Initially a small protest in Damascus, the first anniversary of the Syrian revolution in mid-March approaches. It has become evident, even among government officials and supporters, that the regime’s response to the early demonstrations in Damascus and Daraa is the most significant factor behind the transformation of the popular movement from a small-scale protest with limited demands to a large-scale revolution aiming to eradicate the regime in its entirety.
At the outset, the regime had ignored the popular movement but later it denied it and even attributed it to a terrorist movement with connections to radical Salafism and Al-Qaeda. Ultimately, the regime labeled it an Arab and international conspiracy. Unchanging, however, has been the regime’s policy of brutal repression against demonstrators in order to defeat and demoralize the people. While reformative steps have been suggested and taken, these have been minute, superficial, slow, and lagging far behind the people's demands. These concessive measures shrivel and shrink in comparison to the magnitude of repression and brutality.