Youssef Beyraqdar, from Bab Sbaa in Homs
I had to leave my neighbourhood in 2012 because of the ethnic cleansing and massacres, and today I’ve come back to my liberated city.
In 2018, I had to leave the northern Homs countryside in a green bus [domestic transport buses used by al-Assad for forced population transfer] but today I have come back with my dignity intact, honoured and free.
My feelings as I came back were so mixed. We cried, we screamed in joy, feelings that cannot be described, coming back and seeing our families. It’s like a dream.
I saw my mother, I was able to visit my father’s grave, he died while I was away, last year, and I wasn’t able to come back.
Today I was able to visit him and tell him that I was here again, finally. Thanks be to God.
God willing, we will rebuild our city that was destroyed by the Assad regime, Russia, and the sectarian militias that he used and brought in to suppress the Syrian revolution and kill the Syrian people.
All there is to say is that we aspire for a Syria that is a civil, democratic state that respects all spectrums of the Syrian people. And we hope that the criminals and murderers will be brought to justice and accountability.