Omar Alshogre
Appearances
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
The most beautiful moment was when I was seeing the prisoners being liberated from Aleppo and further to Hama and to Homs. And then when they came close to Syedna prison, it got really serious in my heart because it was a place that I know very well. I spent almost a year there.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
Greece sent me to Macedonia, then Serbia, Croatia, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovenia to Austria, Austria to Germany, Germany to Denmark. Everybody was sending you to the next place. Nobody wanted to have you.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
And I can tell you something. Pain makes you say anything. You don't think about the long-term consequences of your false confession. That's going to be sentenced to execution or life in prison. No, you think about stopping the pain right now.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
Because every cigarette they were burning me with, every bone they were breaking, everything that was hurting in my body was not even caring about the future, just caring about right now. I want the pain to stop. So I gave them the false confession they wanted. And that false confession stopped. led to them to transfer me to 10 different prisons. Last one was Sayyid Naya.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
And the special thing about Syrian prisons is you always dream about them sending you to the prison before the one you are at right now, because it just gets worse. And when you reach Sayyid Naya, that's when you for sure know that you're never coming out. Sayyid Naya is dark. Sayyid Naya is painful. Not the pain itself. It's the fear when you hear people screaming.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
And the gods keep torturing them because in Sayyidina Yahya, you're not allowed to scream under torture. So if you're screaming, that means they're beating you until you are quiet. Sometimes you're quiet by death and sometimes you're quiet because you can't breathe anymore or you learned a lesson that you're not allowed to scream.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
When I was in Sayyidina Yahya, it was my third year in prison. So I was 19 at that time, 18, 19.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
No, I was a kid because I was taken to prison first time when I was 15 and then last time when I was 17. And I was a minor when I was in prison and I didn't grow up like anyone else would do. I was in cell, silent, under torture and starvation for years. I didn't feel like I grew up in that normal sense of growing up. So I was a little boy all the time.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
I didn't know that a human being could be so happy before. I'm telling you, the joy was so unmatchable. I wanted to laugh so hard. I wanted to jump, but I ended up crying like a baby. And I cried the joy of being free. It's the first time I feel it.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
And that actually was the privilege that I had because the prisoners around me cared about me because I was that little boy. In me, they saw their kids. Many of them were older. They saw their kids. But most importantly, they saw someone who could potentially survive and get out and reach to their families and tell their families that they They need to do something to get them out or something.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
So the doctor took care of my wounds and taught me how to take care of his wounds. And the psychologist talked to me about how to treat our trauma so we don't die of the traumatic experience we're going through every day. And the teacher how to improve our grammar and the engineer was talking about how messed up that building was.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
Yes, yes. Political prisoners in Syria are usually the top and highly educated people of the country. Those are not criminals or anything. The regime put them in prison because the regime, those are a threat to the regime. Educated, smart people, knowledgeable people are the biggest threat for the regime.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
Look, I feel like, in a way, I never really... Get out, as in get out. But I was announced for execution in June of 2015 on a Tuesday. They took me from my room and they put me in another room, 48 hours preparation for execution. And then they take me and they put me somewhere on the ground. And then they load their guns and they aim. And then the officer says, shoot. And they shoot.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
And I remember like when it was like in my ear. And I was so excited because I was so afraid that death is going to hurt so painfully. And they shot me and didn't even hurt. So I got so excited that that's finally dead and to heaven. I stood up and I had no blindfolds, no mask. no chain metals around my hands or anything.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
And I stand up and I try to open my eyes and I couldn't, the light was so strong and then I fainted. Then I woke up again. I managed to very slowly open my eyes and then I saw a tree. And hey, I haven't seen a tree in a very long time. I haven't seen color in a very, very long time. When I saw color for the first time, it's like, oh, I want to cry of happiness.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
Nobody understands how important it is to see color. Like blue, I haven't seen blue in so long time. Those three years felt like 300 years. And I got down to the ground because I was starved and I just want to pick anything, grass, anything, doesn't matter. I got down to the ground and I looked and I saw so much blood on my feet and I... I always believed there is no blood in heaven.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
And then I realized I may be still alive. And that could be the worst thing that could ever happen to me. Because I was informed that my family died in a massacre. My hometown was burned. My school was bombed. Even the girl I was in love with, her house was bombed. So she is probably dead. And I had nothing. I had nothing to live for. I had nothing to get out for.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
So I either die or stay in my cell. And then a car comes, pick me up, and takes me somewhere else and somewhere else and somewhere else. Just things move too quickly for me to understand. And then I was standing between my mother's arms suddenly. And I was like, I didn't know what was happening. I really was yet questioning whether I'm alive or dead in heaven or not.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
And then my mom, you know, looks at me and say, my love, my heart, my son Omar. And she hugs me very hard. And like I asked her, didn't you like die? And she says, no, no, no, no, no. We smuggled you out of prison.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
When she told me they smuggled me out of prison, I got so mad because I didn't get smuggled out of prison. I was like executed. I told them. They were looking at me, it's like, what do you mean? I said, I was executed. They shot, they put me, they executed me. I got so frustrated. Said, no, no, that was just a mock execution. The execution guards, head of the prison, everyone was bribed.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
My mom managed to reach everyone, bribe everyone to get me out of prison. So I was smuggled out of prison on my execution day, June 11th, 2015.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
I have to tell you about my hometown. My hometown is the most beautiful town that ever existed in the history of towns. I'm from the coast. It has the sea. It has the mountains. It has the rivers. It has my grandma. And then it has my sister, who I haven't seen in 13 years. And I haven't met her kids, not even a single time. So I miss her. And I miss my father and my brothers who were killed.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
and put in mass graves. I would love to go there and sit and probably talk a little bit to my father and to my siblings. And I have so much things to do. That being said, I can't ignore the fact that I've lived half of my life in Sweden and I have a family here. I have friends here. I have a job here. I feel home in Stockholm. This is reality. I can change.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
So I have two homes, one in Syria and one in Sweden. Both are very important to me. What's important for me is to rebuild Syria, contribute with the education I have, with the knowledge I have gained and the experience I have from democracies to help Syria. At the same time, I can't ignore the fact that I care very much about Sweden. So it will always stay as my home.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
So moving, being hybrid, you know, traveling back and forth. We'll see.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
The most important point to highlight here is the fact that regardless of who overthrew the regime in their military operation, it's the Syrian people who over 14 years fought to bring down the Syrian regime, which means nobody can come and then appoint themselves as a leader, regardless whether they are good or bad, you know, on this list or that list. It doesn't matter.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
What matters is the Syrian people went out to the street for 14 years and they brought down the dictator Bashar al-Assad. And now it's a phase where we have to lead that phase to transition where we have election and we choose the people that we believe in both in parliament and as president. And that's it. Period. Nothing else. Nobody else comes and say, I claim that power.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
You know, the Syrian people have brought down the dictator that's been established for 53 years and had allies like Russia and Iran and Arab Emirates and China and North Korea, all the dictators in the world. And yet the Syrian people brought him down. So imagine a new emerging potential dictator. won't survive long, I tell you. The Syrian people will not settle.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
Remember, every mother has lost a son in Syria. Everyone has experienced the struggle. So nobody would settle for any small solution. And nobody has the right to come and say, hey, I liberated you. No. We liberated Syria, all of us, with every struggle we had.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
By me, by speaking up, and someone else by holding their gun and fighting, protecting their families, and someone else by building, someone else by doing this. We all, all Syrians together, brought down the Syrian regime. And all Syrians together decide on the future of Syria. Anything else, I would start a revolution against. My father was killed so we have freedom.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
My brother, my other brother, was killed to have freedom. My cousin, so we can have freedom and democracy. Would not let anyone come and take it from us. And this is, I'm not talking now against any sort of group. I'm just talking in general, saying this. I would definitely never settle for less than having a real democracy in Syria.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
Firstly, lots of Syrians were not safe in Lebanon. Syrians were killed or tortured or kidnapped and so on. Syrians felt safe in Turkey in the beginning, but in the last few years, They start to feel like they are discriminated against and face racism and so on. Of course, not from the whole country, but some incidents have led to build a perception that Syrians are not welcome in Turkey.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
So they were not feeling like they could stay longer. So the fact that Syria was liberated from the Assad regime was a great incentive for them to move immediately. So the streets towards Damascus were so crowded. That being said, I don't think it's safe yet. Because nobody's certain. Nobody knows what's going to happen next week. So it's too early for anyone to return.
Today, Explained
Will Syrians return home?
I won't encourage people to do it yet. I won't do it myself.