DAMASCUS - The Syrian interim government on Thursday unveiled a redesigned eagle as the new national emblem that President Ahmed al-Sharaa said represents a Syria that "does not accept division."
"Our great people, the identity we are launching today represents a Syria that does not accept division and fragmentation, that is one and united from north to south and from east to west, and whose cultural and ethnic diversity is a factor of enrichment and wealth, not division or conflict," Sharaa said in a speech at an event at the People's Palace in Damascus, attended by government officials and representatives of foreign missions.
The new symbol "represents building the Syrian person and establishing the Syrian personality, who has been accustomed to migration and distance from the homeland in search of security and a hopeful future. Therefore, we restore their faith, dignity, and natural place inside and outside the country, so that the Syrian person becomes an active citizen in their homeland,” he added.
The national emblem of Syria is a golden eagle turned to its right, with three five-pointed stars forming an arc above its head. Its wings feature 14 feathers, representing Syria's 14 provinces.
The design of identity cards, passports, and currency will be updated with the new state emblem.
Design of the symbol took nearly seven months and involved the participation of a number of designers and artists from inside and outside Syria.
"We feel like our country has been created for the first time. The past has become part of the present we are in, and part of what we can now do with the strength of all the Syrian people, and with the strength of the team that worked on it," Malek al-Omari, advisor to the Ministry of Social Affairs, told Rudaw.
Aisha al-Dibis is the director of the Women's Affairs Office in the Political Affairs Administration. She told Rudaw that she witnessed "the birth of a new freedom” with the unveiling of the eagle.