‘New life and a new beginning’: Syrians in Ireland celebrate the end of Assad’s rule
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For Syrians living in Ireland, the toppling of the Assad dictatorship was a day they thought would never come — there is now “new life and a new beginning” for the first time in more than 50 years.
The burgeoning Syrian community in Ireland watched the scenes swiftly unfold in Damascus as Bashar al-Assad fled the country he has ruled with an iron fist since taking over from father, bringing to an end the family’s rule of 53 years.
Ahmed Saqqa, the chef and proprietor of Cork Syrian bistro The Four Liars, described the development as a dream he hopes to never wake up from.
It comes more than 10 years after the Aleppo native — along with his wife Hadeel and their daughter Ghazeel and son Ghassan — were smuggled across the border into Turkey.
It took a year of undocumented working in Istanbul to fund the night sea-crossing from Turkey into Greece on a packed rib.
The family were temporarily housed in Athens before moving to Dublin two years later, having been granted asylum.
Eventually, they were allocated a house in Cork, and the Shandon bistro has established itself at the heart of the city’s northside.
“My family and I cried together when we heard there is no more Assad. We just can’t believe it.
"People back in Syria are watching the television and they’re actually using the words “the bad one is gone.”
"My father told me this. It’s been over 50 years. I’m waking up in the morning and wondering if this is really happening,” he said.
“Sunday was a crazy day. We were getting messages from our customers congratulating us. They are saying that they are not just happy for Syria, they are happy for our family.”
He hopes that justice can be served for inmates of facilities such as Saydnaya Prison which was taken over by rebel forces as they advanced into Damascus.
Reham Ghafarji from Idlib, who is also Cork-based, said it had given Syria hope for the future, albeit racked with uncertainty as it faces a long road to recovery.
“He destroyed everything for us,” she said of Assad. “We never expected this day to come. This is a day we dreamed of. Now our dreams have come true. This is a new life and a new beginning. It’s a chance to be away from all the suffering and conflict.
“Our aim now is just to be at peace. We are looking for a normal country where we can live and be safe.”
The ousted dictator’s prime minister said he had agreed to hand power to the rebel-led Salvation Government, a day after the rebels seized the capital Damascus and Assad fled to Russia.
The imminent transfer of power follows 13 years of civil war and the end to more than 50 years of brutal rule by the Assad family, leaving Syrians at home and millions of refugees abroad hopeful yet deeply uncertain about their country’s future.
Damascus stirred to life on Monday, with traffic returning to streets and people venturing out after a nighttime curfew, but most shops remained shut. Fighters from the remote countryside milled about in the capital, clustering in the central Umayyad Square.
Assad’s prime minister, Mohammad Jalali, said he had agreed to hand power to the Salvation Government, an administration based in a small pocket of rebel-held territory in northwest Syria.
He said the handover could take days to carry out.
The main rebel commander Ahmed al-Sharaa, better known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, had met overnight with Jalali and vice president Faisal Mekdad to discuss a transitional government, sources said.
Al Jazeera television reported the transitional authority would be headed by Mohamed al-Bashir, who ran the Salvation Government before the 12-day lightning offensive that swept into Damascus. Syria’s banks will reopen on Tuesday and staff had been asked to return to work, a Syrian central bank source said.
The oil ministry called on all employees in the sector to head to their workplaces on Tuesday, adding that protection would be provided to ensure their safety.
The advance of a militia alliance spearheaded by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former al Qaeda affiliate, was a generational turning point for the Middle East.
It ends a war that killed hundreds of thousands, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times, and left cities bombed to rubble, countryside depopulated and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions. Refugees could finally go home from camps across Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan.
The group’s leader Golani, who spent years in US custody as an insurgent in Iraq but later broke with al Qaeda and Islamic State, has vowed to rebuild Syria.
Additional reporting Reuters