Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that the damage caused by the "13-year massacre policy in Syria" exceeds $500 billion.

After 13 years of killing, torture and displacement, the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria (2000-2024) fell. The Syrians breathed a sigh of relief, having obtained a right that many thought was unattainable, as they ended 61 years of rule by the Baath Party regime and 53 years of rule by the Assad family.

While diplomats in Beirut were talking, the opposition in Syria was planning. A year before that meeting, figures in the Islamist opposition group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in northwestern Syria sent a message to the opposition in the south: “Get ready.”

Syrian cities and provinces are falling one after the other into the hands of the armed opposition factions advancing from the north. After completing their control since November 27, 2024 over Idlib and its countryside, Aleppo and its countryside, followed by the city of Hama and its surroundings on Thursday, the opposition forces, or what is known as the “Joint Operations Administration,” are now on the outskirts of the city of Homs, the largest Syrian province.

The leader of the Syrian opposition alliance, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, said that the goal of the recent moves in Syria and the capture of one major city after another from the grip of Bashar al-Assad's regime is ultimately to overthrow the authoritarian president.

The Ministry of Civil Service and Insurance announced today, Thursday, that next Monday is an official holiday on the occasion of the 61st anniversary of the glorious October 14 Revolution.