Enab Baladi – Nouran al-Samman

“Dear land, we left some of our souls in you, will we have the chance to meet again? The corners weep for we had many stories there, even the stones long for their inhabitants, so how can the heart, when all options run out, cope?”

An elderly man appears in a video posted on social media, reciting these verses with a trembling voice, recalling his feelings when he saw his home after five years of absence.

The man stands in front of his old house in Aleppo, gazing at the walls that embraced his youth, touching the stones of his house and reminiscing about the joyful days he experienced before war tore him away from his home.

The video is one of thousands of human moments lived by Syrians returning to their cities and homes in recent days, after years of forced displacement, fleeing from continuous shelling, and destruction that left no corner of the city untouched.

This comes after the announcement from Syrian opposition factions confirming their entry into Aleppo and taking control of the city, continuing their advance towards Hama amidst significant and consecutive collapses in the ranks of the Syrian regime forces.

Farewell to Aleppo… A goodbye without hope

Abdul Ghafour, a young man who left Aleppo in 2013, told Enab Baladi, “When I left Aleppo, I suffered from severe depression, I lost a lot of weight, and I lived in a constant state of anxiety.”

He found solace in his studies, completing his major in English literature, but that was not enough to alleviate the pain of loss and longing for his family and city.

The young man added that his motivation to persevere was his belief in the “revolution,” as he continued to dream of returning one day, even though hope was “weak” for returning to his home and seeing his family again.

When asked about the extent of his longing for his family, he was unable to respond and simply sent a video clip showing him warmly embracing his family members amidst the joy and tears that mingled with sounds of pain and longing, a moment he described as “giving life a new meaning.”

Return stories: A recovery of spirit and memories

Like Abdul Ghafour, thousands of people from Aleppo share similar stories, including Mohammad Hafaar, a media activist from Aleppo, who describes his feelings upon entering Aleppo for the first time after years of displacement, saying, “It felt like I was living a dream; I saw schools, graves, and old neighborhoods, and despite the destruction, that moment compensated for everything.”

He added, “Aleppo is my birthplace, and my father is buried there, so returning was a dream for me.”

Hafaar left Aleppo in 2016, leaving behind all his memories and family, and he viewed the return as a recovery of his spirit that he left behind, stating, “When I saw the old streets of Aleppo and its people, I felt as though I was regaining myself anew.”

The bombardment did not only leave its marks on the destroyed infrastructure, but also on the souls that were exhausted by exile and the loss of loved ones; for an entire generation of young Syrians, returning to their homeland served as an attempt to reclaim their lives that came to a halt with the onset of displacement.

Hafaar said about leaving Aleppo, “My spirit remained there, and I left without a soul,” now returning with the sight of my city.

He added, “Although the fear still accompanies us, seeing our city and its people means that we were able to stand again.”

Nostalgia for homeland and new hopes

A video posted on social media shows two siblings reuniting after years of separation in Aleppo, embracing each other warmly among family members.

In another clip, Syrian activist Anas Qudaimati reunites with his family after seven years of displacement; these moments were not just family gatherings but a revival of memories where life had paused, a return to the embrace they longed for.

For many, the return is not merely to ordinary places, but to memories and dreams that life put on pause, as mixed emotions of joy and sorrow were present throughout the city.

As for the hope of the displaced far from their homeland, Mansour, who resides in Istanbul, Turkey, is eagerly awaiting the return to his neighborhood in Eastern Ghouta.

He stated, “The liberation of Aleppo has restored our hope, and we are eagerly waiting for the liberation of other areas to reunite with our family.”

In every neighborhood of Aleppo, there is a story to tell about the pain of war and the hope of return. These stories embody the resilience of the human spirit to endure and rise despite the harshest circumstances.

Returning to homes is not merely a moment of reclaiming place for Syrian refugees, but the beginning of a journey to rebuild what war has destroyed, whether at the level of infrastructure or the souls that bled from the depth of longing, marking a return to the roots of identity and to memories that form an inseparable part of the lives of all who lived there, as though each encounter in Aleppo resembles a new birth.

Millions of refugees are waiting

Millions of Syrian refugees are experiencing difficult conditions, facing threats of deportation and instability, along with social fragmentation and disconnection as most families have been separated.

There are about five million Syrian refugees in the neighboring countries of Syria, with almost three million refugees from various Syrian provinces in Turkey alone, and about 1.85 million refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, and Egypt, with children and youth making up approximately 68% of this group. Among the total number of refugees in the vicinity, there are 900,000 individuals with disabilities.

Millions of Syrian refugees are scattered across other countries, with more than one in every five Syrians among the refugees, making Syria the country with the highest number of refugees relative to its population, averaging 20,000 refugees per 100,000 people, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees report on key displacement and solutions trends in the first half of 2024.