At the party Held By Syrian British Association and Syrian Association in UK
30 April 2004
In 1988 I asked an Algerian woman who lived on the mountains for years and spent many years in prison to free her country from occupation; what did it mean to her to be independent? She said: “I was delighted to see my husband a free man walking tall”.
Today with the news of what is happening to Iraqis and worse things had been happening to thousands of Palestinians kidnapped and arrested simply because they long to be free and dignified. We appreciate even more the meaning and significance of our national day.
Only now I understand what Syrian women meant when I interviewed them in 1980s and they were cherishing the freedom they enjoy having fought hard against occupation in 1930s and 1940s. While I would express dissatisfaction with few things they kept insisting they are so happy to be free.
We are now in the third millennium because more aware of what our national day means than we did before. Our generation took independence and freedom for granted. But we no longer do so as we watch our brothers and sisters in Palestine and Iraq long for freedom and independence.
Many of our Syrian expatriates fled the country to South America in 19th century and early 20th century fleeing occupation, poverty and humiliation. Some of them came to Manchester as early as the 1930s to work in textile industry and they were Muslims. Christians and Jews. Many of them today know no difference between Syrians, Lebanese, Palestinians and Jordanians. They all came from Bead A-Sham.
The beauty of our region is mowed by confrontation, conflict and occupation and violence can only breed violence. The war on terrorism will be best served by promoting dialogue and negotiation rather than shelling missiles on residential areas and killing innocent people.
The conflict in our region is neither religious nor ethnic; it is political about land. It is all about land and oil and the biggest problem is that the destiny of our region is being decided in capitals away from us with a very little understanding of the nuance of our culture, history and heritage. We feel our identity is threatened, our language is targeted and our fellow Muslims in the West who have always been loyal citizens have turned into suspects.
The policy Syria has always stipulated that we are proud of the Syrian Citizens who are loyal to their new countries and who serve their new countries t5he best. The late president Assad always stressed that the best Syrians are those who are proud of their Arab descent. That is what our expatriates communities abroad enjoy best reputation and they are highly professional and act as real bridge between the two cultures and nations.
Syria that has always been the cross road for civilizations is working hard today to bridge these civilizations through its EU communities all over the world and through its active policy in the Middle East. HE President Bashar Al Assad has always stressed the importance of dialogue, culture and political and has personally encouraged all forms of dialogue with Europe and US. His vision is that dialogue is the only way to create better understanding and build better bridges among nations.
One of the reasons why our culture was able to last for thousands of years is that we like to build and we hate to destroy; we love our soil and we are proud of the interaction we always maintained with nations, cultures and people.
Despite the fact that world is passing through a difficult stage and our regions is bleeding we still call for dialogue, for building bridges but only free and dignified people can conduct dialogues and build bridges.
This is a difficult moment, no dupes can address and face; only sincere and courageous people ca navigate us out of this difficulty. I know no one who is more interested in building a better world of peace, stability, justice and security than President Assad. I am proud to be serving a mandate of friendship, cooperation and peace based on justice and international terms of reference■