Civilians evacuated from Aleppo long for their hometown

The civilians who were evacuated from Aleppo, and took shelter in the camps built in Idlib, which is near the Turkish-Syria borders, continue their lives hoping to return back to Aleppo.

The residents of Nour camp, which is backed by local aid organizations, told an Anadolu Agency reporter on Sunday how much they missed their hometown on the first anniversary of their evacuation.

"After the siege that continued for months, we were forced to leave Aleppo. But, we will go back. I lost my house. It is my homeland where I grew up and raised my children, I will never give up on Aleppo," Ahmad Dado, one of the camp residents, told Anadolu Agency.

Noting that no aid had been dispatched to the camp for a couple of months, "Our children would enjoy the aids sent to our camp, but they no longer smile. We were under Assad siege in Aleppo; in Idlib, we are sieged by hunger," he said.

Halid Deruzi (56) also emphasized that he wanted to return to Aleppo as soon as possible.

"I hope that we will return to Aleppo where we lived our good and bad days, where we drank salty water and spoiled bread. I want to go back to the place where I was born and raised and our Prophet prayed for," he said, referring to Prophet Muhammad.

"I want to go back to Aleppo, which is my love and where my two sons were martyred," he said.

Faize Idris, who lost her two children during the Aleppo siege, accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad saying: "I raised my two children facing great difficulties, but Assad killed them both. Once Aleppo is liberated, we will come back home. I could live in a tent as long as it is located in Aleppo."

In 2016, the Bashar Assad regime kept eastern Aleppo, where 300,000 civilians were trapped, under siege for four months. The siege prompted the greatest humanitarian crisis in the Syrian civil war, but was ended after a ceasefire agreement led by Turkey brokered on December 13th.

Evacuations came after Ankara and Moscow came to a deal on evacuating the local population. Evacuations emerged between December 15th and 22nd.

Afterwards, some 45,000 civilians from Aleppo settled in the Idlib camps, which is near the Turkish border and controlled by the opposition forces.