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Unbroken: Eighth anniversary of the Syrian Revolution sees protests across the world

Eight years of war have left more than 370,000 people dead, including 112,000 civilians, the Syria Observatory for Human Rights announced on the same day.
3 min read
15 March, 2019
The 2017 6th anniversary Syrian Revolution march at 10 Downing Street [Anadolu/Getty]
Protests and memorials were held in cities across the world on 15 March, to commemorate the eighth anniversary of the Syrian Revolution.

Eight years of war have left more than 370,000 people dead, including 112,000 civilians, the Syria Observatory for Human Rights announced on the same day.

The "8th Anniversary of the Syrian Revolution" protest is planned for Saturday in London - an anniversary that has been marked by Syrians in the UK and supporters every year since 2011.

Meeting in Paddington Green at , thousands of protestors are expected to take part in the march through Edgware Road, Regents Street and Piccadilly Circus, all the way to 10 Downing Street, the prime minister's residence.

Abdulaziz al-Mashi, co-founder of the Syria Solidarity Campaign who organised the march, told °®Âþµº that coaches of people are coming from Manchester, York, Leeds and York to attend.

Al-Mashi said the protest had three messages. The first was to the people of Syria: "We will be your voice as long as you fight for our freedoms".

"We will not give up," was the second message directed at Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. "He will ultimately be brought to justice for the war crimes he has committed."

Finally, the protest hopes to send a message to the UK government for its "hypocrisy" during the Syria war.

Events marking the day are also planned in Amsterdam, Hamburg, Paris, Washington, Istanbul, Brussels and other major cities, according to the SRLW. 

In Idlib, where civilians face the brunt of daily shelling by Russian and regime forces despite a ceasefire agreement, the day was marked by residents, dancing, chanting, and carrying the flag of the Syrian revolution.

As the conflict enters its ninth year, Syrians in Azaz, Aleppo, held a rally to commemorate the anniversary.

The devastating conflict has displaced or sent into exile around 13 million Syrians, and left Syria's famous cities devastated from regime shelling.

An online memorial was broadcasted on social media throughout the day by the organisation "How many more?". Every minute, it tweeted the name of a Syrian killed in the war and asked #HowManyMore?

Read also: No, of course Syrian refugees can't go home. Here's why.

In the conflicts eight years, more than 14,000 individuals have been killed as a result of torture, almost all of which committed by the Syrian regime, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR).

It documented 143,000 individuals still detained or forcibly disappeared, 89 percent of them at the hands of the Syrian regime.

The conflict in Syria flared after unprecedented anti-government protests in Syria on 15 March 2011 - exactly eight years ago.

Dozens of people demonstrated on Sunday in Daraa - the defeated cradle of Syria's uprising - when regime supporters erected a statue of Hafez al-Assad, the incumbent president's late father. The original statue was demolished in the revolutionary protests eight years earlier.  

The 2011 demonstrations that spread across Syria, demanding greater libertires and a better quality in life, were brutally suppressed by the regime.

Agencies contributed to this report.

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