A MAN WHOSE parents are stuck in Aleppo amid the recent uprising is calling on the government and embassies abroad to help his family get home.
Last week, an Islamist-led rebel alliance toppled the Syrian government, ending five decades of brutal rule by the Assad clan.
Ten days ago, Wael Hallaj, a GP in Longford, and his wife Adriana went back to Aleppo in north west Syria to check on their house and visit family – something they’ve rarely done since they fled to Ireland a decade ago.
Unbeknownst to them, president Bashar al-Assad would be ousted and safe passage out of the country would become impossible.
They are currently staying in a hotel lobby along with people of other nationalities, including workers from the United Nations.
They want to exit Syria and make their way to Europe through Turkey, but Turkey isn’t allowing them passage.
Their son Tamer says they’ve contacted the Department of Foreign Affairs in Ireland, which directed them to the Irish Embassy in Egypt, but so far its efforts to create a safe path have failed.
Tamer is calling for constructive communication between the Irish and Turkish governments so that they may come to an arrangement that allows his parents to get home safely.
“I don’t think there is a reason or a logic not to allow people who don’t live [in Syria] to stay there, or to not to allow them to cross the border to go back to their own home,” he told The Journal.
“I really hope that this helps and that our voices are heard … to get our parents out of there and away from uncertainties.”
Tamer left Syria with his parents and siblings when he was 15 years old, in the wake of a bloody civil war.
The civil war was caused by widespread discontent with Assad rule, which led to insurgence and ultimately a government crackdown on anyone suspected of dissent.
Assad maintained a complex web of prisons and detention centres to keep Syrians from straying from the Baath party line, and his defeat has sparked celebrations around the country and in the diaspora around the world.
Tamer says the recent political developments were “the most bizarre shock”.
Life under Assad was “not dignified living,” he said, describing his defeat as a “relief”.
“But again, there’s this uncertainty of who is going to come up next, and we’re hoping for someone who is reasonable, someone who is not extremist, and someone who will ensure a democratic and more free way of living,” he said.
Around 500,000 people were killed in the civil war and half the country were forced to flee from their homes, some of whom – like the Hallaj family – found refuge in Ireland.
Tamer and his siblings have minimal contact with their parents. All the people in the hotel lobby are using the one wifi source, which has limited capacity.
“Thankfully, we have been able to contact them most days, but it’s for short periods of time … you don’t know when the connection would drop,” he said.
Currently, if his parents want food, they have to leave the hotel, but that is dangerous.
Tamer is particularly concerned about his father, who has diabetes and triple vessel disease.
“He is on chronic medications and insulin … So far he still has his own supply, but it’s with the uncertainty of when he would be able to leave the country, and with the uncertainty of the availability in Syria of medications.”
I’m trying not to lose hope.
Tamer says his family today received a response from the Taoiseach’s office acknowledging their email.
“That’s all we’ve received for now, but that was only today, so we’re hoping for good news.”
His father’s cousin still lives in Aleppo, where the situation for residents is “very dire”.
“They try, whenever it’s safe to do so, to see each other, but there’s really not much help as a person living in Syria … that you can offer to somebody who is stuck there from abroad,” Tamer explained.
He described his parents as brave people “who make their own way and do their best to create a prosperous life for themselves and for us”.
Tamer is a doctor currently completing his basic specialist training in internal medicine. He and his sister Taima live here with their parents.
Their brothers, Sari and Nibras, are both in Romania, where they also have citizenship.
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