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Hama: The Syrian Holocaust

A searing reflection on the 1982 Hama Massacre, its legacy, and its impact on Syria’s modern revolutionary movement.

3rd Feb, 20249 mins
Dr. Zaher BaadaraniWriter

February 2nd—a dark day lost to the black box of Syrian history in 1982. 

There were no media, no social platforms, nor their champions to document what unfolded in Hama (Abu al-Fida) on that grim morning. 
Hafez al-Assad encircled the city, laying siege to punish his regime’s rebellious opponents. 

At the break of dawn, his artillery and sectarian militias tore through the sanctity of the city of prayer with brutality beyond what any human mind could imagine.

For 27 consecutive days, over 40,000 Syrians were killed in Hama. 
Those who survived the immediate massacre were subjected to the horrors of Assad's infamous prisons, pushing the number of detainees beyond 100,000 men and women, while the number of missing, unaccounted for in any statistics, exceeded 15,000 souls.

Assad's illusory “victory” transformed the city into a ghost town. 

The soil was leveled with its people—no tree, no human, no building survived. 
Even stones and places of worship were not spared: 63 mosques and 4 churches were destroyed. 
Thousands fled Hama during and after the siege in near-secret migrations, escaping Assad’s grip to protect their lives and the honor of their women. 

Those who remained in Syria lived under systematic repression—banned from employment, spied upon, and denied the most basic civil and military rights, including promotions and leadership positions.

The Outcome:

Hafez al-Assad believed he had secured Syria under his fist. 

But 29 years later, the blood of Hama’s martyrs blossomed into the Spring of a Popular Revolution that shook the foundations of his son’s inherited regime in 2011, placing Hama once again at the forefront.

Contextual Background:

Hama may have been crushed, but Assad couldn’t silence its famous norias. 

If you listen closely, their turning still echoes with the cries of the thousands thrown into or left on the banks of the Orontes River that day (ask Hassān ibn Thābit, the poet of witness).

 For 29 years, the norias continued watering Syrian soil with the river’s defiance—unyielding to every tyrant.

By 2011, Syrians understood the cost of rebelling against Assad would be immense—far greater than in 1982. 

In fact, part of the 2011 revolution was seen as repaying the debt of 1982, with added interest for 29 years of silence and fear following Hama’s horror.

One Syrian People:

From Communists to the Muslim Brotherhood, the Syrian people stood united against the sectarian Ba'ath regime. 

The trench of Sheikh Marwan Hadid was the same as that of Riyad al-Turk—both fighting Assad. 

Syria, once the first Arab democracy, resisted colonial rule only to fall victim to a series of foreign-backed coups that ultimately brought the Ba’ath Party to power. 

Once in charge, it split from its Iraqi twin under Saddam Hussein and began its chaotic path.

Hafez al-Assad used every trick to consolidate power and silence dissent.

Arab nationalists were accused of being loyal to Iraq, religious activists were labeled as Brotherhood affiliates, leftists as communists, and intellectuals as foreign agents. 
Hama became the regime's ultimate tool of collective punishment and individual intimidation, waving its massacre as a warning to the rest of Syria—from the south to Jisr al-Shughur in the north.

Hafez avenged himself against Syrians under the guise of punishing the opposition, just as his son Bashar would later avenge himself against the whole population after 2011, leaving over a million dead and displacing more than 15 million people, only to boast with his infamous quote: “Now the population has become more homogeneous.”

Post-Massacre Syrian Response:

History is filled with atrocities—some recorded, many not. 
From Muslim ibn Uqbah’s massacre in 6 to the Tatar slaughters, and finally to Hama. 

The difference today? 

The media Assad monopolized in 1982 is now in everyone’s hands. 
No mobile phone in Syria is without its role in exposing the truth—whether wielded by rebels or regime loyalists. 
Even state TV footage has become damning evidence, documenting Assad’s crimes from planning to execution.

When the Syrian revolution began, some reformers tried to prevent a full-blown catastrophe. 

But Syrians had learned the hard way—2011 was a point of no return.

Ignoring the crimes of the past would only allow new massacres like Hama to happen again.

Social media changed the Syrian consciousness—every Friday protest turned into a funeral, each martyr carried on the shoulders of next Friday’s protesters. 

The regime hoped the Hama playbook would work again, but Syrians responded with unprecedented defiance. 

A people of political and military inexperience managed to form a Free Syrian Army, then, when crushed with violence, they welcomed the wrath of jihadists, willing to die rather than coexist with a regime soaked in blood. 

It was either freedom or martyrdom alongside the victims of Hama.

Describing reality doesn’t mean approving of all its forms, nor endorsing bloodshed. 
But the imposed reality often overpowers principles. Still, Syrians broke the back of Assad’s intelligence empire, forcing him to call in extremist Shiite militias to defend him. 

That imported sectarianism rekindled memories of Umayyad-era grievances.

When even those militias faltered, the regime introduced ISIS, hoping it would fracture the opposition. 

But Syrians proved wiser, eventually besieging and destroying ISIS, driving it into the arms of Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki, who handed them Mosul, its weapons, and dreams in a staged game. Qassem Soleimani had no choice but to fly to Moscow, selling part of Syria to Putin, who had long been looking for a foothold in the Mediterranean after his ejection from Libya.

The Syrian resistance became armies, corps, and countless battalions that reached the gates of Damascus, threatening the presidential palace—until Russia intervened militarily in 2015, siding with Assad. You know the rest of the story...

Conclusion:

We Syrians can be lashed and blamed—we are human and deeply flawed. 
But we will never abandon our right to dignity.

We rose with words when they were stronger than bullets, then with arms when bullets became resistance. 

We stood firm with national unity when ISIS targeted our revolutionaries. 
And we will not relent until we reach a just, safe, and stable Syria.

Our homeland called, and we answered.

The norias of Hama turned the wheel of fate, and with our will, we replaced the so-called Eternal Leader with real heroes: Abdel Qader al-Saleh, Abu Furat, Abdel Baset al-Sarout, Mashaal Tammo, and many others.

Today, we stand at a great crossroads. 

We need greater awareness and vigilance. 

Our struggle remains long—to reorganize, to unite under a renewed revolutionary front. 

As we once wielded the word, and the gun, now we must wield insight, strategy, and wisdom—hoping this painful reality ends before more Syrian blood flows. 

Not just in Hama—but across all of Syria.

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