Syria’s de facto leader declares himself president, abolishes constitution

35 comments

1. Shocker

2. Didn’t see that one coming, I’m as horrified now as I was by the ending of The Titanic when I saw it in theatres.

3. I mean why would they stick with the Assad constitution any way

4. As expected. Even if there were elections held today (which is logistically impossible), he still would’ve scored a crushing victory. What’s more important to focus on is how he moves forward with the national conference and the legislative council. Even as a secular Syrian, I would say that things look optimistic so far and great pragmatism has been shown, especially when it comes to moving towards a positive relation with the western camp.

5. Before anyone has a conniption, please understand that Syria is not equipped to have an election and the constitution is Assad’s.

   The new guy basically has to rewrite their old constitution after decades of dictatorship.

   This does not mean the new guy is going to be good, it’s just that this is entirely expected when rebel groups overthrow a dictator. The jury is still out on what post-Assad Syria will be like.

   Any parallels with certain Western countries are entirely superficial.

6. Historically, around 80-90% of the time when a new leader does this then they eventually become president for life.

7. Horribly misleading headline. There is no other viable leader right now and Assad’s constitution needs to be abolished anyway. Judge this guy in 3-5 years, not now.

8. What a weird take from the *Post*, that comes across as disapproving.

   What course should a country emerging out of long-term war, destruction, and despotism take, except something like this one?

9. Oh no! /s

   Making a new constitution after a revolutions isn’t really odd, and to do that you abolish the old one.

10. > An interim government led by Mohammed al-Bashir, the former head of the rebel administration in the north-west, has been tasked with running the country until March.

    Does anyone know what is supposed to happen in March? A new constitution and elections will take much longer to draft and organize. Is there supposed to be a new appointed government that is less HTS-dominated?

11. By and large, ordinary Syrians only know dictatorship under Assad dynasty. The new leader will have to rebuild pretty much everything from scratch and only time will tell if Syria can successfully transition from dictatorship to functioning democracy or fall into religious theocracy.

12. I’m not sure ripping up the constitution of a dictatorship is a bad thing

13. Man Washington Post went from one of the best journalistic outfits on Earth to… this.

    Sad to see.

14. And? Why would they stick with the Assad era constitution?

15. They were going to need a new non-Assad constitution anyways. All that’s left is to see if this guy will become nothing more than the *next* Assad.

16. r/Syria is a great sub Reddit I’ve joined and most seem optimistic and hopeful about what’s going on.

17. Pretty sure this is terminating the old constitution from the Assad era while they put together a new one. This was expected, wasn’t it?

18. The framing of this headline is sus as fuck.

19. This is not all that unexpected. He now has an official position instead of ambiguous “leader”. And they’re planning on making a new constitution anyway, with a committee already formed and some sort of formal meeting planned in March. It makes sense that abolishing the old constitution would happen before the creation of a new constitution.

20. This is a poorly worded headline. What isn’t said is that a new constitution is being drafted.

21. Did Assad write this headline lmao

22. If you want an excuse to get drunk read the history of the Bath party and take a shot every time they change the constitution to serve their needs. The old constitution was meaningless, it served the dictator not the other way around.

23. Good. The constitution needs to be abolished. You cannot seriously expect the constitution of a 50+ year old brutal regime to remain. Also, the de facto leader needs to rule until Syria is actually stable and secure. It is only after that should elections be held. The US held their first election 12 YEARS after their independence. Syria has been free for 2 months. You can’t seriously expect them to have elections immediately.

24. He looks like the stereotypical movie bad guy… But he could actually be a good guy.. Just have to wait and see. 

25. they have to write a new one. they had a dictator family ruling them for 60 years. this headline is just bad journalism

26. It’s the Assad constitution he is abolishing, read the fucking article for fucks sake.

27. So how long until this guy get depose and it’s extrimist faction takes over?

28. Doubt they would have kept Assad’s constitution, the legal documents they have relied on will probably have to be upended after the decades of Assad rule.

29. In my experience, this sort of thing goes great, every time.

30. If this guy installs himself as dictator for life and only imprisons 10% of the country he’d still be better than Assad.

31. To funny wait until the money stops flowing from the US via the NGOs the agencies have used this a slush fund to overthrow governments & keep the proxy’s happy with bribes for the last 50 years.

    Me thinks without the cash, he’s one step away from announcing the Calphiate he & his Jihadi gangsters have always wanted.

32. Where is Elon?

33. Shit, that makes two dude doing this in two weeks. Crazy month for Earth overall.

34. Well that didn’t take as long as I expected. Record time as far as dictatorships go. Too bad the USA has those three branches of government and this thorn in the orange felon and rapist in chiefs’s side called a democracy.

35. Meet the new boss he’s a lot like the old boss

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