After Assad's fall: Syria in chaos - return impossible!

After Assad's fall: Syria in chaos - return impossible!

After the fall of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has been in power for more than 15 years, the consequences of the years of civil war are unmistakable. The country is emphasized in a critical condition, as Abdulhkeem Alshater, chairman of the Free Syrian community in Austria. "Syria is a single debris field. Nobody can live there, let alone return," he reports and describes the catastrophic living conditions of the people in his homeland, who live in extreme poverty and are confronted with a collapsed health system.

In the middle of this chaos, thousands of people flow into the notorious Saidnaja prison north of Damascus to look for relatives, some of whom have been detained for years. The desperate relatives are hoping for news. According to reports, the prison doors refuse to access, while aid organizations such as the white helmets are looking for secret exits. Aida Taha, a 65-year-old woman, described that she was "like a crazy" prison to find her brother who has been missing since 2012, which illustrates the desperate situation of the families who still live in the shadow of the Assad regime.

The reactions to the fall

The fall of Assad is viewed as a milestone, but the future of Syria remains uncertain. Abdulhkeem Alshater emphasizes that despite the joy of the fall, the fundamental problems of the country are not overcome. The leader of the Islamist group Hajat Tahrir al-Scham (HTS), Mohammed al-Dscholani, announced that it would publish a list of civil servants who were involved in torture and plans to incorporate the release of everyone wrongly. The international reactions are mixed, with western heads of state such as Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Emmanuel Macron signaled to work with the new rulers, provided that fundamental human rights are preserved.

The uncertainty about the political future of Syria continues. Israel's military activities in the region show how tense the situation is still, while the Hisbollah turned against Israel, which illustrates the complexity of the situation in the Middle East. The challenges for Syria are enormous, and the country will have a long and arduous journey to reconstruction if it should ever be, as Alshater warns.