Bombing cities, killing civilians and crushing aspirations for democracy—what Vladimir Putin is doing to Ukraine now, he first did to Syria. Bassma Kodmani is a leading member of the Syrian democratic opposition. Her father, a senior diplomat, was exiled in 1968 due to his opposition to Hafez al-Assad, father of the present ruler Bashar al-Assad. Born in Damascus in 1958, she is currently a senior fellow at the Institut Montaigne in Paris.
Patrick Marnham: The Arab Spring reached Syria in January 2011. Were you involved from the start? Bassma Kodmani: I joined the democratic opposition in the very early days of the uprising, and became the foreign affairs representative and spokesperson of the Syrian National Council. I have been in and out of the formal political bodies of the opposition over the last 10 years, but I have always been active, initiating back channel discussions with friendly and pro-regime governments.