[Damascus] Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has issued a decree revising the schedule of official holidays, including one that commemorates the anniversary of the October War between Syria and Israel, observed on Oct. 6. The move has stirred controversy both within Syria and abroad.
The decree cancels the official commemoration of the 1973 October War, which the former regime had long portrayed as a “symbol of Arab victory.”
Under the new directive, both the October War anniversary and Martyrs’ Day on May 6—marking the 1916 execution of Arab intellectuals and activists by Ottoman authorities—are removed from the list of national holidays.
In contrast, the decree adds two new holidays. March 18 will commemorate the outbreak of the Syrian revolution in 2011, and December 8 will mark the fall of Bashar Assad’s regime and the takeover of Damascus by opposition forces in 2024.
However, the decree omits holidays including Nowruz and Akitu that reflect ethnic or cultural traditions. In response, Kurdish and Assyrian organizations have criticized the directive.
For many Syrians, the October War remains one of the most ambiguous episodes in modern history. While the Ba’athist regime for decades proclaimed it as a “glorious victory,” opposition figures and historians consider it a political bargain between Hafez Assad and Israel, one that ended in an abrupt ceasefire and the consolidation of Israel’s occupation of the Golan Heights.
A Syrian activist wrote on X: “Hafez al-Assad didn’t liberate a single inch of the Golan. He sold the war behind closed doors and turned it into a hollow national myth to glorify himself.”
Give the gift of hope
We practice what we preach:
accurate, fearless journalism. But we can't do it alone.
- On the ground in Gaza, Syria, Israel, Egypt, Pakistan, and more
- Our program trained more than 100 journalists
- Calling out fake news and reporting real facts
- On the ground in Gaza, Syria, Israel, Egypt, Pakistan, and more
- Our program trained more than 100 journalists
- Calling out fake news and reporting real facts
Join us.
Support The Media Line. Save democracy.
Some analysts believe that abolishing the October War commemoration marks the closure of a chapter of collective delusion and the beginning of a new national narrative based on the people’s revolution rather than the regime’s “heroic myths.”
The decision has sharply divided social media users. Supporters hailed it as a symbolic step toward “liberating Syrian memory from Ba’athist propaganda,” while critics said it erases parts of national history, however controversial they may be.
Writer Rana Kabbani told The Media Line in a brief comment: “The era of Ba’athist war pageantry is over.”
Others argued that “history cannot be erased by decree,” emphasizing that Syrians require an honest national dialogue about the past, rather than a rewriting of it through political decisions.
The decree also reignited debate over the true date of the outbreak of the Syrian revolution. While the government designated March 18 as the official date, others insist it began on March 15, when the first protests erupted in Damascus, Daraa and Homs.
Activists have called for recognizing the period from March 15 to 18 as a national commemoration of the revolution, honoring all cities that participated in its inception.
In Egypt, some media figures condemned the removal of the October War holiday as an “erasure of Arab solidarity,” while others argued that the war was “essentially an Egyptian victory,” with Syria playing “a political rather than a military role” in the conflict.
However, the decree omits holidays celebrated by ethnic and cultural groups, including Nowruz and Akitu, prompting criticism from Kurdish and Assyrian organizations.
Observers note that President al-Sharaa’s decree is more than an administrative reordering of public holidays; it is a political act intended to redefine Syria’s national symbols.
While some view the removal of the October War as the “end of the Ba’athist myth,” others see it as the start of a new phase in rewriting history to reflect the political transformation taking place in the country.
The question remains: Can Syria build a unified future while its national memory is still divided between a doubtful victory and an unfinished revolution?