This is how Syrians in Southern California are celebrating the fall of the Assad regime

At Aleppo’s Kitchen in Anaheim, Syrian revolution songs play on the speakers while Sammy Hajomar and his family put up revolution flags at the restaurant.

The restaurant has become a gathering place for Syrians looking to celebrate the end of Bashar Al-Assad’s rule in Syria. While people are hopeful about the future, they are also anxious at who will take over next. The Al-Assad family ruled the country for half a century, a period marked by authoritarian rule and violence. The Syrian revolution began during the Arab Spring in 2011, but Al-Assad cracked down on protests, leading to bloodshed and imprisonments.

Omar Issa and Sammy Hajomar.

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Courtesy Sammy Hajomar

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“The flag for us has symbolized since the early days of the revolution a kind of separation or liberation from the Ba'athist Assad regime,” Hajomar said.

Omar Issa, a Syrian American living in Santa Clarita, said he began to lose hope that the Al-Assad regime would be toppled in his lifetime. Issa last visited Syria in 2000 when he was 6 years old. The plan was to return when he completed high school. Then, the revolution started. Since he was of age for military service and because he began speaking out about the atrocities of the Assad regime, he could never go back.

“Up until two weeks ago, I was like, I may never be able to go back to Syria again, I will never be able to take my kids to my country,” he said. “Now I feel like within the year I could be there.”

For the community, Issa said, “it feels like Eid, the community is just celebrating.”

Life under the Assad regime

For Dima Kedraki, a Syrian American living in Orange, she is happy but anxious about the fall of the Assad regime. She was born two years after Bashar Al-Assad’s father, Hafez Al-Assad, assumed power in 1971 and lived in Syria until 1998.

“We lived in the city of fear, in the country of fear,” she said of her time in Syria. “I never lived in something called freedom.”

She recalls how she wasn’t allowed to speak about the regime’s atrocities even in the privacy of her home with family members for fear of retribution.

The Al-Assad regime tore apart families. Since the revolution began, she was not able to travel back meaning she didn’t see her father for 13 years. Her voice cracking, Kedraki said she didn’t get to see him before he died two years ago. In the over 10 years they have been apart, Kedraki has communicated with her family via hand signals and symbols over video calls, worried someone could be listening in to their conversations.

“I want my nephews and nieces to have the ability to say what they want just like my kids, I want them to fulfill their dreams just like my kids,” she said.

A Syria for everyone

Kedraki is hoping for a “Syria for everyone, for the Muslim, the Christian, the Jew, the Alawite, the Druze, the Shia, the non-believers, whoever you live with, Turkmens, Armenians.”

“I expect a country that's inclusive for all of us equal in duties and rights,” she added. “There is no difference in any possible way.”

Issa said he’s hopeful that in the 14 years since the revolution began, leaders have been planning for what comes next and who will be in charge.

He added that the rebels took over the country with minimum bloodshed, installing an interim leader in Mohammed al-Bashir, who has a background in civil engineering, rather than opting for someone with a military past.

These are positive signs, Issa said.

Celebrations planned in Southern California

• Aleppo’s Kitchen is offering free tea and baklava from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Dec. 12
• Syria Block Party, 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Dec. 14 at 513 S. Brookhurst St., Anaheim 
• Victory Celebration in Irvine, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Dec. 15 at Mason Park, 18712 University Dr., Irvine