Syria on the way to becoming a "homeland" for all Syrians

DAMASCUS. This time I came to Syria to offer condolences for Dr. Rania al-Abbasi's husband and 6 children; this is my fifth visit since Syria's deliverance from the network of crime and oppression, and my second this year. One feels right away that, with each passing day since Syria's deliverance from a terrible network of oppression and massacre, it is beginning to savor more and more the forgotten freedom, the taste of being treated as a human being. God created man as a free being, possessing his fundamental rights, honorable and dignified. The oppressors who attack this being, by interfering with man's nature and disrupting the nature, rhythm and spirit of that being, commit shirk, the greatest wrong.

Of course the disappearance of these oppressions does not immediately return things to that disrupted nature. For 60 years, and even 107 years after the colonial years, that is, after the break from the Ottoman body, they tried to corrupt the land of Sham, a basin of civilization, in every field. Even so, where there was repression there was also resistance. The oppression inflicted on Gaza today has reached the heavens; it is heard and seen from every corner of the world, but not because of the weight and severity of the oppression, rather thanks to the resistance there.

However heavy the oppression may be, when there is a will to resist against it, God's sunnah does not change and His promise does not fail. The mukhabarat regime in Syria covered everything, leaving virtually no gap in daily life. One is, and should be, amazed at how such a resistance and revolution could emerge from beneath that systematic mukhabarat surveillance, control and discipline. However you look at it, the Syrian revolution is, in the full sense of the word, a victory the Syrian people won against seven states.

In the year and a half since the revolution, each time I come to Syria I see more clearly the difference between the past and today and the change planned for the future. In place of the chaos that reigned on the roads until the fall of the regime, there are now police officers on duty regulating the flow of traffic with all courtesy.

Muhammad Anas, the driver of our vehicle, who is also a student, while driving alongside a passing police car, says, "In the past, when we saw this policeman we could not pass by him without anxiety inside us. Now we feel as if it is someone from among us passing," and he also gives thanks to God.

The expression "someone from among us" does not only convey his feelings about this incident; it is in fact a key concept for understanding what Syria has lived through until now and what it will live through henceforth. Until now Syria had almost effectively lost the quality of being a "homeland" for Syrians. When the state does not represent its people, and especially when it oppresses its people in this way, it was not possible for people to feel an attachment to the homeland. Without attachment, the concept of homeland did not form. You can understand from this how important it is for a homeland to be felt as a homeland by all its citizens.

Truth be told, al-Sharaa too shows very well in all his speeches that he is aware of this problem. He gives strong messages that the state now belongs to all Syrians and will be built and preserved together with everyone. Yet still, how to establish this feeling, which for a century could not take root among the people because of repressive regimes alien to them, is the most important problem of today.

That the sense of homeland is very strong among the nation in Türkiye is a fact that those who ask questions on this matter bring up right away. Therefore how it came to form in Türkiye also emerges as a meaningful question.

Without doubt, Türkiye's being a homeland and the very strong sense of homeland among the people of Türkiye is a matter worked out since the Ottomans and entirely connected with Islam. What made these lands a homeland was the will of i'la' kalimatillah (raising the word of God), and the testimonies of the adhans recited over the lands made abode of Islam by conquest became the registration of the homeland. Even after the fall of the Ottomans, against all the erasing moves waged against the Ottoman legacy, the flag with the star on the red ground, representing the Crescent that stands for Islam and the martyr and his blood, continued to link the notion of homeland in minds with the abode of Islam. Despite all efforts toward a break from the Ottomans, the Independence March, engraved in minds or issued from hearts as the manifesto of the National Struggle, has at the same time continued to keep the notion of homeland at the highest level as a slogan among all citizens.

One should never think that Syria is lacking in luck in this respect. The motivation that guided the revolution there is not different from this. But special programs are also needed to work this out and deepen it at the state level. I think and see that Syria's symbolic capital is strong enough for these programs.

During our visit to Syria I had the chance to meet many political figures. The common theme repeated in all the meetings was gratitude toward Türkiye and Türkiye's leadership, appreciation for the Turkish people, and a desire to benefit from Türkiye's experiences in building the new Syria.

Agriculture Minister Basel Suweidan wishes for Türkiye's experience in development and agricultural insurance to be transferred to Syria. Minister of Awqaf Muhammad Abu'l-Khair Shukri says they would be pleased if Turkish students came to Syria to learn Arabic. Some deputies representing the Syrian people also openly express that they want to benefit from the legislative experience of the TBMM.

The Ministry of Interior, meanwhile, is conducting a comprehensive struggle to dry up the sources of drug production. In this context 55 tons of raw narcotic material were seized, and 700 million of the roughly one billion Captagon pills produced by the former regime and its partners were destroyed. This poison was a disaster threatening not only the Syrian people but the whole world, neighboring countries above all.

Moreover, in order to fight drug addiction, said to affect about 15 percent of the population, a year-long comprehensive campaign called "Syria Free of Drugs" has been launched.

Important changes are also observed in daily life. Power cuts are beginning to be a thing of the past. After many years of drought, the dams have filled and spring waters have begun to overflow again.

Returns to Syria continue from all over the world. Alongside its undoubtedly positive sides, we can also see that this puts a serious burden on the Syrian economy, which has not yet recovered. But this burden is not one that cannot be dealt with. That Turkish is spoken everywhere is a proof and manifestation of the stance Türkiye displayed during the 14-year Syrian Revolution. One of the greatest concerns of a significant portion of the Syrians who came from Türkiye is the problems they experience in staying in contact with their relatives in Türkiye.

It is a serious problem that the migration administration must solve, but once solved it is also a matter that holds serious possibilities and channels for both countries. As soon as holders of temporary ID enter Syria, their temporary ID is cancelled and they can come to Türkiye only with a visa, which is not easy to obtain either. For precisely this reason, many Syrians, even if they would return home, cannot even attempt it, because the path offered for returning seems very risky. Yet if this condition were lifted, a very productive and very beneficial channel would be operating between the two countries. A somewhat broader vision is needed on the migration administration, and there are optimistic signs that the new administration has this vision.