Thousands of Syrians poured onto Germany’s streets once they heard of the autumn of the brutal regime that had dominated Syria for many years below Bashar Assad and his father, Hafez al-Assed, earlier than him.
But now, per week after insurgent forces seized the capital, Damascus, most of the Syrians exiled in Germany are asking themselves what’s subsequent for Syria and for themselves and their households.
Anas Modamani: ‘I’ll keep’
Anas Modamani was 17 when he fled Syri’s civil warfare and the concern of being drafted into Assad’s military, ending up in Berlin.
A selfie he took with then German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2015 went viral as an emblem of Merkel’s choice to permit a whole lot of 1000’s of migrants into Germany that 12 months.
During his time in Germany, he has by no means given up hope that Syria can be freed from Assad, he tells DW.
His response to listening to of Assad’s downfall? “Oh my God, it is lastly over. I may hardly sleep … I’ve been watching the information continuous.”
Modamani is assured that the scenario in Syria will now enhance and that the nation will return to regular.
“But I’ll nonetheless keep in Germany,” he says. “I’ve constructed my life right here during the last 10 years.”
He now additionally holds a German passport, one of many 214,000 folks in Germany with a Syrian immigrant background.
Modamani studied enterprise communications in Berlin and now works as a contract journalist, together with for DW.
When he appears to be like at his image with Merkel, he displays on how warmly Syrian refugees have been welcomed again then. “When you mentioned, ‘from Syria’, folks would smile. And now I usually really feel that we’re not welcome.”
The undeniable fact that German politicians have been discussing deportations so quickly after the autumn of Assad has frightened many Syrians.
Kefah Ali Deeb: ‘We should rebuild our nation’
Syrian Kefah Ali Deeb fled to Germany in 2014 after being jailed 4 instances for protesting towards the federal government; in 2011, pro-democracy protests demanding an finish to the authoritarian practices of the Assad regime led to the forming of opposition militias and the beginning of a totally fledged civil warfare in 2012.
But Ali Deeb, an writer, activist and artist, says one factor is for certain — the 42-year-old desires to return to her homeland as quickly as attainable.
“At the second, I’m planning that with my husband,” she tells DW on the telephone. “Because even after 10 years [in Germany], that is nonetheless not dwelling but. I used to be at all times depressed.”
“We nonetheless can not get any data on our beloved ones who’ve been in jail for 10 or 12 or 14 years. We do not know something, if they’re survivors or if Al-Assad killed them.”
Ali Deeb hopes that Syria’s broadly documented historical past of torture and abstract killings will quickly be addressed.
“Because that is the one means that justice shall be actual. To launch our anger, and our unhappiness. I’d like to be a part of that,” she says.
“It’s very troublesome to [start] once more from nothing. But nonetheless, it is our nation, it is our dwelling. We need to do one thing to rebuild our nation.”
With her want to return, Ali Deeb appears to be within the minority; surveys of Syrians in Germany present that almost all of them wish to keep the place they’re.
Ali: ‘I wish to combine’
Ali, who does not wish to give his surname, is amongst those that wish to keep in Germany. DW meets him within the city of Bonn in western Germany, at a facility for migrants the place 540 refugees are at present dwelling, together with 145 from Syria.
Ali, from Damascus, says it’s “good” that Assad’s regime has falled. But although he has solely been in Germany for simply over a 12 months and hardly speaks any German, Ali desires to remain right here.
“I wish to combine,” he says, including that he has already discovered a job and is on his means there.
But will these newer arrivals additionally get an opportunity to construct a brand new life in Germany? Germany’s Office for Migration and Refugees has acquired 72,000 new asylum purposes from Syrians in 2024.
Following the autumn of Assad, nonetheless, asylum purposes from Syrians at present aren’t being processed.
Man Achorr: ‘Everything was destroyed’
For the second, Syrian Man Achorr cannot think about going again. Just two months in the past, the 47-year-old took the plunge into self-employment and opened his personal small grocery store within the south of Bonn.
Tins of tomatoes and hummus, sacks of bulgur and chickpea flour are stacked in six rows in his shops. He additionally sells contemporary greens and Arabic bread. About half his clients are Arabs, he says, mentioning that anybody who misses Syrian delicacies can discover the precise spice combine at his retailer.
Achorr is from Ghuta close to Damascus. Seven years in the past, he and his brother fled to Germany by way of Egypt.
“My 4 youngsters go to highschool right here and converse fluent German,” he says. He’s glad that Assad, who has fled to Russia, is not in energy.
“I hope the warfare is over now for good,” he says.
But in the midst of the civil warfare, “all the things was destroyed” in his hometown, lengthy a refuge for radical Islamic militias. He hopes to go to his dad and mom in Syria, however not instantly.
“Slowly, slowly,” he says. He first desires to attend and see how the scenario develops.
Tareq Alaows: ‘Germany may help Syria’
It is way from sure that peace and freedom will prevail in Syria. That is why, says Tareq Alaows, discussions in regards to the deportation of Syrians again dwelling are nothing greater than “electioneering on the backs of the refugees.”
Alaows, who got here to Germany from Syria in 2015, is now an activist with the human rights group Pro Asyl. He had hoped to develop into a member of parliament in 2021, standing for the Greens, however withdrew his candidacy after receiving threats.
Sending folks again to Syria within the present scenario just isn’t legally attainable, says Alaows.
“For repatriation, it isn’t sufficient to say that asylum purposes will not be permitted, but it surely should be decided whether or not Syrians might be assured a secure return. And no person can assure that now.”
In current days, Alaows says that he has acquired a whole lot of messages from folks within the Syrian neighborhood who’re nervous. They concern that they’ll now be deported, although they’ve been dwelling in Germany for years.
Alaows hopes that German politicians will now deal with serving to to rebuild Syria. And, he says, Germany may tackle a number one position within the worldwide felony prosecution of these accountable for the Assad dictatorship.
“Germany, with its historical past, has expertise with working via the previous and will present help right here,” he says.
This article was initially written in German.
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