Some Syrians in Turkey seek immediate return as Russia grants asylum to ousted dictator Assad

Some Syrians in Turkey seek immediate return as Russia grants asylum to ousted dictator Assad

The Kremlin said on Monday Russia has granted political asylum to overthrown Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a decision it said was taken by President Vladimir Putin.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on Assad’s specific whereabouts and said Putin was not planning to meet with him.

Syrian rebels, led by an alliance by Hayat al-Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former al-Qaeda affiliate, reached Damascus over the weekend and overthrew Assad’s government following nearly 14 years of civil war. Assad’s overthrow, which appeared unthinkable just two weeks ago, raised hopes for a more peaceful future but also concerns about a potential security vacuum in the country, which is still split among armed groups.

Assad had been Syria’s leader since 2000, succeeding his father, who had been president for three decades.

Peskov said it was too early to say what the future would hold for Russia’s military bases in Syria, adding that it would be the subject of discussion with the new rulers in Damascus.

“This is all a subject for discussion with those who will be in power in Syria,” Peskov said, adding that there was “extreme instability” in the country.

Moscow has used Syria as a staging post to fly its military contractors in and out of Africa.

PM still in his post

Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi Jalali, who remained in his post after Assad and most of his top officials vanished over the weekend, has sought to project normalcy.

“We are working so that the transitional period is quick and smooth,” he told Sky News Arabia TV on Monday, saying the security situation had already improved from the day before.

He said the government is co-ordinating with the insurgents, and that he is ready to meet rebel leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani.

Separately, a Syrian opposition war monitor said a top aide to Assad’s brother, Maher, was found dead in his office near Damascus. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was not clear if Maj. Gen. Ali Mahmoud, was killed or died by suicide.

Damascus was quiet on Monday, with life slowly returning to normal while most shops and public institutions were closed. In public squares, some people were still celebrating.

Civilian traffic resumed but there was no public transport. Long lines formed in front of bakeries and other food stores.

There was little sign of any security presence, and Associated Press reporters saw a few SUVs on the side of a main boulevard that appeared to have been broken into. In some areas, small groups of armed men were stationed in the streets.

A video circulating online showed a man in military fatigues holding a rifle attempting to reassure residents of the Mezzeh neighbourhood in Damascus that they would not be harmed.

Syrians in Turkey head to the border

Millions of Syrians fled after the outbreak of its civil war, with some three million settling in Turkey. Hundreds of Syrian refugees gathered at two border crossings in southern Turkey on Monday, eagerly anticipating their return home.

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.

“I will return to Syria now. Thank God, the war is over,” said 28-year-old Muhammed Zin, at the Cilvegozu border point. He fled Damascus in 2016 and has been living and working in Istanbul.

Authorities set up a checkpoint some five kilometres from Cilvegozu, only allowing Syrians with adequate documentation to advance to the border gate, HaberTurk television reported.

Turkish officials now hope that a significant number of Syrians will return voluntarily.

“We will continue our efforts to ensure the safe and voluntary return of Syrians and to rebuild the country,” Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Monday.

Hundreds of displaced Syrians were also returning Monday to Syria from Lebanon, with dozens of cars lining up to enter. 

Sami Abdel-Latif, a construction worker and refugee from Hama who was heading to Syria to join his wife and four children, said while the future in Syria is still uncertain, “anything is better than Bashar.”

Israeli military controlling buffer zone

Israelis have welcomed the fall of Assad, who was a key ally of Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, while expressing concern over what comes next.

Israel struck suspected chemical weapons sites and long-range rockets in Syria in order to prevent them from falling into the hands of hostile actors, the foreign minister said Monday.

Israel says its forces temporarily seized a buffer zone inside Syria dating back to a 1974 agreement after Syrian troops withdrew in the chaos.

“The only interest we have is the security of Israel and its citizens,” Gideon Saar told reporters on Monday. “That’s why we attacked strategic weapons systems, like, for example, remaining chemical weapons, or long-range missiles and rockets, in order that they will not fall in the hands of extremists.”

Saar did not provide details about when or where the strikes took place.

An Associated Press journalist in Damascus reported airstrikes in the area of the Mezzeh military airport, southwest of the capital, on Sunday. The airport has previously been targeted in Israeli airstrikes, but it was not immediately clear who launched the latest strike.

Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria in recent years, targeting what it says are military sites related to Iran and Hezbollah. Israeli officials rarely comment on individual strikes.

Syria agreed to give up its chemical weapons stockpile in 2013, after the government was accused of launching an attack near Damascus that killed hundreds of people. But it is widely believed to have kept some of the weapons and was accused of using them again in subsequent years.

Published at Sat, 07 Dec 2024 15:44:10 +0000

‘I haven’t seen the sun until today,’ says Syrian released from Assad’s prisons on day of execution

Bashar Barhoum woke in his dungeon prison cell in Damascus at dawn Sunday, thinking it would be the last day of his life.

The 63-year-old writer was supposed to have been executed after being imprisoned for seven months.

But he soon realized the men at the door weren’t from former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad ‘s notorious security forces, ready to take him to his death. Instead, they were rebels coming to set him free. 

As the insurgents swept across Syria in just 10 days to bring an end to the Assad family’s more than 50-year rule, they broke into prisons and security facilities to free political prisoners and many of the tens of thousands of people who disappeared since the conflict began back in 2011 or even before.

Barhoum was one of the freed who was celebrating in Damascus.

“I haven’t seen the sun until today,” Barhoum told The Associated Press after walking in disbelief through the streets of Damascus. “Instead of being dead tomorrow, thank God, he gave me a new lease on life.”

Barhoum couldn’t find his cellphone and belongings in the prison, so he set off to find a way to tell his wife and daughters he’s alive and well.

Videos shared widely across social media showed dozens of prisoners running in celebration after the insurgents released them, some barefoot and others wearing little clothing. One of them screams in celebration after he finds out the government has fallen.

Torture, executions and starvation

Syria’s prisons have been infamous for their harsh conditions. Torture is systematic, say human rights groups, whistleblowers and former detainees. Secret executions have been reported at more than two dozen facilities run by Syrian intelligence, as well as at other sites. 

In 2013, a Syrian military defector, known as “Caesar,” smuggled out over 53,000 photographs that human rights groups say showed clear evidence of rampant torture, but also disease and starvation, in Syria’s prison facilities.

Syria’s feared security apparatus and prisons did not only serve to isolate Assad’s opponents, but also to instill fear among his own people, said Lina Khatib, associate fellow in the Middle East and North Africa program at the London think-tank Chatham House. 

“Anxiety about being thrown in one of Assad’s notorious prisons created wide mistrust among Syrians,” Khatib said. “Assad nurtured this culture of fear to maintain control and crush political opposition.”

Just north of Damascus in the Saydnaya military prison, known as the “human slaughterhouse,” women detainees, some with their children, screamed as men broke the locks off their cell doors. Amnesty International and other groups say that dozens of people were secretly executed every week in Saydnaya, estimating that up to 13,000 Syrians were killed between 2011 and 2016. 

“Don’t be afraid … Bashar Assad has fallen! Why are you afraid?” said one of the rebels as he tried to rush streams of women out of their jam-packed tiny cells.

Tens of thousands of detainees have so far been freed, said Rami Abdurrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based pro-opposition war monitor.

Over the past 10 days, insurgents freed prisoners in cities including Aleppo, Homs and Hama, as well as Damascus.

Families anxiously wait for loved ones

Omar Alshogre, who was detained for three years and survived relentless torture, watched in awe from his home far from Syria as videos showed dozens of detainees fleeing.

“A hundred democracies in the world had done nothing to help them, and now a few military groups came down and broke open prison after prison,” Alshogre, a human rights advocate who now resides in Sweden and the U.S., told The Associated Press.

Meanwhile, families of detainees and the disappeared skipped celebrations of the downfall of the Assad dynasty. Instead, they waited outside prisons and security branch centres, hoping their loved ones would be there.

They had high expectations for the newcomers who will now run the battered country.

“This happiness will not be completed until I can see my son out of prison and know where he is,” said Bassam Masri. “I have been searching for him for two hours. He has been detained for 13 years.”

Rebels struggled to control the chaos as crowds gathered by the Court of Justice in Damascus.

Heba, who only gave her first name while speaking to the AP, said she was looking for her brother and brother-in-law, who were detained while reporting a stolen car in 2011, and hadn’t been seen since.

“They took away so many of us,” said Heba, whose mother’s cousin also disappeared. “We know nothing about them … They [the Assad government] burned our hearts.”

Published at Mon, 09 Dec 2024 15:23:36 +0000