‘This is a situation that’s hard to understand,’ says a doctor at the Al-Mujtahid Hospital in Damascus. ‘There’s no Assad, but it could be that the rebels will be just as bad for Syria, in different ways.’ Others say they are encouraged by the lack of violence amid the change of government
For 13 years, Maram hasn’t seen Damascus. In 2011, she fled to Turkey with her husband and their two children because she had participated in demonstrations against the Assad regime. She knew she was in its sights.