ISTANBUL 28 years old Mohammad Toumouk sitting in front of a shawarma restaurant drinking tea. Toumouk has a smile on his face. He is visiting his relatives who run a restaurant in Istanbul from Germany.
Toumouk and his family hope to return to Syria soon.
– I already had time to forget the whole idea. Now we can hope again that Syria will become a democratic and free country again, as it was before Assad’s father, he says.
More than three million Syrians live in Turkey. On Sunday, Istanbul’s Fatih district celebrated the end of the Assad family’s rule.
Toumouk and other Syrians who have fled abroad share their feelings in a video:
A green flag with three arrows and stars hangs on the wall of Mohammad Toumouk’s relatives’ restaurant. The flag is of the Circassian, a minority of Caucasian origin in Syria, to which Toumouk and his family belong.
– There are many minorities in Syria. We have a beautiful mix of Christians, Muslims and all kinds of ethnic groups, he says.
At the beginning of the uprising, people took to the streets to oppose Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship regardless of religious group or ethnicity. Only later did the conflict begin to turn into a fight by Sunni Muslim extremist organizations against Assad’s Alawite regime.
The Alawites are a splinter group from the Shiite branch of Islam. Many Sunni Muslim extremist organizations consider the footnotes heretical.
“Assad tried to turn different groups against each other”
During the conflict, Assad tried to present himself as a protector of minorities against extremist organizations. According to Toumouki, the Assad family actually did everything else.
Mixed Bashar al-Assad that his father, who led Syria in 1971–2000 Hazef al-Assad tried to turn ethnic and religious groups against each other, says Toumouk.
– They bombed the church and then the mosque next.
The Assad regime carried out more than half of the attacks against churches during the civil war, according to a 2019 report by the independent Syrian Network for Human Rights.
Toumouk is not worried about the position of minorities under the extremist organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which has now taken over Damascus.
– So far, we have not heard that minorities have been treated unfairly. I think people have learned from what happened to our country, he says.
HTS has tried convince Syria’s minorities for having nothing to fear. Human rights organizations have reacted to the organization’s speeches with reservations.
First time to meet cousins
30 years old Ali Shakfa spends the afternoon with his wife and daughter in front of the Fatih Mosque. Shakfa has never been to Syria, as his father fled to the United Arab Emirates even before his son was born in 1982.
At that time, the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood from Egypt rebelled in the city of Hama against the regime of Hafez al-Assad. As a result, the administration violently punished the city’s residents. Estimates of the number of dead range between thousands and tens of thousands.
– They wanted to imprison my father, even though he hadn’t done anything, Shakfa says.
Shakfa has been in Turkey for 12 years now, first studying and now working in the media industry.
– Although I have lived my whole life abroad and have not done anything criminal, I found out that my name was also on the list of people to be imprisoned in Syria.
This has meant that Shakfa has never met his family members living in Syria.
Now he is planning to go see his cousins and other relatives for the first time in his life.
– Two weeks ago I could not have believed this. I can’t put into words how happy I am right now.
Shakfa is optimistic about the new administration. Anything other than Bashar al-Assad is good for Syria, he says.
He believes that the administration will also treat minorities equally.
– This is an opportunity for Syrians to rebuild the country.
Turkey’s role is praised
Turkey has played a major role in the Syrian civil war as a supporter of the rebels. Turkey has especially supported the so-called Syrian National Army, which is part of the coalition of rebels who have now taken over Syria.
Turkey has long hoped to be able to send refugees who have lived in the country for years back to Syria.
The refugee issue has become an extremely politicized topic in a difficult economic situation. During the elections, the opposition parties wooed voters with promises of mass deportations of Syrians.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan the party AKP, on the other hand, has been more moderate and has not threatened the refugees. On Sunday, many of the refugees who celebrated the change of power had pictures of Erdoğan on their posters.
Hassan Abdulwaheed59, fled Damascus at the very beginning of the war to Istanbul with his daughter and wife.
– We have only been here in Turkey temporarily. We are grateful to Turkey, says Abdulwaheed.
According to Abdulwaheed, about half of Istanbul’s Syrians now want to return. He says that his own family is also excited to go home.
The new regime is more tolerant than Assad’s, Abdulwaheed believes.