syria

The Clock Tower Massacre in Homs was one amongst many that sparked the Syrian revolution 2 years ago.
It all started after a meeting between Bashar Al-Asad and some mosques imams, the later took turns delivering speeches after Friday prayer, asking residents of Homs not to escalate any issues. However, youth were inspired by the vibrant protests that had taken over the Arab World and toppled rulers in Egypt and Tunisia, so they decided that whatever they would do from then onwards would be to support and strengthen the revolution..
On the following day Bashar gave his first speech, later on and in less than 24 hours, 4 people in Talbisa and 8 in Bab Sba’ got killed.

Monday, 4/18/2011 Is one of the days that can't be forgotten. Homs has never witnessed a day like this before.
The funerals of the eight martyrs were to start from Al Jame’e Al Kabeer mosque in Homs. Everyone was stunned by the massive number of people and how tons were arriving to the area by each passing minute. The mosque and nearby streets were then filled with demonstrators.

Revolutionaries prayed around 12:00 pm and headed to the the Cemetery of El kateeb where all the bodies buried peacefully. However, things got worse when all chanted with the downfall of the regime. This regime that does not know how to react to anything but with violence and brutality, thus they caused many injuries and made arrests from this neighborhood.

Later on the same day, people decided to head to the Clock Square in Homs. None of us knew that this day will be a remarkable day in the history of the Syrian revolution. The city stood against the regime and closed all of it shops and markets. Freedom is like a magnet; it attracts the people that have been silenced for too long, oppressed by dictatorships and authoritarianism… The chance is now available to speak up about the duty, to scream in the face of the suppressor. There was a complete absence of police and thugs. None dared to face revolutionaries.

The tents were built, and the largest one was to receive in things brought by residents. All residents of Homs without exception, participated in that day and decided to break barriers of fear ... Young men organized the sit-ins and formed groups to provide food, drink to protesters, while others were securing the area.

Couple of hours later, thugs attacked the protestors killing and injuring many, in a massacre that well known as the Clock Tower Massacre. Fire trucks were washing blood off street while police was burring in mass graves.

The grief was witnessed by the families searching for their sons and not knowing their outcome. There were some who knew and considered their sons martyrs, while there were others who couldn’t even bring themselves to even ask about their sons, fearing for their arrest and detainment.

Until this moment, and after the passing of one year from the sit-in, the fate of a large number of the youths remains unknown.

From that moment the clock has become a symbol of freedom in Syria, because it continuously represents the coming victory for the revolutionaries, providing them with a small image of the paradise that they are striving for, and they have all become certain that it is worth it.

Homs declared three days of mourning in honor of those martyrs.

Homs; the capital city of the Syrian revolution, has immortalized martyrs memory forever, yet going through one massacre after another.

We will come back one day, O Freedom Square
Eyewitness: Tarek El Sayed