Homeward-bound Syrian crosses Turkey border in search of brother

Wearing a navy down jacket and carrying a small suitcase, Alikabor looks like any other regular international traveller but early on Monday he was queueing with other Syrian refugees, hoping to pass through Turkey's Cilvegozu border crossing and return to his homeland.

"I'm going back to look for my missing brother. We've not had news of him for 13 years," said the 29-year-old with German citizenship who lives in Hamburg and declined to give his surname.

Originally from Idlib in northwestern Syria, he fled on foot through Turkey in 2013, then caught a boat to Greece and finally reached Germany where he was given citizenship.

Early on Monday, barely 24 hours after an Islamist-led rebel coalition ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Alikabor was waiting with several hundred refugees at the border under the watchful eye of Turkish commandos and police.

Most of those waiting were refugees who have lived in Turkey for more than 10 years, who arrived at the border crossing weighed down with luggage or carrying sleeping children in their arms.

The only way across is on foot with the crossing fed by a constant stream of taxis turning up to drop off families eager to finally return home, many with youngsters in tow.

They have come from across Turkey: from Istanbul, from Bursa in the west, from Kayseri in the Cappadocia region, with the dream of returning to former homes in Hama, Homs, Aleppo and the capital Damascus.

"My brother disappeared while he was studying in Homs," explained Alikabor.

"We were at university together, he was finishing his fourth year studying English. I'd been away for two days seeing our parents in Idlib when some friends rang to tell me he'd disappeared.

"We've had no news of him since."

- 'Dead or alive?' -

It is a scenario that has been repeated across Syria, with more than 110,000 people forcibly disappeared by the government, according to a 2022 estimate by the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR).

"We don't know if he's dead or alive," admitted Alikabor, who is planning to travel to Damascus to show "the new authorities" a photo of his brother, who would now be 33.

If unsuccessful, he plans then to travel across Syria to visit its countless prisons to see if his brother was among those freed by the rebels.

"The only thing we're certain of is that he was being held by Assad's people," Alikabor said, insisting that his brother was not politically active nor had he taken part in any of the mass protests of 2011 that sparked a brutal government crackdown.

After news of Assad's fall on Sunday, Alikabor jumped on the first flight to Istanbul, then flew down to Hatay and was among the first refugees waiting to cross the border back into his homeland.

Back in Hamburg, where he runs a moving company, his wife and three children, all born in Germany, and his parents are waiting for news.

"I'm going to look everywhere, I'll try and find our friends and I'll ask everyone," he said just before crossing the border.