00:00Syria, a land still shaped by one of the world's largest displacement crises.
00:13Millions were forced to leave their homes.
00:16I wish I could have stayed in Aleppo, but I had to leave for security concerns.
00:21Following the recent fall of the Assad regime,
00:24tens of thousands of Syrians have begun to return home from abroad,
00:28hoping to rebuild their war-torn country.
00:32The decision to return was a very tough one.
00:37More than 14 million people have been forcibly displaced since the conflict began in 2011.
00:44Today, we bring you stories of hope and struggle of three Syrians
00:49who decided to return home after years in exile.
00:53It's home, no?
00:55This is our country, and the country of origin always wins.
00:59You're welcome, come in.
01:18Assalamu alaikum.
01:20Fatima Zahra spent nearly a decade in Germany with her family,
01:24having fled the violence that threatened her community in Aleppo.
01:29Her decision to return after the fall of the Assad regime
01:32was driven by a desire to give her children a home
01:35where she feels rooted both culturally and religiously.
01:40Her husband remains in Germany for work.
01:43They exchange a brief call each day just before she heads out to collect the children from school.
01:49We were always the strangers in the neighborhood,
01:52and we often experienced harassment.
01:58The difference in customs, traditions, and principles,
02:01it all made things very difficult for us.
02:04Every day I drop the children at school, and I pick them up,
02:13although school buses are available.
02:15But I want to do it myself so they don't feel the change,
02:18since in Germany they didn't use the school bus.
02:21In the backyard, turtle Shakira noticed the boy's arrival.
02:34Before we left during the uprising, we had this turtle.
02:37My brother brought it, and he named it Shakira after the famous singer
02:41because Shakira's World Cup song was trending back then.
02:44The turtle is still here, and we're back home.
02:47So it survived all these years on its own?
02:52Yes, all alone.
02:54It really survived the war.
02:58Fatima shows us traces of shrapnel and bombing
03:01that damaged her family home back in 2012.
03:05She says she's excited about working on the house,
03:08but also the rebuilding of the entire country.
03:12After the wars, those who witnessed the renaissance of a country
03:16they become more connected.
03:18Like in Germany and Japan, the people witnessed the rebuilding of their nations
03:23and became more patriotic.
03:25And this is what I want for me and my children,
03:30to go through the same experience.
03:33Aleppo was once Syria's largest and most prosperous city.
03:42It became a central battleground in the country's civil war that erupted in 2011.
03:52Hundreds of thousands were killed, and tens of thousands remain missing.
03:57Years of intense fighting between opposition forces
04:00and government troops loyal to the dictator Bashar al-Assad
04:04devastated Aleppo.
04:06To this day, Aleppo's historic neighborhoods
04:09and much of its infrastructure lie in ruins.
04:12Amr Yakan, a lawyer from Aleppo, lived through much of that.
04:17You're most welcome.
04:18There is no electricity as is usual in Aleppo.
04:25Up here was a metallic tent with bricks.
04:29It was hit by a mortar and was destroyed along with parts of the wall and this door.
04:35We recently repaired it and made it back into a home.
04:44Amr left Syria in 2013 to escape the Assad regime's persecution.
04:50His journey took him from Dubai to Turkey, then to Canada,
04:54where he built a new life with his wife and two children.
04:57Yet, deeply connected to his homeland, he felt a sense of duty to return.
05:02It was a very courageous decision, I would say.
05:10It was a short while before I secured permanent residency and Canadian citizenship,
05:16but I let it go and came back.
05:18I can't describe how happy I am to be back to my loved ones and my country.
05:23This was an illusion, and I always wondered if I'll ever be back.
05:27I was desperate.
05:28It's time for Amr's daily tour through the heart of Aleppo.
05:33The city lies in ruins.
05:35Its infrastructure barely functioning.
05:38Yet, he says being here is what matters most.
05:42People keep asking me, are you serious about your stay here?
05:45It makes me feel guilty.
05:47They keep saying you're crazy to go back in these times.
05:49They can't believe it.
05:50They make me feel as if I did something wrong.
05:52I know I can have a luxurious life abroad, but I won't be among my family and in my country.
06:06Look how these people are queuing outside the bank to receive their salaries.
06:13May God be with them.
06:15Amr is visiting the mosque that his ancestors built nearly 300 years ago in the old city center.
06:27He tells us that his great-great-grandfather, Uthman Bashar Yakan, was the ruler of Aleppo in the 18th century.
06:34The mosque was built in 1728.
06:42It was hit by several bombs from the regime's side and was heavily damaged, but the family restored it.
06:50In there is the graveyard where my uncles and grandfathers are buried.
06:54And they ask, why did you return to Aleppo? My soul is here.
07:15Amr says he has great memories in each corner of this ancient palace.
07:19One day the shelling was very intense and it hit a crescent fixed on one of the mosque's domes.
07:28So I grabbed it and ran for safety.
07:31It was made of copper and it's nearly 300 years old.
07:38I took it with me in exile to Dubai, Istanbul and Toronto.
07:43And now I brought it back with me.
07:44I kept it all this time and returned it to the mosque when I came back.
07:52Aleppo is not the only city left in ruins.
07:55Nearly 14 years of conflict have brought widespread destruction to much of the country.
08:01The devastation is still clearly visible on the outskirts of the Syrian capital, Damascus.
08:06Now home to Fadi al-Khatib.
08:15When I wake up in the morning, my first thoughts go to whether I'm in Damascus for real.
08:20I look through the window and ask if I'm here.
08:25I look at the phone, check the date. Is it correct or am I dreaming?
08:27Fadi once fled the war in his hometown of Aleppo and moved to the opposition-held city of Idlib.
08:37But after losing his family in the devastating 2023 earthquake in Turkey and Syria,
08:43he moved to Britain where he sought refuge.
08:45I applied for asylum but the regime fell halfway through the process.
08:55So it was time for me to go back and take part in rebuilding Syria.
09:02When you go through trauma, your dreams differ.
09:05My dream has changed.
09:06All I want now is to revive my brother's dream.
09:11I will not allow death to shatter his dream.
09:15Ferdi's brother, Yaman, was his role model.
09:20A prominent journalist and filmmaker who dedicated his life to shedding light on the atrocities and crises in Syria.
09:28Yaman's dream of creating cinema that reflected the suffering of his people went unfulfilled.
09:35Now Fadi is carrying that vision forward.
09:39I'm on the way to the Yarmouk camp.
09:43I'm working on a story about school dropouts and child labour.
09:51To me, building Syria starts with building a new generation of educated children.
09:57Children should be at school and not in the workplace.
10:01It's not the environment for them.
10:05For my generation, it's very hard to rebuild Syria.
10:08We can only take a step, but it's the new generation that will build the country.
10:13And if they're uneducated, it won't work.
10:18Syria is navigating a fragile transition after the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in December 2024.
10:24A new interim government is attempting to rebuild state institutions.
10:30But the country continues to face a severe economic crisis, a volatile security situation and social discontent.
10:38For returnees coming back after years in exile, it's a bold step.
10:43One that comes with many challenges.
10:45I was very worried that the kids are coming from German schools and that they'd be very sad.
10:52But it's a power outage.
10:59Now we wait for the private generator.
11:02We are in the phase of power switch.
11:05Here in Aleppo, there's two sources of power, the state electricity and the private generators.
11:12Three lies, three journeys, in three corners of a changing Syria.
11:17I'm optimistic and I will do my best. Not only for me but for my kids.
11:24I mean my future kids. And for my friends and family that I lost.
11:29We started a revolution for this country. We didn't start it to leave it to build a life in exile.
11:36Especially after it was liberated. We must engage in the rebuilding. It's a duty and we must be up for it.
11:46For Syria, I wish that we achieve the goals of the revolution.
11:51And for my family, I wish that we regroup and reconnect with this country.
11:57Because in Germany, no matter what we do, we will remain strangers.
12:03The stories, different yet intertwined, reflect shared hope and resilience.
12:14Despite fears and uncertainties, each one believes in the possibility of renewal.
12:33and not corruption of a crisis.
12:35And in society, to create British history in German,
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