The view from afar At last I can dream of a Syria for us all

IT HAPPENED SO FAST. In the evening, about 9.30pm UK time, 30 minutes after midnight in Homs, I spotted the first video indicating that my home city was finally free from Bashar al-Assad and his forces.

- Ammar Azzouz

Then a friend shared a link of a man livestreaming from the New Clock Tower Square in Homs. I heard the zaghroutas of women; the chants of men: "There is no for ever. There is no for ever. Long live Syria and down with Assad." People started gathering in the square, bringing the memory of the early days of the revolution in 2011, when the people of Homs were inspired by their brothers and sisters in Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, but innocent civilians were massacred by the Syrian regime.

Now 2011 and 2024 were meeting each other. Two dates that have left in between them mass destruction of cities, and the displacement of more than half of the Syrian population from their homes.

I wept as I followed the pages, the photos, the videos that started emerging from Homs. I kept weeping, remembering all the streets that I have not been able to see in more than 13 years, remembering the lives of my friends and relatives living in the war-torn city or in exile.