During the rule of former Syrian President Bashar Assad, special services monitored, searched, or collected information about approximately eight million people.

The former Syrian leader is accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, complicity in murder, and deliberate attacks by the army against civilians.

For more than half a century, I have personally observed the situation of Arab societies and citizens and covered them as a journalist. The conclusion is that not a single Arab country has passed these four tests - stable statehood, true independence, civil rights, and sustainable and just human development - from an article by journalist and analyst Rami Khori.

Today's string of defeats has sent shockwaves through Damascus and Assad's Russian and Iranian allies. And this is reviving the imagination that the end of Bashar Assad's regime based on oppression in Syria is approaching.