Returning to Syria — Between loss and hope - video Dailymotion

DW (English)

After the toppling of President Bashar Assad, more and more Syrian refugees are returning to their homeland from exile abroad. DW accompanies three returnees trying to rebuild their lives and their country.

Transcript

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,

Returning to Syria — Between loss and hope

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