which sanctions Damascus and entities linked to the regime -  goes into effect. Because financial transactions take weeks to complete, the encroaching deadline means that Syria's monied interests are pulling assets out,  Heiko Wimmen, Syria project director at the International Crisis Group, told AFP. 

After the Damascus government ultimately emerged the victor after Syria's richest man Rami Makhlouf publicly challenged Assad for strong-arming him into giving up control of his business empire.

Makhlouf lost his public appeal, his assets were seized and he was banned from traveling, leaving Syrian business owners feeling that "nobody is safe", according to Wimmen.

They are thinking "you better get your assets and perhaps yourself out preparing for further shakedowns", he added.

Additional reporting by Shawn Carrié and by AFP