In the early hours of Sunday 8 December, I watched as the brutal Assadist era, which endured for five decades in Syria, came to an end. Across the nation, city by city and town by town, statues of Hafez and Bashar al-Assad were torn down by ordinary Syrians. Could it truly be happening? Are we finally witnessing the conclusion of half a century of brutality, fear and the monopolisation of public life by a father and son? This sense of disbelief was shared by every Syrian I know.
