Syrians In Moscow Share Concerns After Fall Of Assad
Faizan Hashmi Published December 19, 2024 | 01:00 PM
Moscow, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 19th Dec, 2024) Georgina Deiratani, a Syrian Christian who has lived in Moscow for over two decades, says she is still in shock at the ouster of president Bashar al-Assad and his escape to Russia.
"Everybody is saying 'congratulations'," said the 37-year-old, one of several thousand Syrians estimated to be living in the Russian capital.
She remembers growing up in a country where different communities lived in harmony but makes no mention of the brutality of the half-century dictatorship of Assad and his father before him.
"We lived well together," said Deiratani, a doctor who moved to Moscow with her Russian mother after the death of her father.
"I would wish my friends a happy Ramadan and they would wish me a happy Christmas.
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Deiratani said the collapse of the dictatorship in just a few days was also a shock for her because Islamist rebels are now in charge.
The Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and allied rebels ousted Assad earlier this month.
The radical Sunni Islamist group has been proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Western governments including the United States and Britain.
It has recently sought to moderate its rhetoric and assure the international community that religious and other minorities will be protected.
But Deiratani was not convinced. "A terrorist is still a terrorist whatever their organisation," she said. She was "very afraid" for the fate of fellow Christians in Syria, she added.
