Wafaa Omar spent eight months in a Syrian jail in 2014. A refugee in Istanbul since her release, the English teacher is excited at the idea of seeing the streets of old Damascus again.
“For the past week, I have felt something very beautiful. Yesterday I cried, cried, cried”confides the fifty-year-old, certain that the meteoric advance of the Syrian rebels will lead to a “political solution” even before the fighting reached the capital, Damascus.
Like her, 500,000 Syrian refugees live in Istanbul, the largest city in Türkiye. A total of three million have found refuge in the country, fleeing the civil war which has left half a million dead in Syria since 2011.
Wafaa Omar, refugee in Istanbul for 10 years, December 6, 2024 / Ozan KOSE / AFP
Wafaa Omar initially plans to “back and forth” in Damascus, one of her daughters having just entered university in Istanbul, but many families will seek to return to Syria permanently in a few months, she predicts.
Thrown in prison for publications on Facebook against the regime, the teacher, involved in an association helping displaced people in Syria, has long taken a dim view of Abou Mohammed al-Jolani, the leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-group. Sham (HTS) who leads the rebel coalition and wants to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.
“At first, I was against him but now I love him a lot because he managed to do what no one else had managed. He does his job and then he will retire”she prophesies.
“when Assad falls”
A few streets away, in the lively Fatih district, one of the epicenters of Istanbul’s Syrian community, Mohamad Amer Alzakkour also found that Jolani, initially from the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda, “has changed a lot”.
“I have nostalgia for my homeland”says this 58-year-old engineer from Aleppo, combed back hair and thin black glasses, who closely follows the advance of the Syrian rebels now at the gates of Homs, the third city of the country, after having retaken Aleppo (north) and Hama (center) in less than a week.
A Syrian refugee from Damascus in Istanbul on December 6, 2024 / Ozan KOSE / AFP
“I could easily return (…) participate in the reconstruction of the future Syria, but I have difficulty convincing my children. I am Arab, but my children became Turkish”he explains.
The Turkish government, faced with strong anti-Syrian sentiment among the population, would welcome the departure of large contingents of refugees.
On Wednesday, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya predicted a wave of returns if the rebels keep the towns recently recaptured from the regime, believing however that it was too early to risk it.
“Aleppo is already safe”judge Veli Davi, on his way to Friday prayers. This father from Aleppo, a refugee in Türkiye for twelve years, will not leave his children a choice: “We will leave when the situation is resolved, when Assad falls”he says.
“beautiful days”
Muhamed Naes, Syrian refugee in Istanbul on December 6, 2024 / Ozan KOSE / AFP
“Assad will fall within a few days. If he is not overthrown, he will withdraw on his own, he has no other options.”a street further down Muhamed Naes, 20 years old, impeccable suit and beard behind the counter of the family shop.
“50% of us are about to return”he said in Turkish without an accent. “And the remaining 50% will return at one time or another because no place can replace our homeland”.
The young trader is ready to put an end to his life in Türkiye, where he arrived at the age of eight.
“I spent more time here than in Syria, but there is our family culture there. Our families constantly tell us about their happy days back home”he confides.
“We want to go back and be able to relive what they told us”.
