Dear Deeply Readers,

Welcome to the archives of Syria Deeply. While we paused regular publication of the site on May 15, 2018, and transitioned some of our coverage to Peacebuilding Deeply, we are happy to serve as an ongoing public resource on the Syrian conflict. We hope you’ll enjoy the reporting and analysis that was produced by our dedicated community of editors contributors.

We continue to produce events and special projects while we explore where the on-site journalism goes next. If you’d like to reach us with feedback or ideas for collaboration you can do so at [email protected].

BROWSE THE SYRIA DEEPLY ARCHIVES

An Interview with George Sabra

George Sabra is the chairman of the Syrian National Council, a Christian and leftist dissident who has long opposed the Assad regime. He was a signatory to the 2005 Damascus Declaration, a landmark call for democracy from within the country. He spoke to Syria Deeply on the sidelines of opposition talks in Doha.

Written by Syria Deeply Published on Read time Approx. 2 minutes

LS: The hope of the opposition is that if you come together, Western powers will grant you formal recognition and you can establish a future free government in Northern Syria. Do you think this is possible?

GS: Yes…we can go through the transitional government directly and be responsible towards that government, but the international community also has a responsibility to deliver what they promise to the transitional government.

LS: So, your skepticism is whether Western powers will come through with what they promise?

GS: Yes, you are right.

LS: People believe in you. People believe in your track record against the regime. How do you feel right now?

GS: I am just a member of the Syria revolution. I’ve joined young people in the prisons many times.

LS: What were the prisons like?

GS: I have had enough experience with the prisons.  I was there for 8 years during the period of Hafez al-Assad.

LS: Was there torture?

GS: Sure. Too much. The first 2 days I slept in the hospital, not in the prison. I fell down after 6-7 hours, I couldn’t take it. I woke up, bloody, in the hospital with nurses and doctors. I was bloody…

LS: How is your family doing inside Syria? How are people coping?

GS: My [immediate] family went with me to Paris, but the big family is still in Syria. When they see me talking on the TV, they close the door out of fear. They are scared something bad will happen to them. Anyways, I was prevented from leaving the country since 1979. The first time I left my country, at the beginning of 2012, I was on foot and I was under the eyes of snipers at the border with Jordan, but I was lucky enough to survive.

LS: How was it on the way out?

GS: My younger son was with me, he is a lawyer, and he defected as a soldier from the military services. With snipers behind us, I took my son by the shoulder, took our bags and told him we had to run. He did not understand what we were doing. I told him we had to run for 500 meters, hiding from the snipers. Every second I expected a bullet in my back, or in his back, but I preferred it would be my back. Every step I imagined my might fall in front of me, and I wouldn’t be able help him…. 500 meters felt like 50 years, but we survived.

LS: And now? How long do you think it will take for a future Syria to come out of this?

GS: I hope it isn’t a long time, for us and for the international community. With little help, they can stop this. Even if the international community doesn’t help us, the Syrians are determined to end the game.

LS: But how long? If no help comes from the International community, how long does it take? If the international community does help, how long does it take?

GS: In all circumstances, some months.

LS: Not years?

GS: Not years.

LS: They can’t transition? It can’t be like Yemen where he stays for a couple months?

GS: Not at all. Assad and his regime can’t be a part of the Syrian future any more.

LS: How will they accept the change? How will you make the transition?

GS: We have to force them to accept the change.

Republish this article

Our mission is to empower stakeholders and the wider public with high quality information, insights, and analysis on critical global issues. To help achieve this, we encourage you to republish the text of any article that contains a Republish button on your own news outlet.

By copying the HTML below, you agree to adhere to our republishing guidelines.

By copying the HTML below, you agree to adhere to our republishing guidelines. Click to expand

  1. In republishing any of our articles:

    Ensure that you include a line of our HTML tracking code on every article you republish. This is a lightweight, efficient way for us to see the number of page views of each specific article published on our partners’ websites. This does not affect page layout, nor does it provide any information about your users, other web pages on your site, or any further data. By copying and pasting the HTML code in the box below, the tracking code is automatically included.

    If, for any reason, you do not copy the code prepared for you, you must paste this code snippet into the end of the article in your CMS: 

    <img src="http://ping.newsdeeply.com/pixel.gif?key=100722&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newsdeeply.com%2Fsyria%2Farticles%2F2012%2F11%2F20%2Fan-interview-with-george-sabra" alt="" />

  2. Adhere to the guidelines below:
    • Edit our stories only to reflect references to time (e.g. "today" to "yesterday"), location (e.g. "New York" to "here") or editorial style; do not edit the wording of our articles.
    • Include all the links within the story.
    • Credit our authors and partner institutions — ideally in the byline. We prefer “Author Name, Institution”
    • Note at the top and/or bottom of the story that it originally appeared on Syria Deeply. This note should include a direct link to the original article and a sentence that offers the reader the opportunity to join the Syria’s mailing list. Our recommended example is:
      • This should read : “This article originally appeared on Syria Deeply. You can find the original here. For important news about the war in Syria, you can sign up to the Syria email list.”
    • Do not republish a photo without our written permission. Some sources don't allow their images to be republished without permission.
    • Do not translate a story into another language without our written permission.
    • We often republish pieces from our partners. If you want to republish a partner’s story, you must credit the original partner and include a “via News Deeply” link.
    • Note that News Deeply considers the publication date to be the date marked on the story, and is not responsible for any content that you choose to repost.
    • After republication on the partner website, if you make an accompanying post on social media referencing the republished article, you must include the relevant Deeply social media handle in such post. For example, (i) for Twitter posts this means adding the appropriate @Deeply tag such as @SyriaDeeply, @WaterDeeply, or @WomensGirlsHub and (ii) for Facebook this means tagging the appropriate Deeply page in your Facebook post.
    • News Deeply material may not to be provided, in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, to third parties or affiliates for redistribution through those entities, unless you have received prior written approval from News Deeply.
    • You may not automatically or systematically republish any material from our sites; all stories must be chosen individually for republishing.
    • You may not sell our content or republish it for commercial purposes without our prior written consent.
    • We reserve the right to request that any partner ceases republication of our content, including but not limited to if the guidelines listed above not being followed.
    • If you have any questions or concerns please contact [email protected]

Suggest your story or issue.

Send

Share Your Story.

Have a story idea? Interested in adding your voice to our growing community?

Learn more