German-Syrians: Help Syria, sure – return, no | EUROtoday

When Syria’s ruler Bashar al-Assad fled to Moscow in December 2024, Firas Alassil was electrified in distant Dortmund. “I finally saw a perspective for my country again,” says the orthopedist, who got here to Germany in 2005 for his specialist coaching. Six years later, the Syrian civil conflict broke out. A visit to his homeland appeared hopeless to him, far too harmful.

The physician settled within the Ruhr space and opened a apply in Dortmund in 2020. Since then he has been repairing cruciate ligaments and treating dislocated shoulders. He grew to become a local, obtained a German passport, and his youngsters grew up right here. For greater than twelve years, the 52-year-old solely adopted the information from his shattered homeland from afar. Then the regime collapsed – and now all the things is totally different.

WELT reached Alassil by telephone on the airport in Izmir, Turkey. He is at the moment touring to Damascus together with his spouse, a German with a Turkish immigrant background, and his three youngsters. The offspring ought to get to know their household roots and would additionally like to use for Syrian passports for the youngsters.

When Syrians performed a job within the public debate in Germany this yr, it was normally about harder migration insurance policies. The federal and state governments are getting ready deportation flights for criminals to Damascus; the Federal Ministry of the Interior is even speaking to the interim authorities of President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the long-time chief of the Islamist insurgent group Hai’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). On Tuesday, a Syrian prison was deported to his residence nation for the primary time because the civil conflict broke out in 2011. Since the top of September, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees has been analyzing hundreds of safety titles for Syrians in Germany on behalf of the Interior Ministry. So far there have been revocations within the mid three-digit vary.

“Who should build Syria if not the Syrians” – that is how Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) formulated the federal authorities’s fundamental strategy. But do Syrians in Germany see it the identical approach?

Around 950,000 individuals with Syrian citizenship stay in Germany in the present day – and their willingness to return to their war-torn homeland seems to be low: By the top of October, solely round 3,000 individuals had left voluntarily with monetary assist. Many appear to be ready to see whether or not the safety scenario within the nation stabilizes. In addition, anybody who travels to their hometown, for instance to search out out whether or not their dad and mom’ home continues to be standing, dangers their keep in Germany.

And so it’s the German-Syrians who’re probably to journey to their residence nation and become involved. They can return at any time with out endangering their standing. Around 250,000 Syrians have obtained German passports lately, and extra are anticipated to observe within the coming years.

In February of this yr, German-Syrian Alassil traveled to his hometown of Abu Kamal within the east on the border with Iraq for the primary time. The terrorist group “Islamic State” dominated the area for a very long time, and the realm “is still very unsafe,” says Alassil. He didn’t journey there empty-handed; he organized 80 beds for the native hospital utilizing donations: The physician is a member of the Association of German-Syrian Aid Associations, which, like different establishments, has entered into scientific partnerships with Syrian establishments in an effort to assist the nation’s well being sector get off the bottom. These partnerships are supported by the German Ministry of Development.

His first impression: “The health system is in ruins, medieval conditions prevail.” People lack the naked requirements. “Operations for heart patients are particularly needed, such as catheters.” So far they’ve been capable of equip one ground of the hospital; eight medical doctors work there. They could be paid for via donations. The interim authorities has not but paid common wages. Alassil traveled with the present Syrian well being minister, each of whom know one another from Germany. The minister, Musaab Alali, labored for years as a neurosurgeon in Hesse, has a German passport and is now a member of the Syrian cupboard.

The scenario in his birthplace has stabilized considerably, says the Dortmund orthopedist Alassil about his first go to. He solely most well-liked to remain at residence at evening, the scenario was too harmful.

This may be mentioned about many areas within the nation. Fragile post-civil conflict Syria continues to resemble a “powder keg,” in accordance with a report by the Bundestag’s scientific providers on the finish of August. There have been repeated massacres of minorities similar to Alawites, Druze and Kurds this yr. “Soldiers of the current Syrian army, fighters from militias affiliated with the government and the Syrian security forces are regularly involved in massacres and human rights violations,” the report says.

“What is happening in Syria is a catastrophe”

It can be due to such stories that Mohamed Said is just not allowed to journey to Syria. “The country is currently a theocracy. There is no legality,” says the pediatrician from Hamburg-Blankenese, who belongs to the Druze non secular minority. “Moderate, critically thinking people can’t go back.” The 76-year-old is alluding to the novel roots of the interim authorities. Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa is the previous chief of the HTS, which initially comes from the al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group al-Nusra. Today, the interim president has given up his nickname “Abu Mohammed al-Jolani” and is presenting himself as a reformed statesman.

Said has been dwelling in Germany since 1967, and the long-established physician is an establishment in Hamburg’s Elbe suburbs. During Assad’s reign, he traveled to the nation – which was then a “spy and surveillance state” – twice a yr and “cared for and treated poor people”.

Said was born in 1949 in Suweida, a city of 60,000 individuals about 100 kilometers south of the capital Damascus – and one of many Druze strongholds. Sunni Bedouin tribes massacred hundreds of individuals right here final summer season, partly supported by the Syrian military and pro-government militias. The typically Islamist fighters looted and destroyed many villages within the province.

The Hamburg pediatrician has invested some huge cash in actual property in his residence area – this funding has now been irretrievably misplaced, says Said. “What is happening in Syria is a catastrophe.”

The Dortmund orthopedist Alassil doesn’t belong to a minority; he’s a Sunni Muslim – like many members of the Syrian interim authorities. He sees the scenario within the nation considerably otherwise: “It’s true, the situation is still complicated. The different ethnic groups have been fighting each other for the last 50 years. It takes time to understand the other person.” He needs a democratic Syrian state, a unified construction, and needs to work on it.

He is aware of individuals who have already returned to Syria from Germany. Despite all of the difficulties, they longed for his or her former lives – for the Syrian solar, the fruit and greens, acquainted faces. Is he himself able to return to his homeland?

“In the short term, I can’t imagine living in Syria again. I wouldn’t put my family through that,” says Firas Alassil. He will wait – and suppose once more when he finds higher circumstances as a health care provider and the safety scenario has improved considerably.

Correspondent Philip Woldin At WELT, he primarily offers with inside safety points and stories from the courtrooms of the Republic.