Hope, uncertainty as Edmonton's Syrian community rallies for a safe future
President Bashar al-Assad was ousted by rebels over the weekend
Syrian Edmontonians are greeting the fall of Bashar al-Assad with joy and shock.
Over the weekend, the world watched as Assad's regime collapsed and Edmonton's Syrian community held a rally to unite for a strong and safe future for Syrians.
"None of us will forget any of these days. That's like a turning point in our life as Syrians as we have lots of stories to tell for many years to come," Edmonton architect Marwa Alshara told CBC.
"We were very cautious in the way how we want it to feel, because we don't want to feel disappointed. So we were having a lot of hope."
More than 2,800 Syrian refugees call Edmonton home, according to the City of Edmonton's 2021 The State of Immigration and Settlement in Edmonton annual report
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Thousands of Syrians fled to Canada due to the country's civil war. The conflict, which started in 2011 after Assad's crackdown on anti-government protesters spiralled into an armed struggle pitting Syria's army against an alliance of anti-Assad factions, had been in a stalemate for years before rebels made dramatic advances in late November that culminated in them taking Damascus early Sunday.
Assad reportedly fled to Russia, a key ally during the war, and was granted asylum. The Kremlin has not yet confirmed the reports by Russian state media.
Bashar Aldyab came to Canada in 2016, after previously being detained by the Assad regime.
"I talked to many people in Syria … and they're still in shock. Some people, they woke up the next day and … my friend told me, 'I thought that I was dreaming yesterday, that [Assad's] gone.'"
Aldyab has experienced oppression under the Assad dictatorship.
"In 2011 after the revolution started, I was detained," Aldyab said, about how a government official accused him of spreading awareness about the revolution just because he had access to the Internet.
"It was under the ground. I can tell you horrible stories, but I don't think the time is enough for that."
According to a United Nations report, there are more than 100 detention facilities across Syria, along with an unknown number of secret facilities.
Of those, the two most notorious prisons are Tadmor, in the desert of the ancient city of Palmyra, and Sednaya, known as the "human slaughterhouse," which is on the north outskirts of Damascus.
Images out of Syria showed people racing toward Sednaya prison, just north of the capital of Damascus, on Monday. Hundreds gathered outside the prison, waiting to learn if their family members were still trapped in the detention facility after the fall of the Assad government.
Amnesty International and other groups say that dozens of people were secretly executed every week in Sednaya, estimating that up to 13,000 Syrians were killed between 2011 and 2016.
"I think the future still is unknown ... but I hope it's going to be full of joy, happiness and peace. I believe, after 13 years of war, no one wants to fight ... we don't want war. We just want to build our country," Aldyab said.
Alshara also fled Syria 12 years ago with her family.
"I remember the first thing my mom said, 'we don't afford despair. We only can be hopeful'," she said.
"We left Syria on foot, walking. We left from Syria to Jordan. Stayed there for four years, and now we are all over the world."
Alshara said that has meant the only family she has in Syria is an aunt who lives in the city of Daara, about 110 kilometres south of Damascus.
"This is what it cost us, to be very far away from each other, and our hope now is that we all reunite again in Syria and be able to rebuild it and just start a bright future with no more air strikes, with no more refugees, with no more pain to have."
Another rally will be held this weekend in support of the Syrian community and their allies.
With files from Edmonton AM