Abdel Hamid Al-Atassi, A Veteran Syrian Dissident Who Has Been Deprived of His Country for 40 years

Syrian dissident Abdel Hamid Al-Atassi died in the French capital, Paris, on July 14, 2021, at the age of 89, after years he was deprived of returning to his country.

The General Secretariat of the Damascus Declaration for National Democratic Change mourned the veteran Syrian dissident leader Abdel Hamid Al-Atassi, who is considered a member of it, and a former member of the General Secretariat of the Syrian National Council.

 

A Political Activist

Abdel Hamid Kamal Al-Atassi was born in Bab Hood neighborhood in the Syrian city of Homs in 1932, and studied there, then he studied at the Jesuit school in Beirut, then he moved to France, he joined the Faculty of Engineering at one of the most prestigious universities in France, the Ecole Centrale in Paris, in the fifties of the last century.

There, Al-Atassi had a remarkable political activity in support of the “Algerian Revolution”, which was suffering under the brunt of French colonialism, because of his anti-colonial activity, he was expelled from the university.

Al-Atassi was forced to complete his education in Czechoslovakia, he graduated as a “civil engineer” from the Higher Institute of Technology at the University of Prague in 1963, then he returned to Syria and worked in the Euphrates Dam as an engineer.

 

 

Abdel Hamid Al-Atassi was one of those who carried the torch of freedom since his early youth, as a struggler in the ranks of the Syrian Communist Party, according to the condolence statement issued by the “General Secretariat of the Damascus Declaration”.

The statement added that Al-Atassi was forced in 1976 to leave Syria because of his opposition to the Regime of Hafez al-Assad, he did not return to it, and here he is leaving after spending more than four decades deprived of visiting his country.

The statement added that the deceased spent the greater part of his life struggling for a democratic life in his country, he was a member of the Central Committee of the People's Democratic Party, then he was a member of the Damascus Declaration for National Democratic Change in the Expatriate Secretariat, and a member of its National Council in the Diaspora.

 

 Member of the 2011 Revolution

After the start of the Syrian revolution in March 2011, and when the Syrian National Council was formed in September 2011 in Istanbul, to be the official representative of the Syrians in place of the Bashar al-Assad Regime, “Abdel Hamid Al-Atassi” was chosen as a member of it, and in the first session of the Council on October 16-17, he was elected as a member of its General Secretariat.

In an interview with “France 24” in 2011, Abdel Hamid Al-Atassi confirmed his rejection of any foreign military intervention in Syria, he called for the intervention of the International Court and human rights organizations to put pressure on the Syrian Regime to accept a “political solution”, and the trial of Bashar al-Assad and all criminals.

His daughter, the liberal activist Lama Abdel Hamid Al-Atassi, participated as a speaker of Syrian women in the Syrian opposition conference in Antalya in May 2011, she also later held several positions in the Syrian opposition platforms, among them: Head of the Syrian Front and former spokesperson for the Free Syrian Army.

The late Syrian dissident dreamed of change in his country, which he wanted as a “beacon of freedoms, construction and creativity”, but the authoritarian Regime and regional and international balances prevented it from seeing this dream, despite the “enormous sacrifices” made by the Syrian people over the past 6 decades, the most tragic and costly of them was what Syria witnessed in the last decade at the hands of the Bashar al-Assad Regime and its Iranian and Russian allies.

Veteran Struggler

In her father's condolence, Lama Al-Atassi wrote on her Facebook page: “With great sadness and pain, I mourn to you my dear father Abdel Hamid Al-Atassi, Abu Kamal, who left this world a while ago, we belong to God and to Him we shall return”.

Syrian dissident writers, politicians and activists also mourned the Syrian dissident, among them is the writer Mowaffaq Nayrabia, who said, "The engineer Abdel Hamid Al-Atassi has passed away, who is considered one of the builders of the Euphrates Dam, he was an eternal fighter for freedom, until he was deprived of his country for more than 40 years!”.

Commenting on the death of Al-Atassi, the former head of the Syrian National Coalition, George Sabra, said: “After a lifetime of struggle and sacrifice, the soul of comrade Abdel Hamid Al-Atassi reached Sidrat al-Muntaha, a candle has been extinguished from the flame of freedom, dignity and justice for the sake of Syria”.

He was also mourned by his companion, the Syrian writer and historian, Farouk Mardam Bey, he said: “Farewell to Abdel Hamid Al-Atassi, Abu Kamal, the honest friend for more than 45 years, the prestigious fighter for the freedom and dignity of the Syrian people”.