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Syrians lined up at the Turkish border on Wednesday to return home after overthrown rebels President Bashar al-Assad, speaking of his hopes for a better life after what for many was a decade of hardship in Türkiye.
“We don’t have anyone here. We will return to Latakia, where we have family,” Mustafa said as he prepared to enter Syria with his wife and three children at the Cilvegozu border gate in southern Turkey. Dozens more Syrians were waiting to cross.
Mustafa fled Syria in 2012, a year after the conflict began, to escape mandatory military service in Assad’s army. For years he worked unregistered jobs in Türkiye earning less than the minimum wage, he said.
“Now there is a better Syria. God willing, we will have a better life there,” he said, expressing confidence in the new leadership in Syria as he surveyed the family’s belongings, clothes packed in sacks and a television.
The civil war that emerged from an uprising against Assad in 2011 killed hundreds of thousands of people and drove millions abroad.
Turkey, which is home to three million Syrians, has extended the opening hours of the Cilvegozu border gate, near the Syrian city of Aleppo, seized by rebels in late November.
TO The second border gate was opened at nearby Yayladagi. in Hatay on Tuesday.
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Between 350 and 400 Syrians a day were already crossing This year they returned to rebel-held areas of Syria, before the opposition rebellion began two weeks ago. The numbers have almost doubled since then, Ankara says, anticipating an increase now that Assad is gone.
Türkiye has backed Syrian opposition forces for years but has said it had no participation in the rebel offensive that managed to overthrow Assad over the weekend after 13 years of civil war.
About 100 trucks were waiting to cross the border, transporting goods, including dozens of used cars. Security forces helped control the flow of people, while aid groups offered snacks to children and tea and soup to adults.
‘OUR OWN PEOPLE’ ARE NOW IN CHARGE
Haya was waiting to enter Syria with her husband and three children. They have lived in a nearby container camp since the devastating February 2023 earthquakes killed more than 50,000 people in Türkiye and Syria.
“We had good neighbors and good relationships, but a container is not a home,” Haya said as she comforted her six-month-old baby and her daughter translated her comments from Arabic.
“We return to Aleppo. Iman has a school here, but we don’t have anything else. We will return home, to our family,” Haya said, adding that his brother had been freed after years in prison following the overthrow of Assad.
Syria’s new interim prime minister He has said his goal is to bring back millions of Syrian refugees, protect all citizens and provide basic services, but acknowledged that would be difficult because the country, long under sanctions, lacks foreign currency.
Mustafa expressed confidence in the new leadership after Assad was overthrown by rebels led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a former al Qaeda affiliate who has since downplayed his jihadist roots.
“Those who have taken power are not strangers. They did not come from the United States or Russia. They are our own people. “We know them,” he said.
