Istanbul, Turkey (CNN) -- Two years ago, the Syrian revolution erupted with a full-throated scream of defiance. After years of repression, it shocked even those who were doing the screaming.
"The first protest was so great when we screamed and said 'the people want to overthrow the regime,'" recalled Media Daghestany, an opposition activist and single mother of one from the Syrian city of Homs.
"I screamed, and then went silent to hear, 'Oh, I said that.' And then I screamed again," she said.
For truck driver Abu Mariam, his evolution into an opposition activist occurred after he witnessed Syrian security forces beating demonstrators in Aleppo, the nation's largest city.
"I saw protesters were screaming, "God is great," and they were being stabbed with knives and beaten with electric clubs," Abu Mariam said.
Syrian army soldiers take control of the village of Western Dumayna north of the rebel-held city of Qusayr on Monday, May 13. Syrian troops captured three villages in Homs province, allowing them to cut supply lines to rebels inside Qusayr town, a military officer told AFP. Tensions in Syria first flared in March 2011 during the onset of the Arab Spring, eventually escalating into a civil war that still rages. This gallery contains the most compelling images taken since the start of the conflict.
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"Automatically, I joined them and started screaming 'God is great.' When I yelled that, I felt like was reborn."
The popular unrest following the first protests in March 2011 has challenged the dynastic dictatorship that has ruled Syria for years.
Today, Syria is being torn apart by a civil war that has killed more than 70,000 people and forced more than one million Syrians to flee the country. The conflict threatens to spill across borders to destabilize neighbors in an already turbulent Middle East.
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The opposition says Friday (March 15) marks the second anniversary of the beginning of the uprising.
"Of course, if the revolution was won in the first six months, everything would be easier," Daghestany said, while toying with a necklace decorated with the colors of the Syrian rebel flag.
Daghestany and Abu Marian are two activists who led protests in two different cities at the start of the revolution.
Neither of them expected that the uprising would unleash so much bloodshed and carnage.
Since 2011, their lives have taken unexpected turns, even as Syria itself has undergone violent transformation.
Amateur videos from 2011 show Daghestany dressed in a Che Guevara T-shirt with a bandana wrapped around her face, leading small crowds of women chanting for the overthrow of the Syrian government.
For Daghestany, leftist dissident politics were part of her family's DNA.
"I was against the regime before the revolution. My dad was in prison for eight years and I grew up in a family which hated the regime, the father and the son," said Daghestany, referring to Bashar al-Assad, who inherited the presidency from his father, Hafez, who died in 2000.
Abu Mariam came from a more modest background. He was a truck driver who shipped cargo between Aleppo and neighboring Turkey.
He said he became an opposition leader after security forces threw him in prison.
"They arrested me at a demonstration to honor the martyr Omar al Hawi," Abu Mariam said.
"In the central jail, I met with many Syrian rebels and we started coordinating together. We talked about why my neighborhood, Bustan al Kaser, wasn't participating in the uprising. When I was released I started working with other activists and arranging demonstrations in Bustan al Kaser."
Abu Mariam is featured prominently in activist videos, chanting into a megaphone, at the head of hundreds of flag-waving demonstrators gathered in Aleppo's narrow streets.
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Activists called the protest movement a "revolution."
But the Syrian government called it terrorism.
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The security forces cracked down hard, with waves of arrests, systematic use of torture and repeated use of deadly force. By the summer of 2011, the United Nations was reporting that more than 2,200 people had been killed. A trickle of Syrians refugees had begun fleeing across international borders.
Citing a pattern of widespread, systematic human rights abuses, U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay said the Damascus regime may have been guilty of "crimes against humanity."
As the death toll mounted, some activists began arming themselves. The rebels referred to themselves collectively as the Free Syrian Army. Their ranks were bolstered by soldiers and officers who defected from the Syrian military and security forces.
After a year of bloody fighting, rebels succeeded in pushing the Syrian military back from many towns and villages, particularly in the north of the country.
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With the exception of Aleppo, which is divided between loyalists and insurgents, the government still maintains its hold on Syria's largest cities. It has resorted increasingly to airstrikes, artillery barrages and surface-to-surface missile attacks to reach rebel-held areas where loyalist ground troops no longer operate.
Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Maqdad, in an interview last month, said the government will win the war.
Al-Maqdad defended the regime's shelling, calling it a reaction to the opposition's violence.
"This is not our option," he said. "This is the option they imposed on us to defend our own people and our own cities. What we are demanding is a stop to all these actions and to come to the table where we discuss all our grievances together."
Meanwhile, the rebels have evolved both militarily and ideologically. They profited from the capture of long stretches of border with neighboring Turkey. Turkey has provided a pipeline for smuggled weapons, ammunition and foreign volunteer fighters.
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As the conflict dragged on, hardline Islamist groups have surged to the forefront of the armed rebellion. One group in particular, an Al Qaeda-linked movement labeling itself the Nusra Front, claimed responsibility for devastating car bombs that killed government officials and innocent bystanders in the Syrian capital.
"During the peaceful demonstration days, I was one of the people who did not know who the Nusra Front was," said Abu Mariam. "We had one revolution and one revolutionary flag. But when we started getting weapons, when the Nusra Front came here, divisions started emerging between the people."
Two years in to the revolution, Abu Mariam still lives in his neighborhood of Bustan al Kaser in the divided city of Aleppo. In an increasingly bombed-out city with hardly any electricity or fuel, Abu Mariam and his followers continue to organize protests and struggle to distribute humanitarian assistance to the growing ranks of desperate Syrians.
But it is clear that the truck driver-turned-activist has a hard time recognizing the opposition movement he once embraced.
Twice in four weeks, Abu Mariam said he had been beaten by anti-government rebels.
Last February, fighters from an Islamist court led by the Nusra Front briefly detained Abu Mariam.
"The Sharia Authority of the Nusra Front and other Islamist brigades...accused me of protesting against the caliphate," Abu Mariam said, during a short phone interview after his release last February.
"They flogged me 10 times."
A photo posted by Abu Mariam on Facebook showed his back covered with angry red welts.
Then, in early March, Abu Mariam said fighters once again beat him. This time, he said they were from a rebel brigade called Liwa al Fatah.
Abu Mariam said the incident occurred when he tried to stop gunmen from breaking into a neighborhood store. A video taken in a hospital showed the activist being treated for a broken hand and a deep gash in the back of his head. Liwa al Fatah posted an online statement denying responsibility for the beating.
"I am terribly afraid, especially for after the fall of the regime," Abu Mariam said last week in an interview with CNN.
"Unfortunately, the regime is spreading sectarianism and some rebel battalions are adopting this as well...unfortunately, there are rebels calling for the mass killing of Alawites," he added, referring to the minority religious sect of the Syrian president.
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Media Daghestany is far more optimistic.
"Of course I am proud of the revolution," she said.
But she was speaking from exile in Turkey.
Like hundreds of thousands of other Syrians, Daghestany came here to escape the conflict a year ago.
She now lives with her 5-year-old daughter, Zia, in a basement apartment in Istanbul. The single room is decorated with colorful stickers, Zia's drawings, and a large Syrian rebel flag.
In Istanbul, Daghestany makes documentaries and reports that support the Syrian opposition. She has also taught her daughter, that they will one day return to their country after al-Assad has been overthrown.
"I want to go back to Syria," said Zia in fluent English, as she filled in a coloring book with markers. "I want to rebuild Syria."
"Not immediately. It's not like a magic stick that will make everything be OK," Daghestany said later. "We need time to rebuild Syria. Maybe 5 years, maybe 10 years. But I know that it's a step forward. I know that the choice now is better than if we didn't have any revolution."
Two years into the uprising, one revolutionary remains idealistic in exile, while the other struggles on, fearing that his hopes are slowly being crushed at home.
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Syrian troops move into Dumayna on May 13.
Rebel fighters fire at government forces in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Sunday, May 12.
Smoke rises from an explosion in a Syrian village near the Israeli border on Tuesday, May 7.
Multiple explosions hit a Syrian village near the Israeli border on May 6.
A photo released by the Syrian Arab News Agency shows destruction from what is said was bomb attack in the Al-Hama area of Damascus on Sunday, May 5. According to the Syrian government, Israel launched an attack on a research center in the Damascus suburbs early Sunday.
People run for cover after what activists said was shelling by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Syria's Raqqa province, on May 3.
People walk past a damaged building and multiple destroyed cars at the site of an explosion in Damascus where at least 13 were killed on April 30.
Cleaning takes place following another explosion in an upscale Damascus neightborhood on Monday, April 29. Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi survived the bombing targeting his motorcade.
A smoke cloud rises from shelling on the the al-Turkman mountains in Syria's Latakia province on Thursday, April 25.
Searchers use a flashlight as they look for survivors among the rubble created by what activists say was a missile attack from the Syrian regime, in Raqqa province, Syria, on April 25.
A handout photograph from Syria's national news agency SANA shows damage and debris from a mortar attack in the suburb of Jarmana near Damascus, Syria, on Wednesday, April 24. The attack killed seven and wounded more than 25, according to activists and state media. No group claimed responsibility for the mortar fire, which SANA said hit a municipality office and a school building.
A Kurdish fighter from the "Popular Protection Units" (YPG) takes position inside a building in the majority-Kurdish Sheikh Maqsood area of Aleppo, on Apri. 21.
People walk past destroyed houses in the northern Syrian town of Azaz on Sunday, April 21.
Free Syrian Army fighters take positions prior to an offensive against government forces in the Khan al-Assal area, near Aleppo on Saturday, April 20.
Men inspect damage at a house destroyed in an airstrike in Aleppo on April 15.
Syrian and Kurdish rebel fighters walk in the Sheikh Maqsud district of Aleppo on April 14.
A Syrian boy holds an AK-47 assault rifle in the streets of Aleppo on Sunday, April 14.
A female rebel monitors the movement of Syrian government forces in Aleppo's Sheikh Maqsud neighborhood on April 11.
A rebel runs to avoid sniper fire from Syrian government forces in Aleppo on Thursday, April 11.
Syrian rebels observe the movement of Syrian government forces around Al-Kendi hospital in Aleppo on Wednesday, April 10.
Rescue teams and security forces check out the scene of a deadly car bomb explosion in Damascus on April 8.
The fighting has taken a toll on buildings in Aleppo's Saladin district, seen here on April 8.
A Syrian rebel runs for cover in Deir ez-Zor on April 2.
A rebel checks for snipers across the street toward the Citadel in Aleppo, Syria, on Saturday, March 30, in this photo taken by iReporter Lee Harper.
A Free Syrian fighter mourns the death of a friend in Aleppo on March 30, in this photo taken by iReporter Lee Harper.
A Syrian opposition fighter runs for cover from Syrian army snipers in Aleppo on Wednesday, March 27.
A Syrian girl covers her face to protect herself from fumes as a street covered with uncollected garbage is fumigated in Aleppo on Sunday, March 24.
A Syrian man and his family drive past damaged buildings in Maarat al-Numan, on Wednesday, March 20.
Syrians carry the body of a Syrian army soldier during a funeral ceremony in Idlib province on Tuesday, March 19.
Syrian rebels take position in Aleppo, the largest city in the country, on March 11.
Syrian men search for their relatives amongst the bodies of civilians executed and dumped in the Quweiq River on March 11.
A Free Syrian Army fighter looks back as smoke rises during fighting between rebel fighters and forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad on the outskirts of Aleppo on Saturday, March 2.
Residents read Shaam News newspapers published by the Free Syrian Army in Aleppo on March 2.
A member of the Free Syrian Army reacts to the death of a comrade who was killed in fighting, at Bustan al Qasr cemetery in Aleppo on Friday, March 1.
A rebel fighter throws a home-made grenade at Syrian government forces in Aleppo on February 16.
A member of the Free Syrian Army stands with his weapon as he looks at a rainbow in Aleppo on February 16.
A Syrian woman looks through a bus window in Aleppo on February 14.
Free Syrian Army fighters walk through a dust-filled stairwell in Damascus on February 7.
A Syrian rebel gestures at comrades from inside a broken armored personnel carrier in Al-Yaqubia on February 6.
A rebel fighter throws a hand grenade inside a Syrian Army base in Damascus on February 3.
People stand in the dust of a building destroyed in an airstrike in Aleppo, Syria on February 3.
Free Syrian Army fighters run as they enter a Syrian Army base during heavy fighting in the Arabeen neighborhood of Damascus on February 3.
An unexploded mortar shell fired by the Syrian Army sits lodged in the ground in Damascus on January 25.
Fighters from Fateh al Sham unit of the Free Syrian Army fire on Syrian Army soldiers at a check point in Damascus on January 20.
A Free Syrian Army fighter walks between buildings damaged during Syrian Air Force strikes in Damascus on January 19.
A Syrian rebel fighter tries to locate a government jet fighter in Aleppo on January 18.
Syrian rebels launch a missile near the Abu Baker brigade in Albab on January 16.
A Syrian boy walks near rubbish next to tents at a refugee camp near the northern city of Azaz on the Syria-Turkey border, on January 8.
Syrians look for survivors amid the rubble of a building targeted by a missile in Aleppo on January 7.
A father reacts after hearing of a shelling by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo on January 3.
A patient smokes a cigarette at Dar Al-Ajaza psychiatric hospital in Aleppo on December 18, 2012. The psychiatric ward, housing around 60 patients, has lacked the means to function properly since fighting broke out there in July.
Syrians mourn a fallen rebel fighter at a rebel base in the al-Fardos area of Aleppo on December 8.
Members of Liwa (Brigade) Salahadin, a Kurdish military unit fighting alongside rebel fighters, monitor the area in the besieged district of Karmel al-Jabl in Aleppo on December 6.
A member of Liwa Salahadin aims at a regime fighter in the besieged district of Karmel al-Jabl in Aleppo on December 6.
Two young boys sit underneath a washline in a refugee camp on the border between Syria and Turkey near Azaz on December 5.
The bodies of three children, who were allegedly killed in a mortar shell attack that landed close to a bakery in Aleppo, on December 2, are laid out for identification by family members at a makeshift hospital at an undisclosed location of the city.
Smoke rises in the Hanano and Bustan al-Basha districts in Aleppo on December 1 as fighting continues through the night.
Damaged houses in Aleppo are seen after an airstrike on November 29.
A Syrian rebel mourns the death of a comrade in Maraat al-Numan on November 20.
Syrians protesters stand on Assad's portrait during an anti-regime demonstration in Aleppo on November 16.
A Syrian rebel takes cover during fighting against Syrian government forces in Aleppo on November 15.
Syrian opposition fighter Bazel Araj, 19, sleeps next to his pistol in Aleppo on November 11.
A rebel fighter fires at a Syrian government position in Aleppo on November 6.
A Syrian rebel leaps over debris left in the street while running across a "sniper alley" near the Salahudeen district in Aleppo on November 4.
Rebels hold their position in the midst of a battle on November 3 in Aleppo.
A man cries while being treated in a local hospital in a rebel-controlled area of Aleppo on October 31.
A man is treated for wounds after a government jet attacked the Karm al-Aser neighborhood in eastern Aleppo on October 31.
A Syrian rebel interrogates a handcuffed and blindfolded man suspected of being a pro-regime militiaman in Aleppo on October 26.
Smoke rises from a fuel station following a mortar attack as Syrian women walk on a rainy day in the Arqub neighborhood of Aleppo on October 25.
A Syrian rebel fires at an army position in the Karm al-Jabal district of Aleppo on October 22.
A wounded Syrian boy sits on the back of a truck carrying victims and wounded people to a hospital following an attack by regime forces in Aleppo on October 21.
A man lies on the ground after being shot by a sniper for a second time as he waits to be rescued by members of the Al-Baraa Bin Malek Battalion, part of the Free Syria Army's Al-Fatah brigade, in Aleppo on October 20.
Syrian army soldiers run for cover during clashes with rebel fighters at Karam al-Jabal neighborhood of Aleppo on October 20.
Smoke rises after a Syrian Air Force fighter jet fired missiles at the suburbs of the northern province of Idlib on October 16.
A Syrian opposition fighter stands near a post in Aleppo on October 11.
A Syrian man mourns the death of his father, who was killed during a government attack in Aleppo on October 10.
A rebel fighter is carried by his friends and laid on a gurney to be treated for gunshot wounds sustained during heavy battles with government forces in Aleppo on October 1.
Syrian rebels help a wounded comrade to an Aleppo hospital after he was injured in a Syrian army strike on September 18.
Free Syria Army fighters are reflected in a mirror they use to see a Syrian Army post only 50 meters away in Aleppo on September 16.
A Syrian man carrying grocery bags tries to dodge sniper fire as he runs through an alley near a checkpoint manned by the Free Syria Army in Aleppo on September 14.
A woman walks past a destroyed building in Aleppo on September 13.
Free Syrian Army fighters battle during street fighting against Syrian army soldiers in Aleppo on September 8.
A Syrian man wounded by shelling sits on a chair outside a closed shop in Aleppo on September 4.
A woman sits in her wheelchair next to her house, damaged by a Syrian air raid, near Homs on August 26.
Members of the Free Syrian Army clash with Syrian army soliders in Aleppo's Saif al-Dawla district on August 22.
A man mourns in front of a field hospital on August 21 in Aleppo.
Wounded civilians wait in a field hospital after an air strike on August 21 in Aleppo.
People pray during the funeral of a Free Syrian Army fighter, Amar Ali Amero, on August 21.
A man cries near the graves of his two children killed during a recent Syrian airstrike in Azaz on August 20.
A Syrian woman holds her dead baby as she screams upon seeing her husband's body being covered following an airstrike by regime forces on the town of Azaz on August 15.
A Syrian rebel runs in a street of Selehattin during an attack on the municipal building on July 23.
Syrian rebels hunt for snipers after attacking the municipality building in the city center of Selehattin on July 23.
Members of the Free Syrian Army's Mugaweer (commandos) Brigade pay their respects in a cemetery on May 12 in Qusayr.
Syrian rebels take position near Qusayr on May 10.
A Free Syrian Army member takes cover in underground caves in Sarmin on April 9.
Rebels prepare to engage government tanks that advanced into Saraquib on April 9.
Men say prayers during a ceremony in Binnish on April 9.
A young boy plays with a toy gun in Binnish on April 9.
A Free Syrian Army rebel mounts his horse in the Al-Shatouria village near the Turkish border in northwestern Syria on March 16, a year after the uprising began.
Syrian refugees walk across a field before crossing into Turkey on March 14.
A rebel takes position in Al-Qsair on January 27.
A protester in Homs throws a tear gas bomb back towards security forces, on December 27, 2011.
A man stands under a giant Syrian flag outside the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus on December 24, 2011.
A member of the Free Syrian Army looks out over a valley in the village of Ain al-Baida on December 15, 2011.
Members of the Free Syrian Army stand in an valley near the village of Ain al-Baida, close to the Turkish border, on December 15, 2011.
Displaced Syrian refugees walk through an orchard adjacent to Syria's northern border with Turkey on June 14, 2011, near Khirbet al-Jouz.
A Syrian man holds up a portrait of President Bashar al-Assad during a rally to show support for the president in Damascus on April 30, 2011.
Syrians rally to show their support for President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on April 30, 2011.
A screen grab from YouTube shows thick smoke rising above as Syrian anti-government protesters demonstrate in Moaret Al-Noman on April 29, 2011.
A screen grab from YouTube shows Syrian anti-government protesters run for cover from tear gas fired by security forces in Damascus on April 29, 2011, during the "Day of Rage" demonstrations called by activists to put pressure on al-Assad.
Syrians wave their national flag and hold portraits of al-Assad during a rally to show their support for their leader in Damascus on March 29, 2011.
A woman sits by the hospital bed of a man allegedly injured when an armed group seized rooftops in Latakia on March 27, 2011, and opened fire at passers-by, citizens and security forces personnel according to official sources.
Syrian protesters chant slogans in support of al-Assad during a rally in Damascus on March 25, 2011.
Photographer Goran Tomasevic, embedded with the Free Syrian Army, captured an intense firefight and the death of a rebel fighter in Damascus on Wednesday, January 30. Here, a Free Syrian Army fighter gestures in front of a burning barricade during heavy fighting in the Ain Tarma neighborhood of Damascus.
Rebel fighters look back as they stand in front of a burning barricade during heavy fighting.
A rebel fighter fires a rocket-propelled grenade during heavy fighting.
Fighters run for cover as a tank shell explodes.
Men shield their heads from debris.
Fighters run through the debris.
Rebel fighters prepare to attack a Syrian Army checkpoint in Ain Tarma.
Free Syrian Army fighters take position just before being hit by Syrian Army sniper fire.
Fighters, right, lie on the ground while being shot by snipers.
Snipers shot two men within moments of each other.
A wounded man is dragged away.
The wounded man is pulled by his jacket.
Men push their comrade through a building.
The fighter died soon after being dragged through the rubble.
Free Syrian Army men carry their comrade.
A wounded Free Syrian Army fighter cries after hearing that his friend has died.
A Syrian girl stands at the entrance of a makeshift home near ruins in the ancient city of Serjilla in northwestern Syria on February 11. About half of Syria's refugees are children.
More than 400,000 people have fled Syria this year to countries including Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt. The Za'atari refugee camp is near Syria's border with Jordan.
A refugee collects apples and some bread February 10 at the Azaz refugee camp along the Syrian-Turkish border. Turkey has spent more than $600 million setting up 17 refugee camps, with more under construction.
Clothes dry at the Qah refugee camp near the Turkish border on January 31. Many Syrians are forced to flee with few or no belongings.
A man shows off his pet birds as new Syrian refugees arrive at the International Organization for Migration at the Za'atari refugee camp on January 30.
A refugee child gets a haircut at a makeshift barbershop at the Azaz refugee camp on February 19.
Syrian children gather around women washing in the Za'atari refugee camp on January 31.
A refugee visits a clinic with his child at the Azaz refugee camp on February 10.
Syrians put up tents at the Za'atari refugee camp on January 30.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees supplied tents in al-Marj, in the eastern Lebanese Bekaa Valley. Some families have endured frigid weather in tent camps or struggle to pay for shelter.
A Syrian girl looks through the window of a bus where she has lived with her family for the past eight months at a refugee camp in Bab al-Salam on the Syria-Turkey border on February 28.
A Syrian jumps across the border between the Syrian town of Ras al-Ain and Ceylanpinar in Turkey's Sanliurfa province on November 10, 2012.
A Syrian refugee waits November 27 at a hairdresser, where refugees can also receive training, inside the Oncupinar camp in Kilis, southern Turkey.
A Syrian boy attends school in the Turkish town of Kilis on December 17.
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