AILSA CHANG, HOST:
We start this hour in Turkey, where millions of Syrian refugees are facing a tough choice. Should they stay, or should they return home? They were forced to flee when the Syrian Civil War broke out in 2011. About 3 million people found sanctuary across the border in Turkey. Now they can return to Syria, free from the fear of Bashar al-Assad's brutal dictatorship. But for many, it's a huge dilemma, as NPR's Fatma Tanis found in a Syrian-owned cafe in Istanbul.
FATMA TANIS, BYLINE: On a main street lined with shops selling Turkish doner kebabs and Syrian shawarma is the Mazaj Cafe. Arabic music plays in the background. There's a water fountain. Syrian families, friends, couples are smoking water pipes, still celebrating the fall of Bashar al-Assad two weeks on.
MUHAMMAD MUSALIMAH: (Speaking Arabic).
TANIS: Muhammad Musalimah can't believe Assad actually fell. I have to see it with my own eyes, he says.
(Speaking Arabic).
MSALIMAH: (Speaking Arabic).
TANIS: Musalimah is from the Syrian town of Daraa, where the revolution began. In 2011, a group of teenage boys wrote a slogan on a wall. Your turn has come, doctor, it said, in reference to Assad's ophthalmology degree. The boys were tortured and killed by the regime. They were the same age as Musalimah at that time, and he's often thought about them
MSALIMAH: (Speaking Arabic).
TANIS: Since then, he's gotten used to life in Turkey, in cosmopolitan Istanbul. Musalimah is an engineer. He has Turkish friends and has citizenship, too. He wants to go to Syria but isn't so sure about a permanent move back.
MSALIMAH: (Speaking Arabic).
TANIS: "For the next years, I'll be watching to see if Syria becomes politically stable," he says. "The world will need to support Syria in this time." I ask him what kind of support he's expecting from the United States.
MSALIMAH: (Speaking Arabic).
TANIS: "Just keep Israel and Iran away from us, and we'll be just fine," he says. At another table, I meet Heba Ahmed, who's from Afrin, a Kurdish city in northern Syria.
HEBA AHMED: (Speaking Arabic).
TANIS: She and her family fled when she was 7 years old. She speaks fluent Turkish and doesn't remember much about life in Syria. She's happy that Assad was defeated but sees her future here in Turkey.
MUSTAFA HAMMOUD: (Speaking Arabic).
TANIS: Her friend Mustafa Hammoud, on the other hand, is going to move back within the month. He's fizzing with anticipation as he shares his plans. He wants to go work on his family farm, marry the girl in his hometown that he got engaged to over Zoom two years ago.
HAMMOUD: (Speaking Arabic).
TANIS: "We were guests here. They welcomed us, and we shouldn't overstay," Hammoud says. It hasn't always been easy living as a refugee here in Turkey. Hammoud struggled to find a job, and some Turkish people blame the refugees for the ongoing economic crisis. There's been cases of racism and discrimination against Syrians. At times, Hammoud even pretended he wasn't Syrian when people asked him.
HAMMOUD: (Speaking Arabic).
TANIS: Now, though, things have changed. He says he's Syrian loud and proud.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: (Singing in Arabic).
TANIS: As if on cue, the music blows up. "Raise your head high. You're a free Syrian," the lyrics say. It's one of many patriotic songs that became anthems of the Syrian Revolution. Indoor fireworks light up. People start clapping and waving the green Syrian flag. In a corner, I spot Manal Mur'ii. She's 39 years old and a Syrian refugee who lives in Norway. They've come to Istanbul for vacation as a family.
MANAL MUR'II: (Speaking Arabic).
TANIS: She also wants to go back to Syria. Life in Norway has been good but hard. She hasn't been able to build a career and feels like a foreigner. But there's one big problem. Her children don't speak Arabic, and she's not sure about the quality of schools in Syria.
MUR'II: (Speaking Arabic).
TANIS: When Mur'ii fled with her children in 2013, she'd had no choice, no time to think about their school or their language. Now she does, and it feels different.
MUR'II: (Speaking Arabic).
TANIS: "I will take full advantage of that choice," she says, "to make the best decision for my family." Her son was 9 when they left Syria. Now he's 19, and he's got a choice, too. Fatma Tanis, NPR News, Istanbul. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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