Protests began in Syria as early as 26 January 2011, and erupted on 15 March 2011 with a "Day of Rage" protest generally considered to mark the start of a nationwide uprising. The Syrian government's reaction to the protests became violent on 16 March, and deadly on 18 March, when four unarmed protesters were killed in Daraa.
For the background of those protests, see: Background of the Syrian protests (2011).
January–February 2011 26 or 28 January: In the large northern city of Al-Hasakah, a man, Hasan Ali Akleh, soaks himself with gasoline and sets himself on fire, in the same way Tunisian Mohamed Bouazizi had in Tunis on 17 December 2010. According to eyewitnesses, the action was "a protest against the Syrian government". 28 January – An evening demonstration was held in Raqqa, to complain about the killing of two soldiers of Kurdish descent. 31 January: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad criticizes Israel's external role in its domestic affairs"Interview With Syrian President Bashar al-Assad", The Wall Street Journal. 31 January 2011. Retrieved 5 May 2017 2 February: Suhair Atassi leads a sit-in Bab Tuma to protest "systematic looting and the continuing monopoly of Syria's two mobile phone operators, MTN and Syriatel." A group of 20 people in civilian clothing beat and dispersed 15 people who had been holding a candlelight vigil at Bab Tuma in Damascus for Egyptian demonstrators, Human Rights Watch reported. 3 February: Syrian opposition groups call on Facebook and Twitter for a "day of rage" on Friday 4 February. This does not lead to protests in Syria on 4 February. A "Day of Rage" was called for in Syria from 4–5 February on social media sites Facebook and Twitter. Protesters demanded governmental reform. Most protests took place outside of Syria, and were small. The protests were expected to begin on 4 February, as social media mobilised the Syrian people for rallies demanding freedom, human rights, and the end to the country's state of emergency. Protests were also scheduled for 5 February in front of the parliament in Damascus, and at Syrian embassies internationally."Calls for weekend protests in Syria". Al Jazeera reported increased security for the planned "Days of Rage." 4 February: Syrian protesters call for a day of anger against the government. 5 February: In Al-Hasakah, hundreds of people demonstrate for political reform and an end to emergency law. When hundreds of protesters in Al-Hasakah participated in a mass demonstration, calling for al-Assad's departure, Syrian authorities arrested dozens, and another demonstration was quickly triggered. Suhair Atassi, who runs the banned Jamal Atassi Forum, called for political reforms and the reinstatement of civil rights, as well as for an end to the emergency law that has been in place since 1962. However, no protests occurred on either date. After the failure of attempts to arrange a "Day of Rage," Al Jazeera described the country as "a kingdom of silence". It identified the key factors underlying Syrian stability as the country's strict security measures, the popularity of President Bashar al-Assad, and fear of potential sectarian violence in the aftermath of a government ouster (akin to neighbouring Iraq). 17 February: A spontaneous demonstration broke out outside the Al-Hamidiyah Souq market in Damascus to protest a police beating of a shop keeper. Several men gathered and blocked a road, while chanting that "The Syrian people will not be humiliated". An eyewitness estimated that there were more than 1,500 demonstrators. Secret police officers arrived on the scene quickly, along with several government officials and finally Syria's interior minister, who dispersed the demonstrators, took the shop owner into his car, and promised an investigation. A couple of hours later, several videos of the events were posted on YouTube. 23 February: Syria's justice minister defends the state of emergency by pointing at the state of war with Israel. A proposal of one parliament member to evaluate the harsh emergency laws was voted down with 249 against one MP. During a routine session of the Syrian Parliament, a member proposed that harsh emergency laws be reviewed. The issue was not scheduled for discussion, and its introduction came as a surprise. A pro-government official who was at the session recalled it with anger. The proposal was rapidly quashed, when the speaker put the proposed review to a vote in the chamber, but none of the other 249 MPs supported it.
1–17 March 6 March: In the southern city of Daraa, fifteen teenagers were arrested for writing "" – ("the people want the regime to fall" on walls across the city. The military police tortured them, or had carried them handcuffed out of their classroom. A number of boys under 15 years of age were arrested in Daraa, for writing on the walls of the city a slogan of the 2010–11 Arab uprisings that: "the people want to overthrow the regime". In Lebanon, four brothers, all of them Syrian opposition activists, went missing shortly after passing out flyers in front of the Syrian embassy in Beirut, calling for a demonstration to oppose Syria's government. TIME said that the commitment could still be found among the Syrian youth, but that what was needed was a starting point. Ribal al-Assad said that it was almost time for Syria to be the next domino. 7 March: One day before the 48th anniversary of the 8 March 1963 coup d'état, which led to a permanent state of emergency in force ever since, thirteen political prisoners in Syria went on hunger strike, demanding an end to political arrests and the restitution of rights that have been removed from civil and political life. 7–13 March: Syrian political prisoners went on a hunger strike to protest against "political detentions and oppression" in Syria. They demanded an end to political arrests, the removal of injustices, and the restitution of rights that had been removed from civil and political life. 10 March: Dozens of Syrian Kurds started hunger strike in solidarity with those of 7 March. Dozens of jailed Kurds in Syria, from the Yakiti party and from the Democratic Union, started a hunger strike in solidarity with other activists who had also initiated hunger strikes in a prison near Damascus three days earlier. Human Rights Watch reacted to the disappearance of Syrian activists in Lebanon four days earlier, indicating that it feared that Lebanon is "back to doing Syria's dirty job". The Syrian Foreign Ministry stated that Syria was monitoring with high concern "the tragic developments in the brotherly country of Libya". Syrian newspaper Al-Watan said that the Syrian government welcomed the fall of Mubarak's regime, and was looking forward to a new leadership that does not "cover for Israeli violations". The Reform Party of Syria asserted that "al-Assad is sending arms to Gaddafi to kill his people with".
11 March: Reuters reports ‘a large shipment of weapons and explosives and night-vision goggles … in a truck coming from Iraq’ carrying 'dozens of grenades and pistols as well as rifles and ammunition belts’ is seized at the southern Tanaf crossing near Jordan. The driver said the weapons had been loaded in Baghdad and he was to be paid $5,000 to deliver them to Syria.Syria says seizes weapons smuggled from Iraq, Reuters, 11 March 2011 12 March: Thousands of Syrian Kurds protested in Qamishli and in al-Hasakah, on the day of Kurdish martyrs, commemorating the 30 Kurds that were killed by police after riots broke out at a football game in March 2004. Thousands of Syrian Kurds in Qamishli and in al-Hasakah protested on the day of Kurdish martyr, which is an annual event since 2004, when many Syrian kurds died in anti-government demonstrations.
13 March: Kamal Hussein Cheikho, a Kurdish member of the Committee for the Defence of Democratic Liberties and Human Rights in Syria (CDF), was released on bail of 500 Syrian pounds ($10). He is still facing charges for allegedly publishing material harmful to the country. Tuesday 15 March, dubbed "day of rage" by activists, hundreds staged protests in Damascus and Aleppo, calling for democratic reforms.Le mouvement de contestation ne fléchit pas en Syrie, Radio France Internationale, 5 May 2011. Retrieved 20 September 2013. The protest in Damascus was violently dispersed, six protesters were detained by security forces according to a witness speaking to the BBC. Simultaneous demonstrations took place in major cities across Syria. Thousands of protestors gathered in al-Hasakah, Daraa, Deir ez-Zor, and Hama. There were some clashes with security, according to reports from dissident groups. In Damascus, a smaller group of 200 men grew spontaneously to about 1,500 men. Damascus has not seen such uprising since the 1980s. The official Facebook page called "Syrian Revolution 2011" showed pictures of supportive demonstrations in Cairo, Nicosia, Helsinki, Istanbul and Berlin. There were also unconfirmed news that Syrian revolution supporters of Libyan descent, stormed into the Syrian Embassy in Paris. Another recently released political figure, Suhair Atassi, became an unofficial spokesperson for the "Syrian revolution", when she was interviewed by dozens of Arab and international media channels regarding the uprising. There were reports of 6 arrested in Damascus. Atassi paid tribute to "the Syrian people who took the initiative ahead of the opposition," recalling the popular uprisings that shook Tunisia and Egypt After the first day of the uprising there were reports about approximately 3000 arrests and a few "martyrs", but there are no official figures on the number of deaths.
16 March: Demonstrations took place in Marjeh Square in Damascus, near the Interior Ministry, calling for release of political prisoners. Police threatened them with batons and arrested scores of protesters. In Daraa, protests started in the al-Balad neighborhood, in reaction to the imprisonment 15 local teenagers by military police (see 6 March). Also in Aleppo, Al-Hasakah, Deir ez-Zor and Hama protestors gathered, sources in Syria said; reportedly there were some clashes with security forces. The state news service SANA called the protests the work of outside agitators. Syrian authorities forcibly dispersed a crowd composed of 200 demonstrators in front of the Syrian Interior Ministry. Al Arabiya reported that the protesters were a mix of activists and jurists, writers, journalists, young academics, and family members to people detained in Syrian prisons. Several security officers managed to infiltrate themselves in demonstrations at different places and started shouting slogans declaring their love and loyalty to President Bashar al-Assad. The security forces arrested a number of protestors, Al Jazeera reported 25, while Al Arabiya said 32 including activist and lawyer Suhair Atassi and Kamal Cheikho, an activist who had been released two days earlier. World Organisation Against Torture published list of arrests and demanded immediate release of them. Mohamed al-Ali, a spokesman for the Syrian Interior Authority denied that any demonstrations took place in Syria and said that the Facebook-campaign has proved unsuccessful. According to the spokesperson, the "claimed protests" consisted of a bunch of people who were "hiding" among the already packed souq and tried to make it look like a demonstration. In another statement, he finally acknowledged the protest but then turned it around by saying that the demonstration which was outside the Interior Authority's building was actually in support of President Bashar al-Assad. 17 March: Protests that had begun the previous day in Daraa continued.
18–25 March