One expert sees the fall of the Assad regime as a “historic turning point” in refugee policy. Meanwhile, Chancellor Scholz addresses the Syrians in Arabic.
The dramatic events in the Middle East have prompted Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) to make a statement. The Chancellor welcomed the fall of the violent Syrian regime and expressed his relief at the end of President Bashar al-Assad’s rule in Syria.
“The Syrian people have experienced terrible suffering. The end of Assad’s rule over Syria is therefore good news,” said Scholz on Sunday after it became clear that Assad had fled the country and that the Islamist rebels of the HTS had taken power in Damascus had taken over.
Scholz’s speech was also published on the Federal Chancellery’s social media, including on X. The head of government’s press department used an unusual means. The Chancellor’s message was tweeted not only in German and English, but also in Arabic. 970,000 Syrians live in Germany, most of whom fled due to the bloody civil war in their homeland. The Chancellor also explicitly addressed them by having his message spread in Arabic.
Assad brutally oppressed his people and killed countless people, Scholz continued. He drove numerous people to flee Syria, many of whom came to Germany. In 2011, 32,000 Syrians still lived in Germany, the same year the initially peaceful revolution began in Syria, which Assad suppressed using the most brutal methods and without any consideration for his own population. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians died in battles with government troops, while fleeing or were murdered in the regime’s torture chambers.
“Our thoughts today are with all the victims of the Assad regime,” said the Chancellor. The Federal Government stands on the side of all Syrians who are full of hope for a free Syria. These people fervently hoped that there would now be a chance to rebuild their country. It is now important that law and order is quickly restored in Syria, said Scholz. All minorities must enjoy protection now and in the future. There are also radical forces among the resistance fighters.
Soon after the change of power in Damascus became known, the first voices in Germany spoke of the possibility that many of the Syrians who had fled to Germany could return to their homeland.
The SPD politician Michael Roth rejected this. He called for “the most rational approach possible” to the migration policy aspect of the recent events, which should “not be exploited in a populist manner in the election campaign”: “It would be fatal to now create the expectation that all Syrians could leave Germany within a few weeks ” said Roth in an interview with the “Tagesspiegel”.
Migration researcher Gerhard Knaus, on the other hand, sees a “historic turning point” in European refugee policy, provided that the country can be politically and socially stabilized again under the new rulers. “Syrian refugees in neighboring countries immediately have the chance to see whether it is safe in their homeland again. If that is the case, asylum applications in Germany and other European countries will also decline,” Knaus told “stern”.
