With the downfall of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, there’s surely no way the new boss could be as bad as the old boss. No doubt a new era of peace and prosperity awaits.
Which begs the question: when are the Syrian refugees going to bugger off home?
After all, droves of their countrymen are already doing just that.
Hundreds of Syrian refugees gathered at two border crossings in southern Turkey on Monday, eagerly anticipating their return home following the fall of President Bashar Assad’s government.
Many arrived at the Cilvegozu and Oncupinar border gates at daybreak, draped in blankets and coats. Some camped by the barriers of the border crossing, warming themselves with makeshift fires or resting on the cold ground. The crossings correspond to the Bab al-Hawa and Bab al-Salameh gates on the Syrian side of the border.
Good on them. If someone flees a war and then the war is over, what excuse have they got for squatting in a faraway country with a culture almost completely alien to theirs?
As it happens, Turkey is at least culturally compatible to Syrians, being their Islamic next-door neighbour (indeed, there are some suggestions that Turkey will look to Syria as its first step to re-establishing the Ottoman caliphate). But there’s no place like home.
Among those waiting at Cilvegozu was 28-year-old Muhammed Zin, who was excited at the prospect of returning home. He fled Damascus in 2016 and has been living and working in Istanbul.
“Assad was shooting us, killing us,” he told The Associated Press. “I will return to Syria now. Thank God, the war is over.”
Seer Ali, 18, who left Damascus six years ago, had been working in the nearby city of Gaziantep to support his mother and siblings back home.
“We are very happy, very happy. Not just me, but everyone, all of us Syrians here are very happy,” he said. “Everyone will return, no one will stay here. They will all go to their families.”
If these fellows are so quick to return to their homeland, what’s stopping their countrymen in the West, who were out waving their Syrian flags and celebrating in the streets?
Zakariya Mori al-Shami, 31, who arrived in Turkey in 2019, was waiting to cross the border with his wife and two children to return to Aleppo. He hopes to rebuild his home, which was destroyed during the conflict.
“We came here because there was a war now the war is over and we’re going back,” he said.
Exactly.
Hundreds of displaced Syrians were also returning Monday from Lebanon, with dozens of cars lining up to enter. Lebanese residents on Sunday handed out congratulatory sweets to Syrians waiting to go back to their country.
As it turns out, I’m not the only one wondering what’s keeping Syrian refugees in the West, now.
Britain, Germany, France and several other European countries have indicated that they would freeze all pending asylum requests from Syrians, a day after the ousting of president Bashar al-Assad.
Austria is mucking around even less.
While Berlin and other governments said they were watching the fast-moving developments in the war-ravaged nation, Austria signalled it would soon deport refugees back to Syria […]
Interior Minister Gerhard Karner added he had “instructed the ministry to prepare an orderly repatriation and deportation programme to Syria”.
Politicians in other European countries are also wondering why Syrians would stick around, now.
Alice Weidel, of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany, reacted with disdain to Sunday’s mass rallies by jubilant Syrians celebrating Assad’s downfall.
“Anyone in Germany who celebrates ‘free Syria’ evidently no longer has any reason to flee,” she wrote on X. “They should return to Syria immediately.”
Should. But will they?
Many Syrians in Germany have watched the events in their home country with great joy but prefer to wait and see before deciding whether to return.
Gotta weigh up those benefits – if you know what I mean.
