The 94-year-old Syrian poet Adonis – which is the literary pen name of Ali Ahmed Said, who has lived in France for almost half a century – today called on his countrymen to “change society” after the Assad regime was toppled.

“First of all I have reservations: I left Syria in 1956. Consequently, I do not know Syria deeply,” Adonis said at a press conference in Paris where he was honored with a literary prize. “I have always been against this regime,” he said, referring to ousted President Bashar al-Assad, who was toppled by a rebel alliance after 24 years in power and a bloody civil war.

“But what will those who replaced him do? The issue is not regime change. It is the change of society,” said Adonis, who is considered one of the most important Arab poets of the modern era. “That is, to liberate women. To establish a society based on rights and freedoms, transparency and internal independence,” he explained.

“The Arabs – not only them, but I am talking about the Arabs – do not change society. They change the regime, the power. If we do not change society, we do nothing. To change one regime with another is a superficial approach”, he underlined.

For his work in the Arabic and French languages, the 94-year-old Syrian was honored today with the Juan Marguerite International Prize, which is awarded by the Cervantes Institute and bears the name of the famous Catalan poet.