77th Anniversary of Evacuation Day

Damascus, (ST) – 77 years have passed since the evacuation of the last occupying French soldier from Syria. The Syrians are looking forward to expelling the remaining remnants of terrorism and its supporters and ridding the country of terrorists’ practices and crimes.

The French colonialism wanted to occupay Syria to plunder its resources and control the fate of its people, but from the first moments of the entry of the French occupation troops to the Syrian coast in 1918, the revolutionaries, led by Sheikh Saleh Al-Ali, started their resistance that later on led to independence.

As in every ordeal afflicting the country, national unity among tge Syrians was manifested in its best form, as this danger mobilized the Syrians efforts across the homeland, including in the coastal region, the north, Houran, Jabal Al-Arab, Damascus, Homs, the eastern region, and other areas to resist the French occupation which sought to sow discord, division among the people of the country.

Since the French occupation forces began to deploy along the Syrian coast in November 1918, Sheikh Saleh Al-Ali and his revolutionary comrades started their fight against the occupation forces.

Sheikh Saleh’s revolution occured in the mountains of the coastal region and lasted for about four years until July of 1922. Its most honorable battles were in the village of Salma, the village of Tirah, Sheikh Badr, Wadi Al-Warwar, Baidar Ghannam, where Al-Murayqab Castle was liberated on July 21, 1919 from the French occupation.

 Battle of Talkalakh

The people of the town of Talkalakh, with the help of some revolutionaries who came from Homs, attacked the French police station on December 13, 1919,and were able to kill and wound a large number of the occupation forces.

Mayslon battle

The Syrians united their efforts to write the epic of independence, and the Battle of Mayslon wrote its first chapter, and the revolutionaries, led by Sheikh Saleh Al-Ali, Ibrahim Hanano, Hassan Al-Kharrat, Muhammad Al-Ayyash and Sultan Pasha Al-Atrash wrote the rest of its chapters.

In Mayslon battle, the hero Youssef Al-Azma established the importance of the army, as he insisted that most of the fighters in the battle must be army personnel.

The Great Syrian Revolution

The hero of the great Syrian Revolution is Sultan Pasha Al-Atrash who announced it in July 1925 and who alongside his revolutionary companions, liberated the city of Salkhad and burned the French occupation commission in this city in early September of 1925.

In Damascus and its Ghouta, Hassan Al-Kharrat led his men in night raids on the places of gathering and deployment of the French occupation forces in the neighborhoods of Al-Shaghour, Sarouja market and Al-Jazmatiya, and destroyed many of their headquarters, and killed a number of them. The heroes also took control of the headquarters of the French High Commissioner in the Azem Palace in Damascus.

There are many of battles of honor and heroism that the Syrians wrote with the blood of martyrs to expel the French occupier, and which achieved independence on the 17th of April 1946. These battles will remain a solid base that supports the national struggle for liberation from colonialism in all its forms. They will also remain a starting point for the struggle to build a strong homeland, after cleansing the country of last terrorist, and liberating the occupied Syrian Golan from the Israeli occupation entity.

 Raghda Sawas