“We didn’t sleep all night”: the Syrians of Carcassonne missed nothing of the fall of dictator Bashar al-Assad

Since March 2011, in the wake of the Arab Spring, the civil war has raged in Syria, with many families fleeing the country (5.5 million people have left the country). A heartbreak. In Carcassonne, around thirty of them have found refuge far from the bombs and the abuses of the regime to rebuild their lives on this side of the Mediterranean. Like Khaled. “I had no choice. If I had stayed, I would have had to join the army for al-Assad and I didn’t want to”he testifies. Aged 27 today, he arrived in France in 2017 after a journey “dangerous” who took him through Turkey (one month) then Greece (one year) before reaching France where his uncle lives. A week after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, he expressed his satisfaction. “Everyone is happy. When Bashar al-Assad was in power, we were afraid to speak, even here in France. It’s a surprise that he fell. Those who supported him have abandoned him”he confides. “All Syrians are fed up with the war. Now we are waiting to see how it will go. We are hoping for elections. This is what we wanted when the Syrian revolution began. The old regime divided Syria . But Syria is not that. It is for all communities.”

And take the example of the capital Damascus, one of the oldest cities in the world where mosques, cathedrals, churches and basilicas coexist. Placed in Limoux for six months, Khaled moved to Carcassonne in 2018. He completed French as a foreign language training and specialized in fiber optics. He works at the Carcassonne hospital and does not plan to return to Syria. “My life is here. I was very well received. I opened my eyes. France gave me things. We have to give back for France.”

“A president who kills his population”

Sameer, who runs a delicatessen with one of his sons on Boulevard Camille-Pelletan, felt great joy at the news of the fall of Basher al-Assad. “We didn’t sleep all night. We were connected to social networks and TV.” A dull anger within him, he is not surprised by this outcome. “A president who kills his population cannot stay. He used the youth as cannon fodder by forcing them to do military service.” He knows something about it. This is why he and his family (his wife and three of his sons) fled. In March 2016, they took the same roads of exile as Khaled. “I was threatened and so was one of my sons. My business in Aleppo, a textile factory, was even burned down.” Direction Turkey then the clandestine passage to Greece. “We boarded a rubber dinghy to travel the 22 km between Turkey and a Greek island.” Three hours of risky navigation between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. After six months in Greece, he will be summoned by the French embassy for an interview where he will be given a favorable notice for his coming, with his family, to France, to Montpellier. A political refugee and war refugee, he too, even if he misses Syria, has rebuilt his life in Carcassonne. “I thank the French authorities and the French people for the warm welcome and support when we arrived,” he wants to say. He is waiting for the situation to stabilize before going to visit his family.