MINISTER'S VISIT:SYRIANS, young and old, some carrying flags, others with rolled posters, gathered in the wide square near the central bank to climb on to buses that would carry them to the western Mezza neighbourhood.
There they welcomed Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov as he arrived at the grand foreign ministry complex.
Muhammad Barini, from the coastal city of Tartous, and three friends called Ali, chatted as they waited for their turn to board a bus. Ali Ibrahim is from the central city of Hama, Ali Assad from Latakia and Ali Ali from the Golan.
“We support President Assad,” said Muhammad. “We want quiet, not violence.” Asked their ages and what they are studying, he replied: “We’re all 17. We’re in the 11th form.”
Ali, from the Israeli-occupied Golan said: “We want to go to college. Perhaps here, perhaps outside. We don’t know yet what we want to study.”
The boys grinned as three girls appeared, before giggling and moving away into a shop entrance.
Demonstrations are a great way for young people to meet in this conservative society.
Two women wearing identical white woolly hats made for the scrum for the bus. A man in a bulky jacket waved his friends goodbye when the packed, right-leaning bus left without him.
Cars with flags fluttering in their windows rushed round the traffic circle, hooting.
A wedge of small school children, some boys wearing
scout scarves, marched by with placards bearing the visage of President Bashar al-Assad, the rallies an excuse for playing truant.
Buses, cars, motorbikes carrying government supporters, some invited to attend, others determined to show the flag, converged on the six-lane Damascus-Beirut highway and formed lines along it to give Lavrov a hearty greeting.
In addition to Syrian flags, they brandished the Russian standard and the yellow-and- green banner of the Lebanese Hizbullah.
Two Russian flags were made out of hundreds of balloons.
The atmosphere was festive in spite of the tension and fear that preoccupy most Syrians watching helplessly as their country slides towards civil war.
Once the rally finished, participants melted away: teenagers to shops to buy snacks, lovers to walk in parks holding hands; workers freed from jobs marched with the flags and placards into the city centre to carry on private demonstrations elsewhere.
Some Syrians support the government, others the opposition, but most simply want the violence to end so they can resume normal lives.
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