Omar Aziz told his friends:

“If the revolution fails, my life and that of my whole generation would be devoid of meaning…
all that we have dreamt of and believed in would have been mere illusion.”

He passed away before seeing the triumph of the revolution and reaping the fruits of his majestic work. Syrians who are still alive owe Omar Aziz and the tens of thousands of Syrian martyrs a massive debt. It is a debt that cannot be paid with tears and moving tributes. Nothing less than fighting like hell for a free Syria would suffice.

The regime has fallen. Assad is gone. This is an important victory for all revolutionaries, but especially for Syrian revolutionaries.

More than 13 years have past since those protests that shook Syria in 2011, when the first cracks of the regime started to show. The regime tried to cover those cracks with bullets and barrel bombs. It didn’t know that ideas are bulletproof. Today those cracks are wide open. Today those cracks brought down the walls of the regime prisons. Today we witness a new Syria.

This should be a time of joy, of celebration. But it is also a time of action. We can’t stop now. We need to go further. Authoritarian forces are already climbing the ladders of power, aiming to crown themselves as the new rulers. The revolution is not over. This is just the beginning. A new beginning.

A new beginning also needs a new road map, a new direction to continue moving forward. We want to move forward together. For that, we first need to find each other, to recognize each other, to orient each other in these new coordinates. Brother, sister, friend, comrade! Let’s march together!

Difficult is the path ahead of us, but today let’s celebrate our victories. And let’s do it in the memory of those who can not celebrate with us, because it is also thanks to their sacrifice, thanks to their struggle, that we are here today.

This is a call, a call to remember, a call to struggle. Omar Aziz has been an inspiration for many of us, and his legacy is alive.

This February 16^th, on the 12 anniversary of his death from the brutal prisons of the regime, let’s celebrate life and let’s celebrate revolution. And let’s fight. Because nothing less than a fight like hell for Syria will suffice!