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Syria's New Assad Statues Send a Sinister Message
(Atlantic) Sam Dagher - In March, the Syrian regime organized a celebration in the main square of the southern city of Daraa to unveil a new bronze sculpture of Bashar al-Assad's father, Hafez. The new statue replaced one torn down by an angry crowd in March 2011 in the place where the civil war began. Hafez's statue was returned to Homs in August 2018 and to the eastern city of Deir Ezzor in October. There are no statues yet of Bashar, but billboards of his face along with defiant slogans are plastered everywhere in Syria. Bringing back the statues and the billboards is the Assads' way of telling once-rebellious communities that any further resistance is futile.