Exacerbating living conditions in Damascus-controlled areas sparks popular outrage

Ali Omar

There is no talk in Syria, especially in the areas controlled by the Damascus government during this period, other than the deteriorating living conditions or – to put it in order words – the struggle of the Syrians for survival due to the unprecedented exacerbating of the local currency, a significant rise in food prices, a scarcity of fuel, and an almost complete power outage.

These conditions led to popular discontent and resentment among supporters of the Damascus government, especially activists and party figures. Video clips circulated on social media, criticizing the rapid deterioration of the situation and the inability or failure of Damascus to find solutions. Further, the latter was urged to intervene, develop a well-thought-out plan to confront this condition, and move away from “patchwork solutions” and inter-representative accusations, or placing responsibility on external causes related to sanctions.

The last of these positions was forwarded by journalist, Lama Abbas, who appeared in a video criticizing the situation in the areas of the Damascus government and calling for a popular movement against it to end the situation, the country has reached. She said, “I urge the people to do something positive,” wondering who benefits from the country’s deterioration and the fires that break out from time to time in separate areas, the latest of which was in “Mashqita” in the countryside of Latakia and the famous Sarouja market in Damascus. Concerning what understood as pointing fingers at Iran, it is considered a “red line” in the areas of the Damascus government, given that Tehran supported the latter in suppressing the popular movement and regaining control over large areas of the country. A journalist called Kinan Waqf demanded the removal of the barriers of the „Fourth Division“ by stopping the imposition of taxes on merchants by the “secret office” in order to put an end to the deterioration. He instead opted for the government to assume responsibility and called on the “People’s Assembly” to deal with criticism of the last session of the parliament to discuss the economic crisis.

Resounding fall of the lira

This comes after the Syrian pound lost about twice its value against foreign currencies in less than two months, reaching thirteen thousand pounds for one US dollar, which led to a significant increase in prices whereby the salary of a government employee did not exceed ten dollars. Economists further confirmed that the Damascus government and the Syrian Central Bank are mainly responsible for this deterioration, in light of the latter’s inability to control the exchange rate, which has become controlled by the “black” parallel market, and accusations against the influential and senior officers of “stealing” the funds provided by some Gulf countries, especially the Emirates in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that hit the country.

Rampant corruption

Economic analyst Younes Al-Karim, who is based in France, says in this context: “The rapid deterioration of the lira is due to multiple cumulative factors, but what worsened the situation was the lack of benefit from the funds and aid that were provided to the victims of the earthquake as it was shared between civil society organizations led by Asma al-Assad and some corrupt people.

Thus, the Syrian economy in the areas of the Syrian regime was deprived of benefiting from it, in addition to the fact that the failure of Arab normalization had a moral reflux on the Syrians, as they cut off, with the failure of normalization and the arrival of funds, any possibility of a change in the economy. And with the presence of investors who might work to improve the economy, especially since the regime had,before that, spread the propaganda that the return of Arab normalization would bring back investments and the situation would improve, in addition to the regime’s management of the political crisis as the Arab demands wanted to limit Iran while the regime tended to deepen cooperation with it. Thus, traders and investors felt that there was absolutely no possibility for Arab investors to enter the country as aspired.

Al-Karim added, in a statement to the Target Media platform, that “among the factors for the deterioration of the lira is also the insistence of the Syrian government, represented by the Central Bank and the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, to tighten the wrong economic policies and not reform them, such as Resolution 1070 that defines import regulations, then Resolution 970 came to restrict them further and not to cancel the decree No. 3, which prohibits the circulation of the dollar, in addition to Decree No. 4, which considers talking about the economy a charge, related to undermining national security. All these factors led to the deterioration of the lira, and the removal of subsidies on basic commodities increased the weakness of purchasing power“.

Unprecedented exacerbation

For his part, the head of the Syria First Party, Salman Shabib, said in an interview with Target: “It is difficult to comprehend the size and depth of the economic, living and service crisis that afflicts the population in the areas, controlled by the Syrian government as Syria is witnessing an unprecedented deterioration that it has not seen in its modern history. Moreover, the media and means of communication present a bleak picture of the suffering of the people and the difficulties faced by the Syrian citizen as they struggles in the harshest conditions to secure the most basic necessities of life. Reports of international organizations also provide terrifying information and numbers about the number of Syrians in need of assistance who live below the poverty line and their percentage exceeds ninety percent of the population. He added that all government efforts failed to stop the successive rises in material prices, and all promises to improve the living and service situation, especially electricity, were gone, including the winds of corruption, monopoly, and the rise in the exchange rate of currencies, especially the dollar against the lira, which in less than a month lost more than a quarter of its value, which reflected a very harsh reality on majority of the population, especially the poorest segments.

The removal of subsidies

In exchange for this deterioration, the Damascus government began, since last year, to implement a policy of lifting subsidies on all basic foodstuffs and consumer items, including bread, fuel and domestic gas. It also raised the prices of many items, especially fuel, whose price has increased several times in one year.

According to Shabib, “It can be said that a mass massacre is being committed against an entire people, to which the circumstances of the war and what it produced, Western and especially American sanctions, sites of corruption and monopoly, speculators in the Syrian pound, merchants of the crisis and the war inside Syria contribute to, which prompted some activists to raise their voice. They warned of the catastrophic repercussions of what is happening and the concomitant dangerous possibilities for Syria and its future if things reach a point of inability to bear and the situation becomes close to the stage of chaos and collapse. Thus, many people raised their voices calling on the people to take action, especially after the drama of the People’s Assembly session, whose results were less than meager. This incident further exacerbated the feelings of disappointment, frustration and anger. This condition is further aggravated by the absence of a horizon for political and economic solutions, especially after the decline of the hopes that flourished among the Syrians in the Arab initiative, and what seemed to be a promising beginning for an effective Arab role in helping Syria get out of this dark tunnel.

He explains that „this reality is accompanied by a Western, American, European, political, economic and perhaps military escalation, in concomitance with a Turkish retreat from the promises and understandings it made regarding the normalization of the relationship with Syria. All of these are factors that increase the deadly difficulties that Syrians suffer from, especially the poorest classes, calling for the formation of a national salvation front from all forces inside and outside the country that works to turn the page on the war and open a new page titled Syria for all through dialogue that results in real reconciliation and national partnership to build the future Syria as a state of citizens, freedoms and democracy,” as he put it.

And the economic researcher, Younes Al-Karim, explains that what deepened the crisis and the decisive point was the failure to address stagflation which needs to be dealt with immediately and in the medium term, but the treatment needs in an essential part of it on a political aspect, where the system is not ready to engage in, for example the economy needs to print currencies in denominations of ten thousand and 25 thousand, to absorb inflation and secure liquidity for the market, but it did not take this step; aside from the tension with the SDF and opposition areas, which were considered lungs for smuggling currency into the Syrian interior, in addition to the “Captagon” penal code, with the regime’s insistence on smuggling Captagon and tension with Jordan and Turkey. He further indicates that the regime’s areas are in the stage of entering famine because the gap between the border The minimum poverty of $600 because the gap between the minimum poverty level of $600, which provides the family with the minimum level of subsistence, has become large with the minimum wage, while the wage of a retired employee there is close to $7, and the employee who is in charge of his work is only $10.”

Disappointment with the results of normalization

Local sources from the areas controlled by the Damascus government confirm that there is a state of great disappointment among the population regarding the results of Arab normalization with the Damascus government in alleviating or ending the economic and living crisis in the region by pumping money that could contribute to improving the exchange rate of the lira, however, none of this happened. Reports further stated that the Gulf countries refrained from providing any support to Damascus, against the background of not making a single step towards achieving the imposed Arab conditions related to combating drug trade and smuggling and the curtailment of Iranian influence. Hence, a state of mistrust among the Arabs in the possibility of moving forward to achieve any of these conditions was created.

The researcher Younis Al-Karim points out that the Gulf funds did not come to Syria as required, but were limited to some tens of millions of insufficient dollars. There was a fierce war between Gulf attempts to prevent the collapse of state institutions and between civil society organizations led by Asma al-Assad and warlords. This matter made the Gulf states lose the feeling that there is any benefit in providing assistance to the areas of the regime, and the Gulf money did not enter because the Gulf has many economic plans and Syria is no longer convinced of the investment process as a result of the Russian and Iranian acquisition of basic investments. In addition, there is a collapse of state institutions that are no longer able to provide real information to the investor through which he can build a strategy to enter the investment.

It is noteworthy that, during the past week, the Damascus government forces carried out large-scale arrests in several Governorates, targeting activists and people who criticized the living conditions in their areas, as the arrest of more than six people was documented in the village of “Ain al-Krum” in the northwestern countryside of Hama, after they wrote expressions criticizing the current reality as well as the economic and living conditions on street walls. This had led to the arrest of four activists in the city of Salamiyah in the eastern countryside of Hama because of their demand through social media to improve the living situation.