Editorial
The Syria question
Assad has lost moral right to govern
Turkish indignation over the shooting down of one of its jets by Syria in what it claims was international airspace adds a new dimension to the crisis confronting President Bashar Assad. Indeed, the crisis is what the Syrian leader has been making of it over these past many months. His stubborn refusal to see reason and be accommodative of the Syrian political opposition has already led to a wholesale erosion of trust in him. Besides, the ruthlessness with which the Syrian military has been shooting down innocent Syrian citizens all over the country points to the desperation with which the regime means to cling to power.
A huge problem for the entrenched Assad regime is its refusal to acknowledge the changes that have been taking place in the region. The people of Egypt have just elected a new president. In Libya and Tunisia, the fall of the old regimes has led, however chaotically, to change of a positive sort after years of repressive leadership. Elsewhere in the Middle East, there are all those certain grumblings for change, complaints which in time could burst into open dissent unless the regimes concerned take notice. These are facts President Assad would do well to take into account. If it is a question of how much authority he has at present, the answer is simple: morally he lost the right to govern months ago. Politically, for all the devotion of his dwindling band of fanatical followers, the ground has been shifting from under his feet.
And now the row with Turkey can only embolden bodies like Nato into rethinking policy toward Assad. He still has a chance to save Syria from himself through acknowledging the reality of his being in a hard spot. His regime is on the ropes and those nations which have so long supported it owe it to themselves to give Syrians a chance to move towards free expression. For decades, especially since the advent of Bashar Assad's father Hafez Assad in 1968, Syria has been anything but democratic. The time is here for change.
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