Mass demonstration in Vienna: Thousands celebrate the fall of Assad!

Mass demonstration in Vienna: Thousands celebrate the fall of Assad!

In Vienna on Sunday, several thousand Syrians and their supporters took over the streets of the city center in a large demonstration to celebrate the overthrow of the Assad regime in Syria. The activists waved Syrian flags that read “Free Syria” and expressed their joy near the Vienna State Opera. The incident was organized by the “Free Syrian Community in Austria in Solidarity with the Syrian Revolution,” which recalled the right of displaced people to return to their liberated villages. The police initially estimated the number of participants at around 3,000, while the FPÖ spoke of over 12,000 people who had joined the movement, which posed a major challenge for the emergency services, according to FPÖ security spokesman Hannes Amesbauer.

Incident and security situation

The scale of the demonstration led to huge disruptions to public transport, as the ring tram lines had to be rerouted and the Wiener Linien recommended passengers to use the subway. It was reported that despite the peaceful mood, there were some joyful shots fired with blank guns, which the FPÖ described as “chaos”. These incidents created a tense atmosphere in the city as demonstrators loudly voiced their protest against the Assad regime.

The Austrian Foreign Ministry expressed concern about developments in Syria and called for an “orderly and peaceful transition process” towards a stable political order, as set out in UN Security Council Resolution 2254. The ministry statement made it clear that violence and displacement should not be tolerated and that the protection of ethnic and religious minorities was of paramount importance. (more on this on Krone.at and SN.at )