The Assad family no longer rules Syria. How did a brutally repressive regime rule with an iron fist for five decades only to collapse in two weeks? And after 14 years of bloody civil war, why was now the moment that a frozen conflict exploded into the global spotlight? The cost Syrians have already paid is greater than any nation could reasonably be expected to bear. Since 2011, more than 500,000 Syrians have died, including 200,000 civilians, and nearly six million refugees flooded neighboring Arab States and some European nations, most notably Germany.
But there’s no guarantee that the suffering will end just because the Assad regime has. To help make sense of these shocking past few weeks and the potential power vacuum to come is Kim Ghattas, a contributing editor at the Financial Times and author of Black Wave. “There was a decrepitude that installed itself within the regime's ranks and just a general exhaustion, life was not getting better for those who stood by the regime. And so I think there was a feeling that it was time to abandon him.”
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