When he returned to Syria just lately for the primary time in 12 years, Kazem Togan requested the passport management agent to examine whether or not he “had a reputation” — which means that he was among the many tens of millions of residents named on needed lists below the ousted Assad dictatorship.
“You’re needed by department 235,” the person advised him, smiling as he delivered the information. “The intelligence department.”
Mr. Togan, a journalist who labored for opposition Syrian media when the previous authorities was in energy, mentioned he was thrilled.
“At present, each Syrian asks as a matter of routine, ‘Was I needed?’” he mentioned. “Anybody who was detained by the Assad regime or needed by the Assad regime, there’s a measure of satisfaction.”
For greater than 5 a long time, the dictator Bashar al-Assad and his father earlier than him dominated Syria by terror. Anybody needed by any of the regime’s quite a few intelligence, navy or safety branches was named on lists that may very well be checked at airports, border crossings or police stations and risked disappearing into the jail system.
This was recognized in Syria as “having a reputation.”
Those that spent their total lives terrified by the prospect of getting a safety file at the moment are brazenly asking officers about their standing below the previous authorities and bragging about it brazenly in dialog or on social media. To have been needed by a authorities that tortured or killed tens of millions of its personal residents to carry on to energy is a badge of honor — proof that you simply stood up in opposition to oppression.
A few of these previously needed cite a line from the Tenth-century Arab poet Al-Mutanabbi: “If somebody who’s poor criticizes me, it’s a testimony that I’m excellent.”
Along with these individuals the federal government seen as threats, reminiscent of anti-government protesters and armed rebels, Syrians might find yourself having a reputation for something from making a political joke amongst associates to carrying international forex and even dwelling overseas for too lengthy.
Lots of the needed had been males, largely as a result of many evaded necessary navy service and likewise had been those who took up arms in opposition to the Assad regime. However girls, too, and even youngsters, had been on the lists.
In the event that they had been caught, they may disappear into the previous regime’s infamous jail system, the place torture and executions had been rife and from which many by no means emerged.
The hazard of being needed and caught drove tens of millions of Syrians into exile outdoors the nation or into hiding inside it.
It additionally drove many anti-government activists and insurgent fighters to undertake a nom de guerre all through the civil battle to protect each themselves and their households from ending up on the needed lists.
Mr. Togan, 36, the opposition journalist, recorded his encounter in January with the passport management agent as he returned from Saudi Arabia, the place he has been dwelling. He then posted it on social media.
No cause was listed on his file for why he was needed.
“Think about if I had come to Syria earlier than the autumn of this prison regime?” he mentioned.
When the Syrian rebels who ousted Mr. al-Assad in December started to arrange their very own authorities, they inherited a whole paperwork and gained entry to databases and intelligence recordsdata that had been saved on tens of millions of Syrians. The trove of paperwork may very well be used sooner or later to pursue justice and accountability for the crimes of the dictatorship.
An Inside Ministry official mentioned in a latest interview with a Syrian tv channel that greater than eight million Syrians had been needed by the previous regime.
“In fact, we’ve got forgiven a number of these, like the problem of being needed for reserve navy responsibility or conscription,” mentioned the official, Khaled al-Abdullah. “It is a massive chunk. We’ve set these apart.”
However the brand new authorities mentioned it will not dismiss earlier civil court docket judgments or prison fees, he mentioned.
Tamer Turkmane, 35, just lately got here house to Syria for the primary time in years. When he crossed from Turkey, the place he had been dwelling, the brokers didn’t examine his previous standing.
However when he left the nation by means of the border crossing with Lebanon, he mentioned the passport management officer requested him: “‘What did you try this a number of regime branches had been after you?’”
Mr. Turkmane mentioned he had simply laughed.
He had recognized that he was needed as a result of kin who lived in Homs had been threatened by safety officers in an try to strain him to show himself in or cease documenting human rights violations by the previous regime. However he had not recognized the small print about which particular branches of the federal government had been after him.
Initially of the Syrian rebellion in opposition to Mr. al-Assad’s rule, Mr. Turkmane had based the Syrian Revolution Archive — a database of movies, images and different data documenting the revolt turned civil battle. He was sought by a number of totally different navy and inside safety branches.
“I used to be so proud,” he mentioned.
He requested the passport officer to snap a fast photograph of the display displaying his file to share on Instagram. Lots of the feedback on his submit had been congratulations.
On the immigration and passport ministry within the metropolis of Aleppo on a latest day, the steps outdoors the constructing had been full of traces of women and men attempting to push ahead and thru the one open door to resume passports, change misplaced nationwide ID playing cards and examine on their earlier safety standing.
On the second flooring, Ahmad Raheem, a 15-year worker within the archives division, mentioned he spent his days at a pc, operating checks on these coming in to get new paperwork.
A person who had been outdoors the nation for 12 years handed over his Syrian ID card to Mr. Raheem. On the pc display, he might see that the person had been needed for evading navy responsibility — a cost that simply two months earlier would have landed him in a navy jail or despatched him to combat on a entrance line of the civil battle.
“That’s it, sir. You don’t have something,” Mr. Raheem advised him, not mentioning the cost and handing him again his ID.
Afterward, Mr. Raheem defined that he didn’t supply up the knowledge on who was beforehand needed until particularly requested as a result of he doesn’t need individuals to fret by some means that the brand new authorities was pursuing these regime-era fees.
Fuad Sayed Issa, the founding father of Violet Group, a Syria-based charity, was leaving the Damascus airport in February, heading again to Turkey, the place he had been dwelling through the civil battle. He mentioned the passport management agent paused as he scanned his passport on the pc.
“‘Am I needed?’” Mr. Issa, 29, requested.
“‘Sure. You’re needed by a number of safety branches,’” Mr. Issa recalled the agent telling him.
He was needed by the prison safety department and immigration management and for evading navy service.
“For us, these items are humorous,” mentioned Mr. Issa, who was a part of an early warning community of observers in rebel-held territory who would notify civilians of incoming airstrikes by Syrian and Russian warplanes through the civil battle.
The Assad regime would go after us “as if we had been terrorists,” he mentioned.
