The Syrian city of Aleppo has been the quietest city amidst the unrest sweeping across the country – so quiet in fact that a visitor would be excused to think it isn’t a Syrian city. This has all started to change this week, however, as students from the Faculty of Science in Aleppo University started to go out in protests against the ruling regime, quickly joined by other students from the Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Engineering.
Today marks the fourth day of the student marches from the Faculty of Science. Videos on YouTube have shown several thousands marching and chanting against Bashar and his regime, and denouncing the brutal crackdown on Homs, the most besieged city in Syria by the army.
However, reports from Syrian students on Twitter claim the marches were dispersed violently when they were attacked by truckloads of thugs who cut their way. Gunshots were heard throughout the campus and activists claim three and injuring dozens, several of which were later arrested. This triggered ongoing skirmishes between the students and the security forces on the campus and nearby streets.
The students kept regrouping every day, however, to go out marching again.
Today, Shakeeb Al-Jabri, a journalist at the online pro-democracy portal Al-Ayyam reported on his twitter account that security forces launched tear gas at the students to break-up the march, with rumours of 30 buses full of thugs – locally known as Shabeha – making their way to the University of Aleppo.
The revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt were strongly inspired by young university students fed up with the lack of freedom and authoritarian leadership for decades, triggering countrywide protests afterwards that toppled dictators. The students in Aleppo are hoping their movement might trigger the city to rise against Bashar’s regime, joining the other cities that are already doing so.
Below is a video posted on YouTube today that shows one of the marches heading out from the Faculty of Science to meet with the other marches in the university square.