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Protesters in Syria are optimistic that they will soon be able to encourage a change to the regime that came to power many years ago, installing Bashar al-Assad as President. They are also hopeful that they can oust the national flag with one that discards the beliefs of the Arab national movements that was adopted then.

The protesters want to see the green, white and black flag fly in Syria that was first used as a model for the nationalist groups in Egypt, Iraq, Syria and Yemen in 1946, when Syria first achieved independence from France.

Mohammad, a protester from the city of Homs, said that because there had been some violent clashes between protesters and government forces of late, the image of the flag that the protesters wanted to see return had been tarnished.

“They used the [red, white and black] Syrian flag on the tanks that killed us,” Mohammad explained. “We don’t feel any attachment to a flag used on tanks that came to occupy our cities. It does not represent us anymore.”

Syrian National Council spokesman, Khaled Kamal, said that the protesters had decided to use the independence flag for the cause they were fighting for over a month ago, and the council said that the independence flag embodied the new period for the country.

“The flag that Bashar’s regime and the army are using now must be different from the ones used by the revolutionaries,” Kamal said. “We are using the old flag because it symbolises independence. It’s a symbol of independence and the end of the Bashar regime.”