“The chair is for you, the coffins for our children”. “The Assads lie in beds while our children lie in coffins”. These were some the cries directed at the regime in the coastal regions of Tartus, Latakia, Homs and Hama in one of the latest campaigns launched by a group of activists named The Cry.

“The Cry is not a campaign, but a working group”, activist Emma Suleiman explained to SyriaUntold. It focuses on resistance against tyranny in areas inhabited by an Alawite majority that has come to be strongly associated with the regime. Their work started with a facebook page named “The Cry” and has included distribution of leaflets in strategic areas with messages such as “Even the sea is tired and want you to stop killing”, and “My son wants to be married alive, not dead”. This last slogan came in response to announcements by state-owned media presenting those killed in fighting within the Syrian army as “grooms heading to their wedding”. 

Activists aim to raise awareness about the high price paid by those affiliated by the regime as well. According to the group’s sources, over 330.000 members of the Syrian army’s ranks have been killed since mid-2011, 40.000 of them belonging to the Republican Guard and Special Forces, the majority of them from the coastal regions. There are about 130.000 crippled or disabled. About 3.000 officers and 4.500 officers cadets remain detained in several branches of the regime security services. In addition to those numbers, 138.000 soldiers are said to have been retained for fear that they may desert, and 189.000 are being sought for having deserted or not reporting for military duty. 

“We’ll see who remains, the cry of the people or the party’s headquarters”, was one of the messages distributed by the group in the surroundings of the headquarters of the Baath party, in a clear challenge to the ruling family. To leave no question about their presence in areas under regime control, activists photographed themselves, their faces covered, next to huge banners showing the face of the dictator, ubiquitous in Syrian public spaces for decades.

The campaign was very much appreciated by activists from other areas, such as Idlib and Aleppo, who welcomed the voice of the coast. The logo of the group, featuring the map of Syria and a young man screaming inside it, was shared throughout several towns, where  “No to the killing” and “No to sectarianism” slogans were chanted. The cries reached Washington D.C., where activists gathered in front of the White House in solidarity.

The campaigns were impregnated with artistic manifestations such as a canvas representing the map of Syria as a long road of coffins leading to the coast. Another painting shows an open coffin with the message “The chair is for you, the coffins for our children.”

The group’s activities, funded by the Syrian Relief Group, have been criticized for taking a sectarian approach, despite being well-intentioned. By highlighting Alawites as belonging to a particular group instead of as being, first and foremost, Syrian, it contributes to a sectarian discourse, a common mistake repeatedly made by opposition groups. According to the group’s critics, avoiding sectarian approaches and highlighting the need for a civil state instead is crucial in the Syrian context, increasingly viewed as a civil war. Some answered to this criticism by stating that sectarian issues in the country are so obvious that they can’t be ignored, and only by delving into them they can be tackled in order to stop the blood bath. 

Activists from other groups, such as the Bees of the Coast, have deemed The Cry’s activities as irrelevant, complaining about the lack of coordination with other groups in order to increase their impact. However, in the words of Suleiman, “we have to function in very specific ways, due to the huge presence of security and repression against any form of dissidence in our areas.”

“We have a clear working strategy, and these campaigns are but just one spark”, Suleiman adds. “Just like the one that started an uprising in Daraa that spread to the rest of the country, we need this spark to spread in order to be released from the tyranny of the Assad family.”