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العربية
“Yasmin al-Mashaan”
The seventh year came, what did happen in these lean years and what do our people see in it! Have their concepts changed? Have we learned from our mistakes? Do they remain convinced that the revolution is a right that does not die, and that what has happened around them is the accumulation of a reign that lasted more than fifty years? I started first with a young man who started from the beginning of the revolution, and was arrested at the age of 16. Ismail al-Khalaf was one of the first demonstrators who came out calling for freedom. His father was a former detainee in Tadmur prison, where he remained there for more than ten years, and after his release he got married and has got his son Ismail. Ismail hated the Assad regime through the stories his father tells about the prison and what he and his companions have suffered. He grew up and was confident that the day will come when people will rise up and wage a revolution that will rid them of this injustice, and his dream has came true where he participated in the demonstrations from the beginning in spite of his young age at the time .
However, Ismail was arrested at the Great Friday demonstration in which the first Assad regime’s idols fell down in Freedom Square (the statue of Basel al-Assad and his horse). He remained proud of the ten days he spent in Assad’s prisons and was beaten, kicked and whipped. Even they extinguished the cigarettes on his chest in those days. Where is Ismael now and what did happen to him? Ismail now resides in Germany after he was forced to go out of his country like many young people. At first he went to Turkey and found gangs and thieves who traded, sold and bought the revolution and the lives of people. He was hungry and thirsty and slept in the street, but all this did not change the concept of revolution for him. Ismail went to Germany, there he found himself, he says, and first began to gather some friends and form a small assembly of Germans and Syrians, whose aim was to help the refugees. Indeed, they organized themselves and participated in all the sit-ins and events that concern the Syrian situation.
Also he began to draw attention to him by the Germans themselves and began to identify his country and its revolution, and despite the calamities the country suffered because of the betrayals and concessions; Ismail says: ”my concept of revolution and the demand for freedom is constant and not changeable, despite my realization that what is happening now is disastrous, so where is the mistake we made to get to this result !!”. “We are all shocked by what is happening, but I have decided to learn and gain as much experience as possible. I am currently studying the fourth level of the German language known as B1. I got a seat to study Networks at the Higher Institute of Education and Experiences known as Ausbildung.
Also I am a founding member of a German organization in Dortmund, we are interested in the affairs of refugees, where our role is to assist them in the fields of translation, registration and follow-up of their affairs in government departments, most notably the “Job Center” and so on. All my interest is on young people of my age and encouraging them to study and work and not to sit and wail. This is the less thing we can do, and the day will come when we will return and build our country again.” I followed up with a father who suffer from the loss of his son to know his opinion about the revolution and what happened while we are now going to the seventh year. Abu Omar rejected all forms of dialogue with me or even to express his anger. This silent anger, which may turn into a revolting volcano that can shake the mankind, he just told me: What has happened has happened. I do not blame Abu Omar, who lost his son at the age of seventeen years, and was forced to leave his home to live in the camp which is the worst among the camps after he was living a decent life, as he took a seat next to his tent, waiting the hour to return. Um Saif, who is waiting for her imprisoned brother, says: “We are still working as much as we can on the dream that we have drawn together, we help the bereaved mothers and widows, and draw smile on the faces of the children who have lost the safe haven to shelter them.
Our revolution is a right that does not die, but it is the will of God that victory is delayed. Continues to say: Yes the corruption exists and the subordination as well, but we have to look for the honest people and unite with them. Although I miss my brother, but sometimes I ask myself; when he comes out what will he say about us? At the end I asked a mother who lost her sons, what’s next, Mom? What do you say now? She answered with confidence and faith: ”(this will end after we distinguish the wicked from the good)!” ”However I move I thank God for choosing my sons and honoring me in this world, and may God accept them as martyrs and be the intercessors for me in the Hereafter. The revolution is a right and everything is happening now of treachery, theft, looting and all the plots are because that our revolution is a right revolution. Whoever was martyred may God accept him, and whoever leaves his house and is expelled from his land, God will compensate him. And who stole will be held accountable, don’t be afraid things will be fine as there are good people in this world. I will not be sorry for anything, God took my sons but compensated me with my grandchildren. Not only my grandchildren, but also wherever I go I find people who greet me warmly and say to me that they wish the speedy relief of our country to return to our homes.
There are many people who remained on the path of revolution and still believe in it despite the hardships the revolution has suffered, and now they give themselves hope and push towards achieving the dream, and they see that all this is happening to purge the revolution from the impurities, as they have reached to one solution after these years, which is to back to the beginning, united the ranks and took a compass of the martyrs’ blood. One of these people told me that we started disagreement from the beginning about the revolution start date, and about who came out first to the demonstrations, then the disagreements became more divergent, and we forgot that we have one goal: right, freedom and the overthrow of the regime. Finally, we have the hope, which still holds us steadfast, and whatever the interests of the states and their policies inside Syria, hope is still a torch that lights the road to freedom.
