this is DW news live from Berlin Syria's president Assad reportedly flees the capital as Rebel forces storm into Damascus the rebels declare the city free from Assad's 24-year rule announcing the start of a new era for the Syrian people Syria's prime minister says he's ready to assist with a peaceful transfer of government [Music] [Applause] I'm Marina Evin it's good to have you with us we begin with breaking news from Syria where the regime of president prashar al-assad has collapsed Assad reportedly fled the capital Damascus to an unknown destination after Rebel forces entered the city meeting
Little Resistance it's been less than two weeks since the rebels launched their offens against the regime let's have a look at how the last few hours unfolded in Syria on Saturday night Regional leaders and Bashar al-assad's Ally Russia held an emergency meeting about Syria in Doha but it appears the country's fate was already sealed my dear brothers we are living the final moments of liberating homes by God's will this is a hisor moment that would distinguish between right and wrong shortly after the Rebel Alliance released the statement Rebels declared the Central City of hams fully
liberated to the joy of Bashar al-assad's opponents Damascus was next and the Rebel Alliance faced hardly any resistance abandoned Syrian Army checkpoint forboding the big announcement by the grace of God the city of Damascus was liberated the Tyrant Bashar al-assad was overthrown and all oppressed detainees were released from the regime's prisons the Damascus Conquest operations room calls on the madin brothers and the citizens to preserve all the property of the free Syrian State Long Live a free and proud Syria for all syrians of all [Music] religions as Rebels and their supporters celebrated their Triumph in
Damascus Syria's prime minister said he was still in the capital and willing to work with anyone to ensure a smooth transition of power I am here in my house I have not left it and I do not intend to leave it except in a peaceful manner so that I can ensure the continuity of the work of public institutions and state institutions and facilities and ensure there will be security and reassurances to our fellow citizens I hope that everyone will think rationally and think about their Homeland and Country for now on the streets of Damascus and
other Syrian towns and cities rational thinking appears to be taking a backseat to Raw emotion as Assad's opponents C the end of his 24 year long authoritarian rule let's get some analysis now from faas ggas he is a professor of Middle Eastern political and international relations at the London School of Economics welcome to DW so we just saw on that report many many syrians celebrating the fall of the Assad regime but what's next what kind of governance can we expect from the rebels who are led by the HTS group a radical islamist group right uh
for the majority of the Syrian people it's a moment of Joy they are rejoicing in the in the New Freedom that they have keep in mind that Assad was one of the most brutal uh regimes uh in the Middle East he ruled Syria from 2000 up to 202 before Syria could go uh two ways it could descend I hope not into violence and social and political and economic upheaval or it could basically begin the process of healing it could really establish a a functioning government and begin the process of State Building and Nation uh building
this moment as a historian it reminds me of Iran in 1979 uh it was a a really socially based broadly based uh forward-looking inclusing uh inclusive Revolution yet the Iranian Revolution in 1979 was hijacked by the clars a year after the revolution I hope Syria basically travels a different route and I have trust and confidence in the Syrian people that they really want to put an end to a to a very brutal and very autocratic and very deadly regime well we have heard the rebels make a statement saying that they're not looking for Revenge they've
promised to respect minorities but of course many Syrian Christians and alawi supported the Assad regime so can they and other minority groups rely on these assurances from the Rebels the Talks by the rebels or the opposition are very important let's not under estimate what the rebels are saying they are trying to reassure the Syrian population they're making sure there is no larger scale violence against other Government properties or minorities they have made it very clear they want a peaceful gradual process of transition from Assad rule to the new uh Syria in particular I am very
impressed by the rhetoric of the Vanguard of the opposition that is the islamist c movement its leader Abu Muhammad Alani has made it very clear he does not really want to exact revenge or Vengeance against his enemies in particular the Alan whes the major uh social base of the regime or other minorities so that's very reassuring but of course we have to wait and see what happens in the next few weeks and next uh few months my take on it is that the opposition has matured a great deal we are seeing really a kind of
a different kind of opposition but this is the beginning I mean we have to wait and see whether the Coalition can whether the the opposition can put its house in order and begin the process of social healing and establish an inclusive diverse government to reflect the reality of Syria because it's one of the most uh diverse uh uh countries in the Middle East and we have been hearing reports or more rumors circulating that Assad has fled Damascus to an undisclosed location there have been denials of this but in any case if he is to flee
where could he find Refuge credible reports that a plane took off from the Damascus Airport early uh last night and the reports say that basically Assad was on it take on it there are two ways uh two places that Assad will seek uh uh Refuge it's the United Arab emirats or Russia these are the two only places that could basically host uh Bashar alassad but regardless this is a a a a different moment let's really celebrate with the Syrian people this moment of Hope one scene really for me was extremely moving it's it was the
prison of Sadaya in Damascus on the outskirt of Damascus one of the most brutal uh uh prisons um in the history of the Assad regime you in particular women prisoners they were disted they were confused they were frightened they did not really want to to leave their cells they could not believe that they were going to be free so the the the prison the Sadaya prison for me was really a symbol of Bashar alassad brutal Rule and it tells me about the moment of Hope the moment of Freedom the moment of dignity for the millions
of of the Syrian people who really look forward to the future I hope the opposition uh or the oppositions are up to this particular challenge because it's going to take years for Syria to really heal and and in particular the scars that have been really left after many years of Wars um and and and uh fighting and and torture using Asad Ed chemical weapons against his own people so you can imagine the challenges facing Syria in the next few months and next few years that was faaz gas professor of Middle Eastern political and international relations
at the London School of Economics we appreciate all of your insights thank you Syria's prime minister Muhammad Al jalali says uh he is ready to cooperate in a peaceful transfer of power with any new leadership chosen by the people he's also called for free elections let's listen to the statement he released this country can be a normal one a country that builds good relations with its neighbors and with the world without entering into any Regional alliances or blocks but we leave this matter to any new leadership that will be chosen by the Syrian people and
we're ready to cooperate with with the new leadership and facilitate what they need so that various government files can be transferred smoothly and systematically in a way that preserves the state's facilities and for some analysis on this topic I'm joined in the studio by our reporter gazia ohanes who was born in Aleppo and follows these this story for us very very uh closely um gazia this this has been a very long and bloody Civil War did you expect it to be over so quickly well Gard it is a decades long dictatorship 13 years over 13
years of war and for all of it to end within less than 2 weeks is unbelievable to most of Syrian people uh I did not see this coming before the offensive but in recent days as Rebels advanced in lightening speed it became clear that Assad's time was up it was very fast this this uh the advance and part of that is because Assad's closest allies were turning on him in the last moments to redeem themselves to save themselves and a lot of the rebels were coordinating directly with Syrian Army generals saying this is your last
chance here's a number you can call tell us where you are cooperate with us let us into the City and that's why we had the best case scenario in Damascus with little Bloodshed little fighting uh they were able to capture the capital now um tumultuous days of course what can we expect let's say in the short term the next few days in the next few days uh there will be more of a uh understanding of what we're looking at politically but I want to also look at what is coming out now I've seen hundreds of
names of prisoners uh political prisoners that are circulating people are trying to find their family members they've been imprisoned some some of them for since the start of the war some of them for even longer for decades so they're brutal uh histories of torture all of these stories are going to come out we should expect to see Trials of people that the rebels will now capture to hold them accountable and once they reconcile with all this pain once they hold people accountable then there will be talk of how Syria can move on and find a
new political future now there were different opposition groups involved D in in the war against the regime in Syria can you give us a brief overview a rough overview um who they are and what they want yes there's many actors involved in Syria I'll keep it brief and focus on the main three uh groups that are involved in this because they will be the ones doing most of the negotiation so first we had that was the uh islamist uh extremist Rebel group that is classified by the us as a terrorist organization but they were leading
this offensive and in recent days had changed their stance they've changed the way they look the way they present themselves they've assured uh minorities that they're going to be safe under their rule so that's the first group and the second group is the Syrian free army they're backed by turkey they're also all of these groups are combined in their opposition to Assad but now we will see uh how they get along with assads out of the pi pict and At Last I want to talk about the Kurds because Kurds uh make up 10% of the
Syrian population more or less but the Kurdish uh faction the Syrian Democratic forces they're backed by the US and they controlled around 25% of Syria including the oil fields so there will have to be some kind of settlement between these different groups could that become a flash point I mean the oil field the fact that it's 25% of Syria but they're only 10% of the population yes they will have to make concessions I imagine in the future and not only that but the rebels being backed by turkey who has you know its own agenda with
the Kurds they accuse uh the Kurdish uh faction of housing uh what they say are pkk terrorists so there's a lot of uh clashes there but so far these groups have signaled their Readiness to hold talks and while while Assad was losing uh his grip on the country actually all these groups started capturing more and more territory to have something more to bargain with Once uh the negotiations start we're going to talk about the Turkish side a bit later in the program with Dyan Jones in in Istanbul uh now all the this very diverse group
or group these groups do you have any hope that they can govern together um there is a lot of Hope at the moment but uh we also have to take into account that we've seen uh extremist groups like Isis uh make a comeback uh in this time so it's not just about these groups but what happens with all the armed uh Extreme Fighters that are going around who's going to bring them under control are they going to join the Army what's going to happen on the ground uh I do have hope but I am watching
uh cautiously as well um imagine um Assad was supported by some minorities in Syria like the Christians the Ala Muslims and uh the Jews um what can they expect now repercussions now the rebels themselves have said that they're not out for Revenge they've said that they want to show Mercy whatever however you want to interpret that but they do have lists of generals of high ranking people people who have been responsible for some of the atrocities that we've seen in Syria so they want those people they've said but when it comes to the general minority
populations they've told them that they will be safe now not everybody's uh believed these resurces and we've seen a lot of ala white uh minority people that who are known as like Assad's loyalist base they're on the Syrian Coast they've fled the country and a lot of the Kurdish population has also been displaced from Aleppo because again they don't know if what's been promised is actually going to be delivered very briefly do you have hope that this can lead to a transfer of Syria into a democratic Nation Jared I'm very happy to see the end
of a dictatorship I grew up in Syria I was indoctrinated in that education system we saw their statues and their pictures everywhere and now for the first time everyone is trying to imagine a Syria that looks different so I would like to see how that looks but it's hard to imagine something you've actually never seen represented um I have hope uh it can work but it can also open up more problems but like we said with all these different factions and islamist groups if there will be a secular society or a religious Rule and what
that means for women for minorities and we'll just have to see how that works we will thank you very much G johanes there now turkey has taken more Syrian refugees than any other country and syrians living in Turkey have been celebrating after Rebel forces took control of Damascus and Bashar alassad fled the city in Istanbul syrians have been dancing chanting and waving flags used by Syria opposition to Mark the rebels Victory many syrians in Turkey have said they could not return to their towns and Villages while Assad remained in power the United Nations says 3.6
million syrians have been living in Turkey since the Syrian war broke out in 2011 and joining me now from Istanbul is our correspondent Dorian Jones Dorian turkey backed some of the Rebel forces in Syria so is the end of the Assad regime something the Turkish government is now supporting oh absolutely Turkish president Reb T erdogan was uh congratulating the the rebels and was predicting that they would seize Damascus and overthrow Assad the Syrian president but it has to be said that only a month or so before President erdan was calling for talks with Assad as
a means to reconciling the two countries and particularly the return of the millions of Syrian refugees living in Turkey but erdan speaking to Media said Assad has paid the price of rejecting those overtures and those rejection of those overtures in many ways is seen by some analysts as the trigger for this operation against Assad although anra has been emphasizing had no role in the actual uh overthrow of Assad but turkey is backing one of the militias the Syrian National Army who did partake in those operations and while turkey says it doesn't have any direct links
to hayat Tar al-sham which is a designated terrorist organization most people believe that turkey has still pretty close links it provides Aid and supplies to the regions that are under their control so most people think that this operation would not have been carried out at least with anor's approval now with this new phase uh of a transition of instability uh in Syria uh will turkey try and extend its influence in uh in the country well I think certainly given the fact that turkey was one of the strongest and most steadfast supporters of the opposition through
thicken fin where many of the backers disappeared turkey did stand firm with them providing supplies and Aid to them allowing convoys to continue and also giving training and arming to some of those groups as well so turkey will be looking for a return on those Investments given the fact that for so many years turkey has been backing the rebels and has paid a very heavy price with hosting millions of refugees here in Turkey so undoubtedly turkey will see the extension of its influence into Syria Bashar Assad for many years was a rival of Earth ones
he was main as seen as in many ways a threat especially given his close ties to Iran which is a regional rival of turkey now turkey in many ways will be looking into cash in on the on its support and looking to an extension of its influence into this region and that will also play well with its overtures to Washington especially with the incoming president of Donald Trump this will be a very powerful message underlining how important turkey is to the United States in the region as well as also to the Europeans as well given
the fact that there is as many ways a gatekeeper for refugees and will underline the importance again of how important anchor is in this very volatile region and also for efforts going forward in terms of developing Dem democracy and stability in the region uh Dori very briefly one big issue for turkey is of course the millions of refugees from Syria you've mentioned them uh is that one of the ad's main interests now to let the people go back to Syria briefly if you can oh yeah absolutely this has turned out to be a major political
liability for president erdogan there's a growing dissatisfaction unhappiness over this ongoing presence of millions of refugees in fact there is believed to be nearly two million refugees here in Istanbul the prospect that those people could be returning back will be a major boost of President erdan the key question is will they be ready to return given the uncertainty of the future of Syria at the present moment DW correspondent Dorian Jones there reporting from Istanbul thank you very much Dorian
