CILVEGOZU, Turkiye: Syrians lined up at the Turkish border on Wednesday to head home after militants ousted President Bashar Assad, speaking of their expectations for a better life following what was for many a decade of hardship in Turkiye.
“We have no one here. We are going back to Latakia, where we have family,” said Mustafa as he prepared to enter Syria with his wife and three sons at the Cilvegozu border gate in southern Turkiye. Dozens more Syrians were waiting to cross.
Mustafa fled Syria in 2012, a year after the conflict there began, to escape conscription into Assad’s army. For years he did unregistered jobs in Turkiye earning less than the minimum wage, he said.
“Now there’s a better Syria. God willing, we will have a better life there,” he said, expressing confidence in the new leadership in Syria as he watched over the family’s belongings, clothes packed into sacks and a television set.
The civil war that grew out of a 2011 uprising against Assad killed hundreds of thousands of people and drove millions abroad.
Turkiye, which hosts three million Syrians, has extended the opening hours of the Cilvegozu border gate near the Syrian city of Aleppo seized by militants at the end of November.
A second border gate was opened at nearby Yayladagi in Hatay on Tuesday.
Around 350-400 Syrians a day were already crossing back to militant-held areas of Syria this year before the opposition rebellion began two weeks ago. The numbers have almost doubled since, Ankara says, anticipating a surge now Assad has gone.
Turkiye has backed Syrian opposition forces for years but has said it had no involvement in the militant offensive which succeeded at the weekend in unseating Assad after 13 years of civil war.
Around 100 trucks were waiting to cross the border, carrying goods including dozens of used cars. Security forces helped manage the flow of people, while aid groups offered snacks to children and tea and soup to adults.

’OUR OWN PEOPLE’ ARE NOW IN CHARGE
Dua, mother of three children including a baby, is originally from Aleppo and has been living in Turkiye for nine years. She worked in textile workshops and packaging in Bursa but is now returning to Syria due to her husband’s deportation.
“I’m going back for my husband. He didn’t have an ID and was deported when I was eight months pregnant. I can’t manage on my own, so I need to return,” she said.
“My husband hasn’t even met our baby yet. I was born and raised in Aleppo, and I will raise my children there too.”
Elsewhere Haya was waiting to enter Syria with her husband and three children. They have lived in a nearby container camp since devastating earthquakes in February 2023 killed more than 50,000 people in Turkiye 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 comments from Arabic.
Syria’s new interim prime minister has said he aimed to bring back millions of Syrian refugees, protect all citizens and provide basic services but acknowledged it would be difficult because the country, long under sanctions, lacks foreign currency.
Mustafa voiced confidence in the new leadership after Assad was ousted by militants led by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, a former Al-Qaeda affiliate which has since downplayed its jihadist roots.
“Those who have taken power are no strangers. They didn’t come from the United States or Russia. They are our own people. We know them,” he said.

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s health ministry said an Israeli strike in the south killed one person on Wednesday, amid a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah after two months of all-out war.
“An Israeli enemy drone strike on the town of Ainata killed one person and wounded another,” the health ministry said in a statement.
Israel stepped up its campaign in Lebanon in late September after nearly a year of cross-border exchanges launched by Hezbollah in support of Hamas following its Palestinian ally’s October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel.
A ceasefire came into effect on November 27 and is generally holding, though both sides have accused the other of repeated violations.
Under the terms of the ceasefire, the Lebanese army will deploy in the south alongside UN peacekeepers as the Israeli army withdraws over a period of 60 days.
Hezbollah is required to withdraw its forces north of the Litani river, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border, and dismantle its military infrastructure in the south.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) reported that UN peacekeepers entered the town of Khiam on Wednesday to “inspect the road and verify the Israeli enemy army’s withdrawal.”
It added that the peacekeepers found the body of a man “in the vicinity of his house” in the border town.
Also Wednesday, the NNA said ambassadors from the United States, France, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt met with parliament speaker and Hezbollah ally Nabih Berri, who has scheduled a parliament session next month for lawmakers to elect a president.
Crisis-hit Lebanon has been without a president for more than two years amid deadlock between Hezbollah and its allies and their adversaries.
On Monday, representatives of the United States, France, UNIFIL and the Israeli and Lebanese militaries met in the border town of Naqura “to coordinate their support for the cessation of hostilities,” a joint statement said.
“UNIFIL hosted the meeting, with the United States serving as chair, assisted by France, and joined by” the two armies, the statement said.
“This mechanism will meet regularly and coordinate closely to advance implementation of the ceasefire agreement” and United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, it added.
The resolution, which ended a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, stated that only Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers should carry weapons in the south and demanded that Israeli troops withdraw from Lebanese territory.