The Mezzeh 86 neighborhood in Damascus witnessed a demonstration on Tuesday evening, June 16, that began near the area amid tensions that required security intervention.
Participants in the demonstration demanded the removal of those they described as “shabiha and remnants of the former regime” from the neighborhood, before the gathering became concentrated at one of its main entrances.
The gathering began gradually around the area before moving toward the neighborhood entrance, where participants raised slogans calling for accountability, the removal of those involved in violations, and preventing them from staying in or returning to the area.
As the mobilization developed, tension spread at the site, prompting Public Security forces to intervene quickly, disperse the gathering, and prevent it from extending inside the neighborhood, amid a security deployment at several main points and entrances to Mezzeh 86.
Calls to Close Shops and Stay Home
Local sources told Enab Baladi that the demonstration, which began with slogans focused on the demand to remove figures linked to the former regime, later witnessed the use of some sectarian phrases, reflecting the sensitivity of the area’s demographic makeup, which includes a mixed social composition with a larger presence of the Alawite sect.
According to three testimonies from neighborhood residents who spoke to Enab Baladi, the gathering began near the area before reaching the “School” checkpoint on the neighborhood’s outskirts.
Security forces prevented groups of demonstrators from entering or leaving, while security personnel deployed inside the main alleys.
Residents added that the security forces present at the site asked people to close their shops and return to their homes.
The atmosphere remained tense for several hours before gradually calming.
According to residents, the situation in the neighborhood returned to normal by the morning, as people resumed their daily activities as usual, including going to work and exams, with no further security developments recorded.
A Broader Protest Context
The incident comes within the context of scattered mobilizations witnessed in some areas over recent days, carrying similar demands related to accountability and transitional justice, amid growing debate over the limits of these demands and the mechanisms for implementing them outside official judicial frameworks.
Syrian cities witnessed protest actions, including demonstrations and sit-ins, that raised slogans demanding accountability for those participants described as “shabiha and remnants of the former regime,” alongside calls to remove them from some areas.
The mobilizations expanded into a wave of protests extending from Aleppo to Idlib, rural Damascus, Raqqa, and Deir Ezzor, as the issue of transitional justice and holding those involved in violations during the years of war returned once again to the forefront of debate.
The demands included calls to hold those described as “shabiha” accountable, remove them from the areas where they live, and prevent them from returning to them, in addition to holding accountable everyone who supported the former regime or dealt with it during the years of conflict.
The demands also included calls to isolate members of the former regime from the army and security agencies, and to prevent them from rejoining or being appointed again in these institutions.
Demonstrators also called for preventing the political rehabilitation of figures linked to the former regime, imposing greater transparency in anti-corruption files, and ending favoritism, alongside what they described as fighting “traitors.”