‘The donkey is gone’: Syrians hit the streets to mark a momentous week

“The donkey is gone! Donkey! Donkey!” the crowd chanted at one point, with many still in disbelief that the deposed president’s pejorative nickname can be shouted out loud in the open, rather than whispered in secrecy.

At Umayyad Square in central Damascus, tens of thousands of people had the party of a lifetime on Friday. Filling the roundabout to the brink, they partied late into the evening, celebrating the moment many thought would never come: the exit of their brutal dictator Bashar al-Assad. “I always thought that I am going to die, and my children are going to die, and many more generations will die and he will still be here. I thought it will never end,” Esraa Alsliman, a student, told CNN at the square. “It’s like a dream. I wake up every day thinking it was a dream, even today I woke up thinking it was a dream,” she said. Families brought little children to the square with flags painted on their cheeks. Young students were joined by the elderly. Women dressed in conservative Muslim fashion celebrated next to those wearing trendy western clothes. Many said they travelled across the country to witness the jubilations. Many were waving the three-starred flag of the Syrian Arab Republic – an opposition flag that had been used when the country was under French mandate, and was replaced by a two-starred version during the Assad era. “I really believe that at this time, we will support each other, stay with each other and get to the top. Syria will have a good name in the world,” Alsliman said. “I always thought that to have a future, to have a successful life, I will have to go abroad. Now I can stay here, in my country.”