The once-feared headquarters of Syria’s general intelligence service now stands in eerie silence. Dimly lit, its corridors used to be full of secretive activity. Now, it reeks of remains of times gone by. Torn posters of ex-President Bashar al-Assad cling obediently to the sides, while towering piles of crushed boxes and plastic sit next to the grand stairways of the imposing building.
Cars that have had their windshields shattered, their bodies riddled with bullets, their interiors smashed, stand abandoned-a grim reminder of the violent looting and destruction there a month ago. In the uprising, Syrians, long terrorized by the Assad regime’s security apparatus, took their revenge on the very symbols of its repressive rule.
Today, this same intelligence building is at the center of a remarkable transformation. It has become a settlement center, part of an initiative by Syria’s new Islamist caretaker government to dismantle the Assad regime’s dreaded security state and turn the page on decades of authoritarian rule.
In the building’s courtyard, lines of men wait patiently to surrender their weapons and themselves to the new authorities. Each man is handed an official slip of paper, a formality that signifies their surrender and reconciliation with the Islamist administration now in control.
It’s a weird scene inside. Former rebels, now dressed in military garb, examine a cache of handguns, rifles, and ammo that former members of Assad’s intelligence agency had turned up. A huge billboard of Assad’s face is purposefully left on the floor of a temporary office for people to walk across, signifying the change in authority.
The settlement centers, as the new authorities call them, are designed to dismantle the intricate network of fear that the regime’s intelligence bodies had cultivated over decades. For many Syrians, these centers represent a new beginning, albeit one fraught with uncertainty.
The people who once wielded the Assad regime’s tools of oppression now find themselves at the mercy of their former adversaries. Former intelligence officers, many of whom were feared for their power, now stand humbly in line alongside ordinary citizens.
For those who can provided evidence of their worth to the new administration, there is always a way through which some of the privileges could be restored, at least until the successor finds capable and efficient people to take a permanent hold of such positions. Some of them look forward to the future where their authority and impunity that was familiar to them in the past will not be present.
The ordinary citizens watching militants, who were once panicked by the regime’s surveillance and force, mingling with its former agents is a vivid representation of the new power system of Syria.
Syria’s new rulers have wanted everyone to understand that they intend to steer the country in a new direction, though the actions of the Assad regime prior to them would themselves have had little qualm about carrying out such acts themselves. However, future looks foggy. Just as the destruction of the intelligence structure may signal the ending of one game, what sort of ownership arrives with that destruction.
In that case, still, many Syrians avoid making a choice. The structure of the regime exposed to people, spies, informants and secret prisons will remain fresh in the minds of many for years to come. In particular, the halting and slow establishment of indigenous, settlement centers appear as a glimmer of hope, but whether they are the path toward true justice and forgiving, or just a token gesture in the grand political scheme of things remains to be seen.
As Syria grapples with its fractured identity and a future shaped by new forces, the dark, empty corridors of the intelligence headquarters stand as a monument to the regime’s fall—a stark reminder of its past and a symbol of the uncertain path ahead.
