Abdulkafi, an English teacher from Aleppo, saw his father for the first time on Monday, days after rebels launched a major offensive and took control of the northern Syrian city from government forces.
“He’s 85 years old, an old man. He never dreamed that he would see me again before he died,” said Abdulkafi, who lives in the opposition area. They could not cross regime-held Aleppo until the offensive.
Video of the encounter, seen by the BBC, shows the two men embracing and sobbing with emotion.
Abdulkafi was one of several people in Aleppo who spoke to the BBC after the city was captured by the armed rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.
He described treating HTS fighters with respect and increased electricity and water supplies – but also spoke of his fear of a return to Aleppo and his disbelief that the former al-Qaida-linked group’s professed austerity would last.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced by the latest fighting, according to the UN.
Many interviewees requested anonymity for their safety. Some details of individual accounts could not be verified due to the difficulty of reporting independently from Syria.
Locals told the BBC that many people in Aleppo were terrified by the new fighting. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, airstrikes by the Syrian government and allied Russian forces have already killed dozens of people.
One man told the BBC his main worry was that he feared a bomb blast could hit the city at any point. He said that he had prevented the family from going to the corner shop.
“We are living in total anxiety,” he said. He said the aerial attacks on the city in the past few days were reminiscent of earlier periods of war.
Aleppo, which was captured by rebels in the early years of the Syrian civil war, was retaken by Russian-backed Syrian government forces in 2016 after a fierce siege.
Since then, the city has largely avoided direct warfare. The Syrian government claims credit for what it says is the ongoing reconstruction of the city, which until the war was Syria’s commercial hub.
But NGOs and independent journalists accuse the government there of widespread human rights abuses, including violence and killings of civilians and non-existent democratic rights.
Abdulkafi and his father’s reunion was joyous — but some of his relatives were afraid to be seen with him for fear of reprisals, Abdulkafi said, once again by regime forces to retake the city.
“Nineteen Eighty-Four was applied in Aleppo. There is a picture of Assad in every building, street, corner. They’re controlling their minds,” he said, referring to George Orwell’s novel about totalitarianism.
For him, the rebel victory was the “victory of freedom” he had been waiting for since he left the city in 2016.
Others in Aleppo are more fearful. A woman said people were “confused and scared” after the rebel takeover. He said he did not leave his house at first, but later went for walks and drives with his family after hearing that civilians were not being harassed by the rebels.
“Everywhere was relatively calm. But everyone looked scared and anxious, you could sense it in their faces and their reactions. No one looked comfortable.
“People are scared because we don’t trust anyone or what their reaction might be to what’s happening now.
“We feel let down by everyone. We don’t know what will happen to us. “
HTS was founded in 2011 as a direct affiliate of al-Qaeda under a different name, Jabhat al-Nusra. It has since split from the group and claims to have moderated its ideology.
George Meneshian, a Greek-Armenian political analyst in contact with Armenians in Aleppo, said the city’s Christians have not experienced any problems since the HTS takeover.
“On the first day, an HTS fighter knocked on the door of an Armenian neighbor and assured them that he would definitely not harm them,” he told the BBC, adding that his sources were afraid to speak directly to the media. revenge
“They said they respect them and let them do whatever they want, like Christians and Armenians.”
Meneshian said Christians are skeptical of HTS promises, a minority group in Syria that has previously been persecuted by jihadist groups that previously said they would not harm non-Muslims. He said many had become accustomed to Assad’s regime, which was authoritarian but at least did not actively persecute Armenians.
“There are precedents of Islamist militias initially harming no one, then committing crimes against minorities. Hopefully this will not happen.”
A Syrian opposition leader abroad told Reuters that rebels taking control of Aleppo would eventually pave the way for internally displaced Syrians and up to 600,000 in neighboring Turkey to return home.
Abdulkafi, who lives in Idlib’s HTS-controlled city of al-Dana, said minorities need not fear the group, which he stressed he disagrees with.
“He’s showing more flexibility, because the highest achievement HTS can get is world acceptance. That doesn’t mean I like him.”
