Social media campaign attempts to boycott new SYP 1,000 banknote after Central Bank removes former president from the design

Pro-regime Facebook and Twitter accounts published calls to boycott Syria’s new SYP 1,000 banknote after its designers removed former President Hafez al-Assad’s image.

Regime supporters launched a social media campaign to “boycott the new SYP 1,000 banknote", and instead use the SYP 500 banknote "until the SYP 1,000 banknote returns to its original look".

Regime supporters published images of the new banknote under which they wrote: "This banknote does not represent me. I am a Syrian, I am against it", while other pages attacked the government because for "daring to remove the image and ideology of the leader, Hafez al-Assad, from the new banknote".

Wider public response on the new banknote varied, with some viewing the decision to remove the former president’s image an attempt to placate the opposition, while others did not rule out the possibility of Syria’s Central Bank removing the image of Hafez Assad from the new SYP 25 banknote as well.

Translated and edited by The Syrian Observer