Over a hundred Syrian intellectuals have established the Syrian Writers' Association, saying that the independent group will be open to all writers from Syria, and will also allow Arab and non-Arab writers who support the Syrian people’s revolution against the Assad regime to become members.
According to Nouri Jarrah, a Syrian writer based in London, this association is the first democratic outcome of the Syrian revolution. Jarrah said that establishing the group took two months of discussion between prominent Syrian writers and thinkers who reside outside Syria, such as Hossam Al-Din Khaldoun, Saddiq Jallal Al-Azm and Faraj Bayriqdar.
"The association will give the Syrian writer an opportunity to express their opinions powerfully, revealing to the world what is really happening in their country. It also will help make writers effective in supporting the revolution inside Syria, and will give them the chance to restore the intellectual’s role in society,” he explained.
Jarrah stressed that the establishment of the association comes as an expression of its members' participation in the revolution, which has been ongoing for the last 11 months. The association expresses their need for a democratic and independent framework that speaks to the new reality in Syria, which is being born now in the "streets of freedom."
Meanwhile, the official Syrian Writers Union has declared its support for Assad's regime.
Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad has been facing widespread protests since March last year, with demands that he leave power. Around 6,000 people have been killed by the Syrian security forces since the beginning of the uprising, but official sources accuses foreign powers of financing terrorists to do the killings.
Fifty Egyptian writers have requested to join the new Syrian association as an expression of their solidarity with the Syrian people, among them Bahaa Taher, Radwa Ashour and Abderrahman Al-Abnoudy.
Around a hundred Palestinian writers also announced their solidarity with the revolution and issued a statement requesting to join to the new association, including such prominent Palestinian figures as Azmy Bishara and the poet Mourid Al-Barghouthi.
Short link: