Damascus Governorate, SYRIA The main street souk in Arbin, an area in the Damascus residential area of Eastern Ghouta, is busy with individuals.
Amongst the messed up structures, vendors have actually established their stalls and yell out the days prices at the top of their lungs.One month ago, HTS, a movement formed from the merger of rebel and jihadist groups based in the northwestern Idlib governorate, toppled Bashar al-Assads routine following a lightning offensive, ending 5 years of dictatorship in less than 2 weeks.
Assads ally Russia, which had propped up the program with military force, was required to pull away to its bases at Tartus and Khmeimim.Since then, long-suppressed civilian voices have actually concerned the forefront.The Russians destroyed my house during the siege, cries an old guy at the market, his walking stick raised to the sky.My kid and daughter also passed away due to the fact that of the Russians, includes another.
They killed everyone and ruined everything.Located just a couple of kilometers from Damascus, Eastern Ghouta was the site of among the most violent and lethal battles of the Syrian Civil War.
As the center of anti-Assad protests in 2011, it was besieged by the regime starting in 2012 and non-stop bombed by Russian aviation.It wasnt until 2018, after 5 and a half years of siege, chemical attacks and scarcity, that Eastern Ghoutas rebel fighters agreed to lay down their arms and exile themselves to the Idlib pocket as part of a Russia-brokered evacuation deal.Seven years later on, the area is little more than a field of ruins, sparsely populated by survivors who, up until the routines collapse, had lived under the control and repression of the Russian forces operating there.Children walking in the street of Arbin, destroyed by the Assad regime with the assistance of Russian and pro-Iranian forces.
Jan.
7, 2025.
Iryna MatviyishynMamdouh Abdul Latif, 32, an egg vendor in Arbins souk, remembers those days bitterly.
His round face, framed by a blonde beard, sparkles in the sunlight.The Russians based nearby often robbed our neighborhood, he says.
We were terrified of them, specifically the Chechen fighters.
We avoided engaging with them, but it wasnt a peaceful relationship.
They were monstrous.
They would frequently concern our market and just take whatever they wanted.
But what could we do?Abu Salmun, an elderly man standing close by whose face is scarred by an explosion during the siege, disrupts Latif.Under the 2018 arrangement, Assads forces couldnt enter Ghouta.
It was the Russians who handled security, he describes.
Assad had the Iranians behind him, and the Iranians had the Russians behind them.
In the end, it was the Russians who called all the shots.Abu Salmun states how Russian soldiers as soon as apprehended his own son.They took him for no reason.
I sold my house and paid an allurement to get him out, he says.
Yesterday, I saw pictures of Saydnaya [a jail in Damascus governorate notorious for its atrocities] God understands what would have occurred to him if hed remained there.
The prisoners were stuffed together like sheep in those jails.Pausing for a minute, Abu Salmun leans on a neighboring veggie stall.
He smiles, a grimace lost in the scars on his face.In the end, its thanks to the Ukrainians that were free, he says.
If they hadnt ruined the Russian army, God understands for how long Assad would have remained in power.Rebuilding in the middle of the ruinsIn Arbin, the time for commemorating Assads overthrow is gradually coming to an end, giving way to a stage of uncertainty about Syrias future.In Damascus, al-Julani, the leader of HTS and Syrias brand-new president, has actually shed his jihadist identity, adopting his civilian name, Ahmed al-Sharaa.
He has actually traded his khaki uniform for a European-style fit and now welcomes diplomats and ministers from around the world to his office.But in spite of this symbolic change, al-Sharaa and his Salvation Government deal with the tremendous difficulty of restoring a nation ravaged by over a years of war.HTS fighter Abu Rami, 33, is basing on the previous cutting edge where he fought program forces.
After 7 years of exile, he returned home to Eastern Ghouta as a liberator.
Jan.
7, 2025.
Iryna MatviyishynLarge parts of Syria, consisting of regions under Kurdish or Turkish militia control, remain beyond his reach.
In areas freed from the Assad routine, stress between Alawites (the sect Assads household originates from and the foundation of his program), Sunnis and Christians risk further escalation.Meanwhile, in areas previously held by Assad, the circumstance is similarly bleak: the economy is nearly non-existent, electrical power is available only a few hours a day, and widespread inflation continues to maim every day life.
The federal government also has to handle tens of countless Syrians who are finally returning home after years as refugees.Abu Rami, an HTS soldier, is among them.
A knife and ammunition magazines strapped to his uniform, he is a child of Eastern Ghouta.I initially served in Bashars army.
Then I defected to join the opposition and protect my community, he describes.
I can barely keep in mind those years.
Everything is blurred in my memory.From 2012 to 2018, he and his comrades from Faql Al Rahman, a moderate Islamist group, lived under everyday bombardments, famine and sarin gas attacks.
Their return is tinged with melancholy.The first hours after the liberation were so frustrating that I could hardly breathe, states Abdul Rahman, among his comrades.Everyone invited us as heroes.
People fired into the air, played drums, and hosted feasts.
However after that, it was difficult to come back home.
Everything about our life here was ruined by Assad and the Russians.Walking through the labyrinth of streets, Abu Rami stops in front of a mosque under construction.This was an 11th-century mosque.
The Russians ruined it.
Further down, thats the church they bombed.
Assad claimed he was safeguarding Christians, however he killed them too, he says.HTS fighter Abdul Rahman, 24, basing on the former front line in the Jobar district of Damascus, Jan.
7, 2025.
Iryna MatviyishynFurther along the streets, he adds: No one was waiting for me in your home.
My parents passed away throughout the siege, and other members of my household too.
All my memories are gone.
Your house where I got married was destroyed.A hundred meters away, his eyes well up.
My father and mother died on this street, eliminated by a Russian Iskander missile.On what remains of a main square, Abdul Rahman points to a structure.
That was my home.
The Russians damaged it.
One by one, he climbs up the stairs.
At one point, he stops, and after a few seconds of silence, brushes aside a stone with one of his boots.
This is the room where my sis and my mother died.The returnIn a space of his house, damaged by a Russian airstrike, Nasser, a young HTS soldier who just recently returned from exile, feeds a central stove with sunflower seeds to heat one of the couple of renovated rooms in the household home.
Part of his family remained behind after 2018, while he fled into exile in Idlib.I hadnt seen him because 2012, says his uncle Ayman, who ran away to the north of the country before the siege of Ghouta began.A young boy riding a bike in Eastern Ghouta after the freedom by HTS in December 2024.
In addition to the enormous damage, its residents experienced the devastating chemical attacks by the Assad routine.
Syria, Jan.
7, 2025.
Iryna MatviyishynNasser is still trying to readjust to being back.
A number of times, he tries to explain the feelings he is feeling upon his return.I cant believe it.
My body is here, however my heart cant grasp whats taking place.
I believe no one anticipated the regime to fall so quickly or that wed be back home so rapidly, he states.
In between cigarettes, he admits: I had resigned myself to the idea that Id never ever see my family or my city again.I fulfilled my nephew for the very first time last month, Nasser says, indicating the young man.
Look how high he is.
He has a beard.
Hes a male now.Wissam, Nassers nephew, barely knew he had an uncle in Idlib.Because of Bashar, we didnt call each other.
We were too frightened to talk.
We knew they were there, however we never ever hoped we might speak.
Seeing each other now is like living a dream, states Wissam.Still, Ayman, his round face used by years of hardship, acknowledges the problems banishes face when going back to their neighborhoods.There are 2 big problems: real estate and tasks, he says.
Over 90% of the structures have been destroyed, and there arent adequate tasks for everyone.Abu Rami, Nasser and their pals are stationed in Ghouta, but they do not know for the length of time.
As soldiers, they could be sent to another city or community anytime.
So they take things day by day, savoring the possibility to be home.I imagine bringing my children here, sighs Abu Rami.
I have three.
Theyre with my spouse in Idlib.
Inshallah, theyll come here soon.
The only thing I wish for is to live in peace in my neighborhood and never leave it again.