Former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad owned several garages full of luxury cars.
I’m standing in one of them, on the compound of the presidential palace.
Aston Martins, Lamborghinis and Ferraris line the parking lot and, outside this carpark, there are more parking lots filled with dozens and dozens of armored cars.
The cars show the deep, deep corruption of the Assad regime, which is a big part of why this uprising started in the first place in 2011.
Assad ruled for quite some years, his father for decades before. The cars symbolize the levels of corruption and greed, they show the opulence and the lavish lifestyle Assad lives while so many Syrians were struggling to put food on the table.
The past 14 years Syrians have been under bombardment, they’ve been tortured, maimed, kidnapped, killed and meanwhile… Assad lived like a king with garages full of cars. With palaces, with incredible mosaics and marble.
We watched in the palace some ordinary people who managed to sneak in with their jaws dropped. They could not believe how he was living like this at a time when Syria was suffering so acutely.
So, this really is a metaphor for the root of the rot, for where it all started.
While many are celebrating the end of the Assad regime, Syrians are also anxious about who will control the country. The Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group is at pains to show that they are different from the old guard, refusing to use or touch the luxury vehicles to show their difference from Assad.
But, the rebels who were guarding the palace wouldn’t look at me or talk to me until I put my headscarf on, so there are still extremely conservative tendencies from the majority of rebel forces who are controlling this country.