(10 Dec 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Damascus, Syria – 10 December 2024
1. Exterior of St Anthony Cathedral
2. Worshippers inside church
3. Church altar
4. Worshipers praying
5. Various of worshippers lighting candles
6. Man praying in front of Saint’s statue
7. Statue of Mary
8. Various of pedestrians and traffic at arch in Bab Sharqi, a Christian neighborhood
9. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mazen Kalash, resident:
"We do not know what they plan, what are they intending to do to us. We are waiting. We are waiting for their plans, their ideas, what they are preparing for us. We ask them to provide us with our needs, we do not need more. The most important thing is for us to feel safe. The most important thing is to bring order, law and respect to the citizens. We need to be able to work whatever we want and do whatever we want without any interference from anyone.”
10. Various of traffic, pedestrians
11. People taking photos
12. Nuns walking on street
13. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Sarah Sairafi, resident:
"People are at their houses waiting to see what will happen. But we went out to the streets. Those who are able to get past the fear have stepped outside and nothing is going on. It is safe, thank God. We do not have anything to fear. There were no killings and no fighting. There have been no problems for us to be scared. But people have fears from the past and have old psychological traumas, making them commit (to staying home). If we remember in the past, when problems like this would happen – if a young man went out, they would detain him and he would vanish afterwards. We are currently seeing what they found in Saydnaya prison. So with that fear, everyone who has a daughter or a son is telling them to stay home and not leave the house."
14. Various of pedestrians
15. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Jihad Raffoul, resident:
"They are promising us that government will be formed soon and God willing, things will become better because we got rid of the tyrant. That is the most important thing. God willing, matters will be good and peaceful, and what they promised us will come true."
16. Various of traffic
STORYLINE:
Minority Christians in Syria have been living in a state of uneasy anticipation since insurgents headed by the Islamic militant group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham took control after ousting President Bashar Assad.
People on the streets of the Bab Sharqi, Bab Touma and al-Qassaa Christian neighborhoods in Damascus shared some of their concerns.
Mazen Kalash, a resident of Bab Touma said he wants to know the plans of the new government that will be formed by the rebels.
"The most important thing is to bring order, law and respect to the citizens,” Kalash said.
"We need to be able to work whatever we want and do whatever we want," he added.
The insurgents have so far attempted to reassure minorities that they will be protected.
Bab Touma resident Sarah Sairafi called on people to work past their fears and simply step out of their homes.
"Those who are able to get past the fear have stepped outside and nothing is going on. It is safe, thank God," Sairafi said.
Large numbers of Syrian Christians, who made up 10% of the population, fled after the civil war erupted in 2011.
Many of those who stayed supported Assad out of fear they might be targeted by Islamist insurgents.
Assad fled the country on Sunday, bringing to a dramatic close his nearly 14-year struggle to hold onto control as his country fragmented in a brutal civil war that became a proxy battlefield for regional and international powers.
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