In 2018, I had the opportunity to meet my maternal uncle, Burhan, for the first time. At the time, I was living in Istanbul, and he had sought refuge with his family in another Turkish city. After helping him obtain the necessary permissions to travel to Istanbul as a refugee, my parents also journeyed there to reunite with him. My mother had not seen her brother since 1980, before she left Syria, got married, and raised our family in a foreign land. The emotional embrace between them, after 38 years of separation, was a poignant moment that seemed to freeze time.
My uncle had been arrested and sent to Tadmur prison in Syria in 1980, shortly after a brutal massacre in which hundreds of political prisoners were executed in a single day. He endured unimaginable torture and inhumane conditions for 17 years before being released in 1997, only to be prevented from leaving Syria for another 15 years. After the revolution, he was finally able to relocate his family to Turkey, but the trauma of his time in Tadmur continued to haunt him.
As we mark the 44th anniversary of the Tadmur prison massacre, we remember the atrocities committed on June 27, 1980, when over 1,000 prisoners were killed in a brutal reprisal. The regime’s relentless abuse of political prisoners continued for decades, with thousands more victims falling prey to torture and enforced disappearances.
My uncle’s harrowing experiences in Tadmur left him unable to fully articulate the horrors he witnessed. My father, a former detainee himself, dedicated his life to seeking justice for the victims of Assad’s regime. Despite efforts to hold key figures like Rifaat al-Assad accountable for their crimes, justice has remained elusive.
In 2024, Rifaat al-Assad was charged in Switzerland for his role in the Tadmur prison massacre, offering a glimmer of hope for accountability. However, the destruction of Tadmur prison by ISIL in 2015 erased crucial evidence of the regime’s atrocities, leaving survivors and families of victims still waiting for full justice.
The legacy of the Tadmur prison massacre lives on, a grim reminder of the brutality and impunity of the Assad regime. As we reflect on the lives lost and the suffering endured, we continue to demand justice and accountability for those who have been silenced and forgotten.