Ghent (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Salah Jaradeh and Turkieh Allour from Ghent embark on a Doc journey tonight to Syria for their first visit in 10 years since they escaped during their teenage years.
Refugees Salah Jaradeh and Turkieh Allour visit Syria for the first time since their teenage departure from Ghent ten years ago. The documentary chronicles the psychological and physical destruction produced by the Syrian civil war. Upon returning to their hometowns near Damascus, they encounter ruined neighbourhoods and seek information about family members.
Salah, who lived in Harasta, combined with Turkieh, who grew up in Barzeh, share their memories of living through the Assad regime before enduring violent experiences of their own. Their return brings together touching reunions while revealing permanent alterations that happened to their country.
“We are really in Syria, it is unbelievable,”
Says Salah as we cross the border into Lebanon by car, on our way to the capital.
“I hope I will recognize more when we are closer to Damascus,”
Says Turkieh as the couple peer out of the car window with a broad smile.
Turkieh arrived in Barzeh when Salah settled in Harasta. The areas known as Harasta and Turkieh exist at a 15-minute driving distance from Damascus. When rebels controlled Harasta, the area received massive bombardment from opposing forces due to its status as a rebel. Due to these intense conditions, Salah needed to depart 12 years ago. His first attempt to escape took him to Damascus, but the conditions became unsafe after his outspoken criticism of the Assad government at university. Large demonstrations which opposed the regime existed in Turkieh’s home neighbourhood of Barzeh. The 9th-floor apartment window provided Turkieh the opportunity to witness soldiers firing lethal bullets at protesting civilians. Local residents named the street she lived on the street of death.
“If you did that, you would be shot by snipers who were hiding everywhere,”
They both say. That’s how they learned the bitter truth about their leaders and how Syria was home to one of the bloodiest regimes in the region.
Their trip to Syria brings unique and intense experiences that deeply affect both of them. Turkieh meets her mother face to face after ten years of absence. The younger girl who left years ago has grown into womanhood. They embrace in silence because their tears file all other communication. Just lots of hugs.
Turkish gets her first chance to reunite with her two half-brothers on this journey. Tarek reached adolescence because he grew to surpass his mother’s height despite leaving behind at age 2. Her youngest half-brother was conceived after she had departed. Her first physical encounter with him takes place at this moment. Each person’s look expresses deep love.
Salah encounters the apartment building where he was born for the first time since he left 12 years ago. The area of Harasta suffers from extensive bombardment during this difficult encounter. Multiple rocket attacks have transformed her apartment into a complete black mass. The structure remains rough, but everything else has vanished completely.
It is the silence and emptiness that hits Salah hard. “I had hoped to see more people here. But there is no one. No one has returned. It is painful to see.”
Turkieh dedicates herself to achieving a distinct assignment. Turkieh needs to discover what happened to her uncle Bassem Rabaha since he was arrested in 2013 during the revolution against the Assad government. Turkieh learned that her uncle Bassem Rabaha received arrest in 2013 during anti-Assad regime protests. Bassem and Mohammed Rabaha received simultaneous arrest.
Security forces subjected both men to brutal interrogation and mistreatment in the facilities of their feared intelligence departments. Mohammed listened as his brother Bassem started screaming from the pain. More than two months passed before Mohammed received his freedom. The abuse he suffered required both eye surgeries following the torture. Being detained had rendered him incapable of fathering children.
Bassem was never released and was eventually locked up in the notorious Sednaya prison. After that, there is no trace of him. “There is a 0.1 percent chance that he is still alive,” says Turkieh.
“I actually hope he’s not alive anymore. Because then he would have suffered too much. Deep in my heart I want to know what happened to him. I want a body and a grave. I owe him that. Many thousands of families of missing prisoners have that wish.”
“70 or 80 percent of prisoners here had tuberculosis,” Mohammed says. “We hardly got any water. After 5 days I drank water from the toilet. That’s probably how I got sick. After that I started rationing water in plastic bags. You weren’t allowed to ask for water, because you were sure to get a good beating.”
“They put insects in our food and as little salt as possible. Because without salt it is easier to break your bones in the long run.” In addition to the terrible torture, that was one of the most important weapons, Turkieh learns here: “No salt, very little food, no water.”
The number of disappeared people in Syria exceeds 130,000. Research indicates that thousands of corpses remain buried across hidden mass graves. The Syrians maintain most of these grave sites closed, although authorities have managed to identify specific locations. The process of identifying bodies requires sufficient qualified personnel. The number of bodies in Syrian mass graves requires more forensic experts than Syria currently possesses. Foreign assistance will be required for the upcoming identification process.
Despite these painful experiences, there are also warm and beautiful moments for Salah and Turkieh. Most Syrians seem to be very talkative. “I am very happy to hear that people are expressing their opinions freely,” says Salah. “They are different opinions. In the past, that was forbidden, nobody dared to say anything.”
Dealing with the past will be important for Syria. The crimes must be documented and a system of justice must be established at some point. “Syria is a beautiful country,” Salah concludes. “I hope the country will have a beautiful future.”
What is the background of the Syrian conflict and its impact on refugees?
Antagonism against Bashar al-Assad’s administration during the Arab Spring in 2011 ignited the Syrian conflict. The government’s brutal response to protests evolved into civil war, after which rebel fighters, external forces, abnormal powers and militant organizations became involved.
Multiple attacks within Harasta and Barzeh near Damascus created warfare that resulted in intense aerial bombardment, destroying many of these cities. Syrian civilians exceeded 12 million in number during displacement, and millions of people migrated to foreign nations. Salah Jaradeh and Turkieh Allour both left their native country of Ghent in Belgium in their teenage years to seek refuge.
The bombing of Harasta forced Salah to escape, yet Turkieh survived by witnessing protestor killings committed by the armed forces in Barzeh. About 130,000 citizens vanished during the conflict, and experts believe most of them either lost their lives through fatal means or suffered imprisonment in notorious facilities, including Sednaya prison.
