Nazan Rashidi, government director of human rights group the Syria Campaign, in Berlin, Wednesday.
Karolin Klüppel for NPR
disguise caption
toggle caption
Karolin Klüppel for NPR
BERLIN — The employees of two on the packed hole-in-the-wall Syrian restaurant Yarok in Berlin are swamped making hummus and falafel for a lunch crowd, however information of the downfall of the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad has them each smiling.
Customer Razan Rashidi orders her tea with a celebratory phrase in Arabic, and the boys manning the counter beam, telling her that on at the present time of liberation, tea for a fellow Syrian is free.
“It’s a day for celebration,” says Rashidi, who works as the manager director of the Syria Campaign, a human rights group based mostly in Berlin.
Like lots of the tens of 1000’s of Syrians who’ve settled in Berlin since Syria’s civil struggle started greater than a decade in the past, Rashidi was out late the night time earlier than, celebrating within the streets. “For me it was an incredible feeling simply to have the ability to hug full strangers and inform them, ‘Congratulations, Syria is ours and it doesn’t belong to the Assad household!'”
For Rashidi, the liberation is private. Up till this week, she undertook her human rights work as Laila Kiki, a pseudonym to guard herself from Syrian safety officers. But at this time, the regime that routinely interrogated and harassed her earlier than she fled Syria, isn’t any extra, and he or she is utilizing her actual identify once more for the primary time in 17 years. She’s lastly free to be herself, a sense she thinks many Syrians are sharing this week.
Nazan Rashidi holds a trinket that was made by her now husband greater than 10 years in the past in a detention middle.
Karolin Klüppel for NPR
disguise caption
toggle caption
Karolin Klüppel for NPR
“I wish to go residence,” she says, virtually in tears as she thinks about returning to see household again in Syria. “I wish to go go to for now, for certain, as a result of it would take time to rearrange my life and my children and all of that. But for certain, that is my dream.”
The rebels’ swift seizure of energy in Damascus over the weekend introduced a sudden finish to greater than 50 years of rule by the Assad household. Assad’s reign, and the brutal civil struggle that started in 2011, despatched greater than 6 million individuals to hunt refuge in different international locations, in one of many world’s largest displacement crises, in line with United Nations figures. Official German statistics rely greater than 970,000 of them residing in Germany, the place politicians are making their presence a political debate forward of elections subsequent 12 months. Now, with change afoot in Syria, lots of the exiles are contemplating visiting or shifting again for good, though others really feel settled of their new residence in Europe.
Samer Hafez in his restaurant Aleppo Supper Club in Berlin.
Karolin Klüppel for NPR
disguise caption
toggle caption
Karolin Klüppel for NPR
At a Syrian restaurant in Berlin known as Aleppo Supper Club, proprietor Samer Hafez says he hasn’t slept since he heard the information that the Assad regime was completed. His eyes crimson and drained, however he is smiling, too. “Many Syrians I do know have not but actually processed what’s simply occurred,” he says. “Even the concept of returning residence to see household appears unreal. It’s like I’m in a dream.”
Ten years in the past, Hafez was on a crowded boat within the Mediterranean Sea, fleeing his residence nation. He ended up in Berlin, a refugee, talking no German, with no job and with barely any cash in his pocket. “When I arrived to Germany, I had a to-do checklist,” Hafez remembers. “Year by 12 months, I crossed off all the things I wanted to do to settle right here and make this place my residence: I began studying German and after three months, I had my first job. Then I met the girl who’s now my spouse. We had kids. Then I opened my first restaurant. Then the second. And now the third. I simply received my German passport, and after I had it in my palms, it was the primary time I actually felt protected.”
Aleppo Supper Club now has three places in Berlin and serves what some name the perfect hummus on the town. Since making it to Germany, Hafez has been capable of deliver his mom and siblings over, too. His sister simply graduated with a mechanical engineering diploma and one other sister is learning to turn out to be a health care provider in Munich. Like many Syrians who arrived a decade in the past, Hafez’s life is right here.
The entrance of restaurant Aleppo Supper Club in Berlin. Almost 1,000,000 Syrians live in Germany, in line with official statistics.
Karolin Klüppel for NPR
disguise caption
toggle caption
Karolin Klüppel for NPR
German authorities have suspended approval of recent Syrian asylum claims for now, as have a number of different international locations. But some German politicians wish to go additional: They’re calling on the Syrians already settled within the nation to go away.
This week on nationwide tv, Jens Spahn, a politician from the center-right Christian Democratic Union get together, which is on observe to win probably the most votes within the coming German election, made a public supply to Syrians. “The German authorities may constitution flights for Syrians wishing to go away and provides them a thousand euros for starter cash,” Spahn mentioned on the NTV community. “I’m considering of all of the younger Syrian males right here in Germany who undoubtedly want to give their homeland a future and who wish to assist us make it potential for them to return to Syria voluntarily.”
Hafez finds this an odd notion.
“Home for me is right here in Germany,” he says. “Sure I’m Syrian, however I’m additionally now a German. Every time I’m on trip, I miss Berlin. I can not keep away greater than a few weeks. I’ve constructed a enterprise and a life right here. My household is right here. Germany is my residence. At least for now.”
Esme Nicholson contributed to this report.
