Bashar al-Assad is “probably out of Syria” according to Turkish Foreign Minister

Scènes de liesse ce dimanche à Damas à l'annonce de la chute de Bachar al-Assad. EPA – ERDEM SAHIN

Les réactions et les commentaires se multiplient après la chute, ce dimanche, du président syrien. Ce dernier a quitté son pays.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Sunday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was likely outside Syria after Islamist rebels said he had fled the country.

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Assad is “probably outside Syria”, Fidan said at the Doha Forum, an international conference in Qatar. He was responding to a question about the Syrian leader's whereabouts and whether his life was in danger.

Five decades of Baath Party rule

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan also said the Syrian government had collapsed with the entry of Islamist rebels into Damascus, forcing President Bashar al-Assad to flee and ending five decades of Baath Party rule.

“The Assad regime has collapsed and the (power) in the country has changed hands,” Fidan told the Doha Forum. “Of course, this did not happen overnight. The country has been in turmoil for 13 years,” he added. Turkey is the main country supporting the offensive by Islamist rebels.

“A first great relief”

Another reaction, that of France, which “welcomes the fall of the regime of Bashar al-Assad” after “more than 13 years of a repression of great violence against its own people”, commented Sunday the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Christophe Lemoine.

Paris “calls on all Syrians to unity, reconciliation, and to reject any form extremism”, he continued in a statement. Same comments from Germany. “The end of Assad represents a first great relief for millions of people in Syria”, said the head of German diplomacy on Sunday, while warning against the arrival of other radicals in the country.

“The country must not now fall into the hands of other radicals, whatever form they take. We therefore call on the parties to assume their responsibilities towards all Syrians”, added Annalena Baerbock in a statement.