“Is Syria Now the Same Country I Left?"

I am from the Kurdish area of Sweida, and I left a couple of weeks before the revolution began. I returned briefly in 2019 through the Kurdish-controlled areas. In Syria I worked in radio, print media and the early years of digital, and I’m still a journalist.

I have been crying since the early morning. I called my kids and said, it’s a happy day for me and for you – you will finally get to see your country.

And I think about my friends and colleagues who disappeared, and whom I don’t know if they are alive or dead. I have a lot of questions. My dream as a child was to leave Syria, but now I feel rootless. Can I regrow these roots? Is Syria now the same country I left? The regime has fallen but how has society changed? Can I connect with them or not, and what role do I have there, if any?

I am not saying anything new. So many Syrians have these kinds of questions. But for now we are just hugging each other.

The future is not something you can touch with your hands, and it’s always both good and bad. I have many reasons to be energised – not least the new hope this gives us. And it’s not just Syrians - this has given people across the whole region hope. Everything now seems possible. 

Abdullah Hamdan (not his real name), 43, journalist, father of two, lives in Berlin.