Raqqa’s bookseller had a secret warehouse that ISIS couldn’t find – now the bookstore is open and the city is recovering

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More people are now moving to Raqqa, which has become known as the capital of the extremist group Isis, five years after Isis was expelled. The city has a reputation as a safe place.

– I said just burn them if you don’t like my books. As long as you don’t take me to jail.

That’s what the owner of the Port Said bookstore said Ahmed Khabur describes his encounter with the fighters of the extremist group ISIS when Raqqa was the capital of the so-called caliphate established by ISIS. Isis entered Raqqa in January 2014.

Khabur bookstore is the oldest in Raqqa. It was founded already in 1957.

Isis applied its own strict interpretation of Islam and the movement’s fighters found a lot to burn in a small bookstore.

– They confiscated books and burned them in that street, Khabur describes.

Practically all non-religious books ended up on the shelf. Of the religious books, only the Koran and the works of Islamic extremists were allowed to remain on the shelves.

– However, I had a warehouse that they couldn’t find. There were particularly valuable books that I was able to save, Khabur says.

The residents of Raqqa were at the mercy of ISIS for just under four years, until Kurdish fighters supported by western countries took over the city in the fall of 2017.

– It didn’t help but to like ISIS fighters. They had guns – I didn’t even have a toothpick. They had to say “you are Muslims – I am an infidel”, Ahmed Khabur describes the atmosphere.

– They killed people just for that. How could I not be afraid.

The story continues after the fact box.

The hosts changed a lot

  • When protests against President Bashar al-Assad turned into a civil war, Raqqa first fell into the hands of Islamist rebel groups.
  • Anti-Assad protests began in 2011 and Syrian government forces lost Raqqa in the spring of 2013.
  • In January 2014, the city was taken over by the extremist group ISIS.
  • Western-backed Kurdish-led forces captured Raqqa in October 2017.
  • The city is now part of the unofficial autonomous region of northeastern Syria, controlled by Kurdish forces and their Arab allies.
  • ISIS no longer controls a single area of ​​land, but it still carries out individual attacks. ISIS is estimated to have cells in different parts of Syria and Iraq.
  • The bookseller mourns the fate of the town

    The shelves of the bookstore have been filled again with books from the secret warehouse and books acquired from book fairs, but Khabur mourns the sufferings of the surrounding city.

    – People were beaten into the streets here. Not only buildings were destroyed here, but also people’s souls. However, it doesn’t help to despair, Khabur thinks.

    The 81-year-old Khabur’s children live in Germany, but he does not want to leave Raqqa anywhere.

    – This is my birthplace and my home, where would I go from here.

    Traces of Isis can also be seen in the museum

    We meet an archaeologist in the closed museum next door Muhammad Ezzon, who has managed the museum for a long time. The museum building was damaged in the fighting, but the damage has been repaired.

    In the lobby of the museum, you can see a mosaic that has been bumped and tried to tear off the wall, because ISIS fighters did not like the animal figures visible in it.

    “Raqqa is reborn”

    – We archaeologists and historians know that Raqqa has been destroyed five times before in the Islamic era. The destroyers have always been religious extremists. We believe and know that Raqqa will be born again, Ezzo thinks.

    In the fall of 2017, he fled to Aleppo for a few months, when the fate of the city was being fought between ISIS and Kurdish forces supported by the West.

    – When the city was liberated, I came here immediately. The place was in shocking condition. There was rubble everywhere. There was no electricity or water in the city. In the evenings, it was pitch black in the city, where there weren’t even decent streets.

    According to Ezzo, the situation started to change in a few months and now Raqqa is a kind of success story.

    – Dare to move outside at night. There is electricity and water. More people are moving here all the time, which does cause practical problems, but the newcomers have been welcomed.

    According to Ezzo, the population has already risen to over a million, but no one seems to know the exact number.

    A small part of the museum’s collections remains

    There is still a long way to go before the rebirth of the museum. From the original collection of thousands of objects, according to Ezzo, about 300 objects remain, which were managed to be hidden from the robbers.

    – The staff hid them in a chest, and worthless ceramic shards were placed on top, Muhammad Ezzo says.

    Most of the museum’s collections left Bashar al-Assad to the journey of the rebels who fought against it even before Isis came to Raqqa.

    However, Isis searched for antiques to be sold abroad in addition to the museum with uncontrolled excavations around the Raqqa region, and it is difficult to estimate the damage caused by the excavations.

    Will the Assad regime return?

    The future of Raqqa is uncertain. Now the city is under the control of Kurdish forces and Kurdish Arab allies. But the Syrian government forces are only twenty kilometers away.

    Over the years, Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad has vowed to recapture all the territories he lost.

    Bookseller Ahmed Khabur was once involved in the Syrian Communist Party and spent time in prison as a young man for his activism.

    – If the exploitation mentality and oppression do not end, the old system is invalid. People must be allowed to criticize the administration. All the best to the leader, but only on the condition that he respects his citizens, bookseller Ahmed Khabur muses when I ask about Assad’s return.

    Not everyone wants to talk as openly, and a few bookstore customers politely refuse to be interviewed.

    “Only God knows what will happen”

    On the street you can see small children selling sweets and also beggars. But many people say that Raqqa, despite its people’s economic problems, is a better place than many other Syrian cities.

    Electricity is rationed in Raqqa as in the whole of Syria. However, the street lights come on at night and there are a lot of people on the streets late into the evening. It feels safe here.

    – Only God knows what will happen next. I hope things will go in a better direction, says a seller of clothes on a busy shopping street Mahmud al-Hariri.

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