Dr. Rania al-Abbasi, her husband and their six children

A massacre brought to light in Syria in recent days carries a weight that will shake the memory not just of one family but of a country. It has been officially announced that the six children of Dr. Rania el-Abbasi, whose fate had been unknown for thirteen years, were killed. It was announced that, as a result of investigations conducted by the Syrian National Commission for Missing Persons and the Ministry of Interior, important findings had been reached in a file that had remained in uncertainty for years. Syrian President Ahmed Sharaa also, in a video call with the family, conveyed his condolences and declared that the file would be clarified in all its aspects and that those responsible would be brought before the judiciary.

The official announcement that Dr. Rania el-Abbasi's six children were killed shows, on the one hand, only one of the countless tragedies lived through during the Syrian revolution, but at the same time this file is a symbolic case that lays bare, in all its nakedness, the nature of the crimes against humanity committed by the Assad regime and the moral collapse it reached.

According to the statements made, the evidence and video recordings seized during the investigations show that the children were killed by elements affiliated with the overthrown regime. According to information that has reached the public, it was reported that Amjad Yusuf, known as the "Butcher of Tadamon," and some persons connected with the file were taken into custody. These developments, which have deeply shaken Syrian society, have finally brought clarity to one of the most painful questions awaiting an answer for years.

In wars people die. In clashes civilians lose their lives. Throughout history states have oppressed, silenced their opponents, and committed tyranny. But there are some crimes that cannot be evaluated within the category of ordinary political violence. Because in those crimes the target is not only the human body but humanity itself.

The Rania el-Abbasi file is exactly such a file. Rania el-Abbasi, one of Damascus's well-known dentists, was also one of the successful chess champions of Syria and the Arab world. Her husband was also a doctor. They were an educated, productive, and respected family of society. What made them criminals in the regime's eyes was not their participation in armed struggle or their involvement in any act of violence. According to the claims, their crime was helping the victimized families who came from Homs in the first years of the revolution, opening their door to those in need, and showing humanitarian solidarity.

The process that began with the raid on their home in March 2013 was, beyond a detention operation, the beginning of the systematic destruction of a family. First the father, Abdurrahman Yasin, then Rania and the six children, the youngest 1 and the oldest 12 years old, Dima, Intisar, Najah, Ala, Ahmed, Layan, disappeared. After that, for years, any information about their fate was withheld from their families and from the public.

This long silence was in fact one of the most striking examples of the policy of enforced disappearances in Syria. The regime was not only killing people; it was trying to erase them from memory as well. Uncertainty, as much as death itself, was being turned into a method of punishment. For the parents, siblings, and relatives left behind, the heaviest torture was often not news of death but not getting any news.

That is why, over the years, the children of Rania el-Abbasi ceased to be merely the children of one family; they became the symbol of all the missing in Syria.

The information that has emerged today deepens the dimension of the tragedy even further. The evidence that six children, among them a baby who had not yet reached even one year of age, were killed points to a brutality that strains the limits of human imagination. The most shocking side of this event is that the children were targeted not on any charge but solely because they belonged to a family.

That this file has been brought to light today is at least as important as the crime itself. Because justice is not only the punishment of the guilty but also the revelation of the truth. As long as the veil over the truth is not lifted, the crime cannot be considered complete. Every day on which it is not known what happened to a mother, a father, or a child, the oppression in a sense continues.

THE JOURNEY OF MUHAMMED IYD EL-ABBASI FROM TILLO TO SYRIA IN THE EARLY YEARS OF THE REPUBLIC

The Rania el-Abbasi case carried a meaning for me beyond the countless reports of human rights violations in Syria that I was already following.

Because Rania's father, Muhammed Iyd el-Abbasi, was a great Islamic scholar whose roots extend to the Tillo district of Siirt and with whom I have ties of kinship. I recounted his life story in my book Religious Education in the Early Years of the Republic: Reform or Liquidation?, published two months ago by Beyan Publications. I am one of those who know this esteemed scholar, one of the representatives of knowledge, insight, and morality in Syria, and who have witnessed his story.

Muhammed Iyd, now approaching 90, is the son of a scholar who, in the thirties, because of the bans on Arabic religious education in Turkey, crossed to Syria to receive his Islamic education, married while continuing his studies, and stayed in Syria. He took care to raise his children born there as scholars too. Of these, Muhammed Iyd and his brother reached the highest degrees in learning and created great respect around them. After the Hama events, Muhammed Iyd was arrested and spent 18 years in Tadmur prison under the most severe torture. After his release he continued his scholarly activities for a while and wrote many books, but when the revolution began, like most of the Ulema, he took a stand against the Assad regime and was forced to leave Syria.

That is why part of the revenge that led to the killing of Rania, Abdurrahman Yasin, Dima, Intisar, Najah, Ala, Ahmed, and Layan also targeted Muhammed Iyd Abbasi.

These names must be written out deliberately. Because great tragedies often turn into numbers. Yet behind every number there is a life, a face, and a story.

When speaking of the crimes of the Assad regime, we often talk about hundreds of thousands of dead, millions of refugees, and tens of thousands of missing. But sometimes a single story tells more than all the statistics. The Rania el-Abbasi file is such a story. Because all the elements of the Syrian tragedy come together in this file: Enforced disappearance, the punishment of families, the targeting of children, the concealment of truth, years of uncertainty, and impunity.

The reopening of this file today and its significant clarification matter not only for one family but for all of Syria.

Perhaps the suffering endured over thirteen years can never be compensated. No court ruling will bring back the lives of six children. But the emergence of the truth is nevertheless of great value. Because without truth there is no justice. And without justice there is no peace.