I had the luck on Saturday to get an introduction to an Englishman,
whom I shall call Joe, who lives in Istanbul
but who until two years ago had spent twelve years in Damascus. I took him to
the Grand Hotel de Londres and plied him with questions and beer and this is what I learnt.
Everyone hoped that Bashir would be a reformer, but there was
never any difference between his regime and his father’s. By the time the demonstrations started they were supported by almost everyone.
Joe said that his work had brought him into contact with
Syrians of every conceivable type and almost all, until he left two years ago, wanted the regime to go. Almost everyone was sympathetic to what the papers call the
moderate rebels.
The only partial exception are, he thought, the Christians, who fear what will happen to