Interview with Riad al Turk, Syria's most prominent opposition figure

On Friday, July 29, 2011, journalist Mohamad Ali al Atassi interviewed Riad al Turk, whose story was published in Dar al Hayat, (meaning House of Life in Arabic) and subsequently translated to French by Sham Al Mallah of the Babelmed website. Al Turk has been referred to as the 'Mandela of Syria', and yet, nothing in the Western Press has been written about him or his views on the Syrian uprising, nor about his 17-year sentence behind bars. While revolution in Syria appears to be quite real, it must be bittersweet for al Turk, as he had fought long and hard for citizens' rights. It took al Atassi quite a bit of digging around to locate al Turk, as he hints in his prologue that the man was literally 'underground'. To gain a better understanding of what is going on in Syria, al Turk's remarks to al Atassi's questions have been translated to English.

translated by Aimee Kligman

Al- Atassi: In your January 17, 2000 interview which was published in "Al Hayat" a few months before President Hafez al-Assad’s death, which was your first interview after your release, you said: ‘Silence is the only thing left for Syrian society to express its existence and its refusal of the status quo. Thus, silence is taken here as a position, but it cannot last indefinitely, and society must, with its vital force, produce new forms of expression under the register of declarations, public statements and actions’ . Now, four months after the start of the protests in Syria, many activists blame you for your silence. What is the reason for your silence to the media? Should we be seeingit as a position?

Al-Turk: My silence is largely due to my desire to see people exercising their rights. Now the street has spoken. The young revolutionaries have spoken. Those who have created the events have spoken. It is now the people who have emerged from their silence today, and undermined the walls of the kingdom of silence. Of course, what I am saying here does not mean that we, politicians, have to be silent and shirk our duty to support the Syrian revolution.

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