(19 Dec 2024)
RESTRICTIONS SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bab al-Salameh, Syria – 13 December 2024
1. Various of Ahmed al-Kassem at the crossing between Turkey and Syria with his son
2. Various of Kassem at border’s office presenting his family’s papers
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Aleppo, Syria – 13 December 2024
3. Various of al-Kassem’s family greeting their relatives where his family house is located ++NIGHT SHOTS++
4. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ahmed al-Kassem, displaced Syrian returning home: ++STARTS ON PREVIOUS SHOT AND PARTIALLY OVERLAID BY SHOTS 5 TO 7/NIGHT SHOT++
“My brother and I have been in Turkey for 13 years. I left for 13 years and now I returned to my country, thank God. We hope to God that the situation gets better and everything returns to how it was before. As you see, life was difficult there (Turkey) and now it will be a bit difficult at the start. But I have to adapt to the situation. Why? Because it still is my homeland, my home, and our people are here.”
5. Various of Al-Kassem greeting relatives ++NIGHT SHOTS++
6. Ahmed carrying belongings into his family’s house ++NIGHT SHOT++
7. Ahmed going into house and closing door ++NIGHT SHOT++
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Aleppo, Syria – 16 December 2024
8. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ahmed al-Kassem, displaced Syrian returning home: ++PARTIALLY OVERLAID BY SHOT 9++
“Behind us there is a mosque called Omar bin al Khattab. It was targeted daily. That is why I left my house. A day after, I came back to check on my belongings, I found the house hit because they were targeting the mosque. I left to Turkey then.”
9. Various of al-Kassem checking on his destroyed house in Hanano district
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Aleppo, Syria – 14 December 2024
10. Various of destruction in Masaken Hanano where al-Kassem house is located
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Aleppo, Syria – 16 December 2024
11. Al-Kassem walking outside his house
12. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ahmed al-Kassem, displaced Syrian returning home: ++STARTS ON PREVIOUS SHOT AND PARTIALLY OVERLAID BY SHOTS 13 AND 14++
“When I saw my country liberated, I got up and returned with my children, to introduce them to our homeland and show them their country. But when my children came here and saw the situation, they were really surprised. They didn’t expect this. They lived there (Turkey) with electricity, running water, internet, all life’s essentials were available. But here, as you can see, we have been here for days with no water. I have no idea where I will go with my children.”
13. Al-Kassem and his children getting out of taxi
14. Various of al-Kassem and his family in coffee shop
STORYLINE:
The moment he arrived home to Syria from Turkey, Ahmed al-Kassem held his sister in a tight embrace, tears streaming down their faces. They hadn’t seen each other in more than a decade and now were reunited only days after the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
But soon, the former refugee’s joy was tinged by uncertainty about the future of his war-torn homeland. His old house in the city of Aleppo was too damaged to live in, and the family home he had brought his wife and children to had no electricity or running water.
Al-Kassem and his family are among the more than 7,600 Syrian refugees who Turkish officials say have crossed back into Syria from Turkey since December 9 when Assad was swept out of power by insurgents.
Thousands more have come back from neighboring Lebanon.
The Associated Press documented the return of al-Kassem’s family, from their crossing out of Turkey with a truckload of belongings on December 13 to their first days in Aleppo, a city still scarred by the long civil war.
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