From tourism to wine, Syrian companies flounder in post-Assad cultural flux

[ad_1] A bu Ali spent the primary hours after the toppling of the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad boxing up his merchandise. Previous-regime bumper stickers, mugs with Assad’s face, T-shirts on which Russian and Syrian flags pale into one another – all of it needed to go.

A 12 months later, the weathered vacationer store on the boardwalk of the Syrian coastal metropolis of Tartous has fully new merchandise. The cabinets are lined with the brand new three-star Syrian flag, mother-of-pearl jewelry packing containers engraved with revolutionary slogans, and photos of insurgent fighters killed throughout the nation’s 14-year civil warfare.

“Enterprise is sluggish today. Vacationers and travellers used to return earlier than however now it’s slowed down. We simply want extra safety and issues will enhance,” stated Ali, 48, the proprietor of the store.

Ali’s outdated clients – Russian troopers from close by navy bases, American warfare influencers and Lebanese vacationers – have disappeared. Solely the pale Cyrillic on the storefront hints on the store’s previous hawking regime wares.

The Jarjour winery above Tartous is one among Syria’s few wine producers. {Photograph}: Ahmed Fallaha/The Guardian A 12 months after the autumn of the 50-year-long Assad dynasty and its substitute by an Islamist-led authorities, Syrians are renegotiating the symbols and tradition that after outlined their nation. Statues of Hafez al-Assad have been toppled and bulldozed and the portraits of his son Bashar that after plastered throughout each billboard, workplace and classroom now survive solely as defaced remnants, if in any respect.

The tempo of change has been blistering. The sudden collapse of the Orwellian safety equipment that managed all aspects of life and the arrival of the brand new authorities has left Syria in a state of cultural flux.

For Syria’s vineyards, among the oldest on this planet, the change has been bewildering. Shadi Jarjour, the proprietor of the Jarjour vineyard within the hills above Tartous, stated probably the most rapid affect of the autumn of the Assad regime was an finish to ceaseless harassment from corrupt authorities officers.

“You by no means knew what excuse they'd provide you with to mess with you, it was by no means comfy,” he stated. “As soon as, we didn’t have the suitable stamp on our papers and have been threatened with three years in jail, however then the regime fell.”

‘We're ready to see what the brand new legal guidelines will likely be,’ stated Shadi Jarjour. {Photograph}: Ahmed Fallaha/The Guardian Jarjour, one among Syria’s few wineries, sits on a hilltop overlooking sloping hills dotted with olive bushes. Teams of vacationers and diplomats typically come to the quaint brick constructing, which has wine tanks on the underside ground and a mattress and breakfast on the highest ground.

Enterprise was rising previous to the autumn of the Assad regime. Below Assad, alcohol was authorized to provide and promote, and the seeds of a wine tradition in Syria started to take root, Jarjour stated, as customers expanded their palettes previous generic pink wines. The household moved their vineyard to Tartous and began to provide in larger portions, making as much as 50,000 bottles a 12 months.

Jarjour and his household have been anxious after the autumn of the regime, cautious of how Syria’s new rulers would view a vineyard. The core of Syria’s new authorities is made up of former members of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist insurgent group that led the insurgent offensive that toppled the Assad regime.

The federal government assured Jarjour that it didn't wish to intrude in his enterprise and requested the vineyard to maintain its doorways open. However regardless of these personal assurances, the federal government has seemingly not made up its thoughts in terms of the therapy of alcohol in Syria.

Jarjour can produce wine however as a result of a scarcity of a transparent regulation regarding the sale of alcohol within the nation he can't promote it. “I haven’t bought something since December 2024. If a regulation isn’t printed within the subsequent month or so, I'll have virtually two years of losses,” he stated.

The vineyard can nonetheless produce wine however can't promote it in Syria. {Photograph}: Ahmed Fallaha/The Guardian Although no formal restrictions exist on the import of alcohol, Syrian border guards often search private baggage for alcohol and pour it out if discovered. Bars have been raided and arbitrarily closed throughout the capital metropolis, Damascus, beneath the justification that they don't have a licence to serve spirits, and there's no path to renew licences. After an outcry, most bars have been reopened and proceed to serve alcohol.

One bar proprietor defined how he needed to shut his bar on the request of authorities, who advised him to go to a authorities workplace in a number of weeks. The official allowed him to reopen, solely telling the proprietor that he had needed to be taught a “little lesson” for staying open throughout the holy month of Ramadan, one thing that's not an offence beneath Syrian regulation.

Nonetheless, a celebration scene nonetheless thrives in Damascus, with rooftop raves and home events aplenty. At one techno get together, an off-duty member of the Basic Safety Service danced euphorically, exclaiming that he was having the perfect night time of his life as he skilled his first rave.

The residents of the cosmopolitan capital braced themselves when males with lengthy beards and Kalashnikovs descended upon its streets final December, cautious of how the Islamists may reshape the town’s character. However it could but be Damascus that reshapes them.

The Jarjour vineyard normally hosts vacationer teams and diplomats however is dealing with ‘virtually two years of losses’ if a regulation is just not printed quickly, its proprietor stated. {Photograph}: Ahmed Fallaha/The Guardian Syrians are nonetheless revelling of their newfound freedom, placing on performs concerning the brutality they suffered beneath the Assad regime and enjoying revolutionary songs that after may have earned them a spell in jail. However they're additionally studying the best way to work together with the brand new authorities, and the authorities are studying the best way to reign over a rustic, not a province.

Some Syrians at first fell again on instincts discovered from their 5 many years of autocracy, changing portraits of Assad with photographs of Syria’s new president, Ahmad al-Sharaa. Syrian authorities shortly banned such hero worship, at the very least in such a brazen method, and the photographs of Sharaa disappeared. It was an early glimpse of the quiet tug-of-war between Syrians and their new rulers as they really feel out the boundaries of expression and texture of tradition within the post-Assad period.

Regardless of the uncertainty, Jarjour continues to be optimistic. He desires to increase the vineyard to widen its market inside Syria, after which begin exporting bottles someday, hoping for it to grow to be a worldwide model that represents his nation.