Torn apart by the Syrian Civil War, siblings seek a better life around the world

Salam hasn’t seen anyone in his family since December 2014 when he left Turkey to attend graduate school at the University of Colorado Boulder. Originally from southern Aleppo, his family is now spread across the globe as a result of the Syrian Civil War, and with a pending asylum case in the U.S., he doesn’t know the next time he’ll be able to see anyone in his family face to face.

His older sister Amira has residency in Istanbul. His younger brother Besher is in a refugee camp on the island of Lesbos, Greece, hoping to join his youngest brother Amro in Berlin soon. Salam’s parents are both still in Syria, unable to leave behind their family property and government pension. His father was just released after more than two months in prison, while his mother continued working, keeping up the family’s assets.

Growing up, Salam says, the family was close and has grown even closer as the conflict has dispersed them throughout the world. But he does hope to one day be reunited with them all, although he doesn’t expect it to happen anytime soon.

“All I have are hopes, I don’t have any expectations,” he says. “Our expectations failed us many times since the beginning of the conflict. We expected the war to be over in a year or so and we would gain our freedom. But we failed in that. We expected Assad to be overthrown by the opposition forces but we again failed at that.”

But as Syrian President Bahar al-Assad’s regime gains ground, retaking Aleppo in December amidst accusations of grave human rights abuses, and Russia attempts to broker peace talks, Salam and his siblings have resigned themselves to start their lives over elsewhere.

“We all know that the Syrian regime is really bad; that’s the basic level of agreement between us as family members,” Salam says. “We all agree on that, and we all want Assad to go.”

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