We were so afraid Assad would respond positively to Erdoğan's call

We continue to follow the traces of the great revolution that untied the great knot of 14 years in Syria in 12 days, on Syrian soil, in Aleppo, Hama, Homs and Damascus.

I think the last time I came to Damascus was 14 years ago. I found a significant part of the streets of Damascus, which I used to go out and wander in the middle of the night, unchanged. In any case, in the parts of Damascus that were not destroyed by bombardment, there has been no proper construction for the last 15 years either. New buildings have not been built, and the old ones have not been much renovated.

The shrine of Abu al-Darda, one of the Companions

THE DEAD EARTH OVER SYRIA'S HISTORY AND CITIES IS BEING LIFTED

In every street of Aleppo and of Damascus you can see all the traces of Umayyad, Abbasid, Ayyubid, Seljuk and Ottoman history. That these most important centers of Islamic civilization were under chains for 61 years is, first of all, a great misfortune for the Islamic world. It is one of the probable reasons why the Islamic world today cannot speak enough with its own history, cities and culture and cannot express itself. Its history too was captive, closed to people's access.

While historical-cultural heritage was being flourished, discovered and presented to the attention of humanity in every part of the world, a pall of dead earth had been spread over the Islamic history lying beneath every stone of Damascus. Had there been a proper government, an administration that treated its people as human beings, today Damascus and Aleppo would reveal on the world stage the richest dimensions of Islamic civilization. The Hamidiyeh Market is in itself a world trade center and a civilizational environment.

The architecture of the Umayyad Mosque carries principles from Roman architecture and structure. Inside it is the tomb or station of the Prophet Yahya, and right next to the mosque the tomb of Saladin al-Ayyubi. At one point of the Hamidiyeh Market, through which you pass to come to the mosque, are the tombs of Nureddin Zengi, also known as the 6th Rightly Guided Caliph (even though he was not a Caliph, if Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz is counted as the 5th), and of Abu al-Darda, one of the Companions; these are only a few of those you meet first as you proceed along the main routes of the Mosque.

At the Hejaz Railway Station of Abdulhamid II and at the Suleymaniye Complex, where the cemetery of the last-generation princes of the Ottoman dynasty or the daughters of the Sultans is located, the last Sultan Vahdettin also lies. Ibn Arabi, Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn Kathir also await their visitors in the cemeteries in Damascus. The liberation of Damascus will undoubtedly also bring with it the shaking off of the dead earth that has settled over this history.

Syria ceased to be Ottoman land in September and October of 1918, but before that the presence of the Seljuks and the Ottomans here was no less than in the most important cities of Anatolia. Therefore, wherever you scratch you can find traces of the Ottomans, and you may hear that the grandmother or grandfather of any person you meet was an Ottoman officer or official. Although this is so for Egypt, Iraq and Jordan too, it applies a little more to Syria. Now, because of the 6 million Syrians whose path has in some way passed through Turkey over 14 years, the process of the cultural return of Ottoman culture to these lands has come quite far. Let me just say that a beggar who cut off our car spoke to us in Turkish as he begged. We asked; after living in Turkey for years, he had returned to the Azaz side a few years ago, and now he begs in Damascus.

We recited the Fatiha for the soul of Sultan Vahdeddin

DAMASCUS AND ALEPPO IN THE COMMUNITY OF WORLD CITIES

The number of starred hotels in Damascus where foreigners can stay does not exceed 5-6 in total. This hotel capacity has never been a problem until now, and no more demand arose, because hardly anyone came to and went from Damascus for years anyway. For many years the cities of Aleppo and Damascus, despite all their beauty, historical and cultural depth and urban record, were almost entirely closed to tourism. But now all the hotels are full and it is extremely difficult to find a place. A situation where the capacity will no longer suffice has already been reached, and it is very clear that even more will be needed from now on, because the way ahead is also wide open for a country moving from a pitch-dark society to an utterly open one. Because of the tourism and travel that are bound to revive, this hotel capacity is expected to grow rapidly, and of course the contribution of this tourism to reviving the economy at the same rate.

The hotels are especially full of journalists trying to follow the revolution closely. At the same time, many representatives of civil society organizations are also in hotel lobbies trying to read their duty from the situation. Of course this atmosphere is very nice and also provides a very favorable setting for in-depth conversations.

During our visit, apart from our meeting with Ahmed al-Sharaa, we held very productive interviews both with commanders who played important roles in the revolutionary process and with those who contributed at one level or another. I can say that in all of these commanders I witnessed a very high intellectual depth, an incredible sincerity, courtesy and a quality of oratory that conveys their point very well. They know very well what they are doing, and they have very strong intentions and vision regarding Syria's present situation and future. They listen just as well as they speak; they try to listen and to understand.

The tomb of Nureddin Zengi

AND "YOU DID NOT THROW WHEN YOU THREW"

I asked one of them, for example, about the secrets of a revolution that took place at this speed. In one breath he listed 11 points. "First of all, the idea that this revolution took place in 12 days is not correct. This is a revolution that took place in 14 years plus 12 days," he objected, but at the same time he explained that the last 12 days of this revolution in particular were accomplished entirely by divine will and miracle. None of this belongs to us. Just as God said at Badr, "And you did not throw when you threw, but it was God who threw," in this revolution we saw God's plain interventions and aid. All that talk, as some say, of an international consensus, of someone being behind us, is all laughable. In this affair everyone leaves God out of the calculation, yet we saw God's intervention and aid with the eye of certainty (ayn al-yaqin)," he said, and then listed God's intervention in the revolution as follows:

The tomb of Refia Sultan, daughter of Sultan Abdulmejid

GOD TRAINED US FOR EXACTLY 14 YEARS AND GRANTED THE CONQUEST IN THAT WAY

1. The Almighty God favored us by delaying this victory, and during this delay He eliminated the extraneous, exclusionary, rigid tendencies from among us by making us learn lessons from the experiences He made us live. Had this victory come 5 years ago, the groups would have been free of excluding one another, perhaps even of declaring one another unbelievers, and far from the idea of building a Syria for everyone.

2. By making us fight ISIS, a sedition planted among us, He enabled us to see not only the organization but also all the extremist ideas it might represent or evoke, to develop a sensitivity against them and to weed them out.

3. The Almighty God trained us both against that excessive dependence that hands over all our affairs entirely to some countries and against being closed people who have no contact with any country.

4. The Almighty God did not grant us the conquest of Damascus while we, as 14 armed groups, were fighting each other. Among 14 groups, who would lead and how we would organize, and the possibility of our clashing with one another in doing so, was an important problem awaiting us. Thank God we have no such problem now; we are acting in complete unity and harmony.

A TRIAL RUN OF GOVERNING IN IDLIB

5. Again the Almighty God granted us to run a small state in Idlib and to put forward the fiqh of the state. If one were to draw an analogy, we could liken it to Erdoğan's having a governing experience in municipal administration before the Prime Ministry and the Presidency, where he took responsibility for the whole country. The 6-year Idlib experience taught us to take the people into account more, to please them, to satisfy them.

6. In earlier periods too we could in fact have achieved success, but Russia, our greatest problem with its aerial bombardment targeting civilians, is now so busy with Ukraine that Syria has fallen quite low in its order of importance.

7. Iran's preoccupation with Israel, and Israel's with Iran,

8. Hezbollah's being busy with its own troubles,

9. We had been ready and willing for this operation long before. But it was not advised, especially by Turkey. These postponements allowed us to mature better in this process and even to prepare for a longer haul.

10. The Almighty God broke the relationship of trust between Assad and all of his partners. Recently he had no sincere relationship with Iran; perhaps he sold some of its information, together with Hezbollah's information, to Israel. In doing so he must also have drawn closer to the Gulf countries, but his having turned his country into a captagon factory angered the Gulf countries too. It was angering Israel as well, but let us not misunderstand: none of these was enough for these countries to give up on Assad. For them Assad was still worth choosing. They stood behind him until the last day. That is why this revolution belongs entirely, by God's providence, to the Syrian people.

IF ONLY ASSAD HAD ANSWERED ERDOĞAN'S INVITATION!

11. Finally, the Almighty God blinded Assad's normally extreme and well-known pragmatism toward just one person. That was Erdoğan. Had he been able to heed Erdoğan's call, the revolutionaries probably could not have launched such an operation, because we would in no way have said a word over Erdoğan's word. Had he responded to Erdoğan's call, a stalling dialogue process, in which we had no hope at all and never thought any result would be obtained, would have begun. And since we could not say a word in spite of Erdoğan, we could not have carried out this operation either. Thus this obstinacy brought him a very heavy cost, and brought us the revolution. He granted us a clear victory that ended 14 years of hardship in 12 days."

Everyone present who had contributed greatly to the revolutionary process joined in this analysis made quickly by one of them. In all of them, the most dominant state of mind and conviction is that this affair is a miracle and a reward God has given them for keeping the promise they made to God to settle on truthfulness. They say that this has not only placed much more responsibility on them but has also taught them the importance of unity, togetherness and humility toward one another.