Syrians lined up at the Turkish border on Wednesday to head home rebels driven out President Bashar al-Assad talks about their expectations for a better life after many decades of suffering in Turkey.
"We don't have anyone here. We are going back to Latakia where we have family,” Mustafa said as he prepared to enter Syria with his wife and three sons at the Cilvegozu border gate in southern Turkey. Dozens of other Syrians were waiting to cross.
Mustafa fled Syria in 2012, a year after the conflict began there, to avoid being drafted into Assad's army. He had been doing unregistered work in Turkey for years, earning less than the minimum wage, he said.
"There is a better Syria now." God willing, we will have a better life there," he said, expressing confidence in Syria's new leadership as he watched over family belongings, bagged clothes and a television.
The civil war that grew out of an uprising against Assad in 2011 has killed hundreds of thousands of people and driven millions abroad.
Turkey, which hosts three million Syrians, has extended the opening hours of the Cilvegoz border gate outside the Syrian city of Aleppo, which rebels seized in late November.
AND a second border gate was opened at nearby Yayladagi in Hatay on Tuesday.
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There were around 350-400 Syrians per day is already passing back to rebel-held areas of Syria this year before the opposition uprising began two weeks ago. The numbers have nearly doubled since then, Ankara says, and expects to increase now that Assad is gone.
Turkey has supported Syrian opposition forces for years, but says it has no involvement in a rebel offensive that over the weekend succeeded in ousting Assad after 13 years of civil war.
About 100 trucks were waiting to cross the border, transporting goods, including dozens of used cars. Security forces helped manage the flow of people, humanitarian groups offered refreshments to children and tea and soup to adults.
"OUR OWN PEOPLE" ARE NOW AWARE
Haya was waiting to enter Syria with her husband and three children. They have been living in a nearby container camp since the devastating February 2023 earthquake that killed more than 50,000 people in Turkey and Syria.
"We had good neighbors and good relations, but a container is not a home," Haya said as she comforted her six-month-old baby and her daughter translated her notes from Arabic.
“We will return to Aleppo. Iman has a school here, but we have nothing else. We are going back home to our family,” Haya said, adding that her brother had been released after years in prison after Assad's ouster.
Syria's new interim prime minister he said his goal was to bring back millions of Syrian refugees, protect all citizens and provide basic services, but admitted that would be difficult because the long-sanctioned country lacks foreign currency.
Mustafa expressed confidence in the new leadership after Assad was ousted by rebels led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a former al-Qaeda affiliate that has since played down its jihadist roots.
"Those who took power are not foreigners. They were not from the United States or Russia. They are our own people. We know them,” he said.
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