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Thursday, 28 December, 2017
Amid
the grey ruins of Syria’s devastated city of Raqqa, three boys stopped and
stared as two Father Christmases walked by with black sacks slung over their
backs.
The
two men in red outfits and fake white beards rang their bells as they marched
through the war-ravaged city on Tuesday, much to the disbelief of a dozen
residents following them.
Not
since 2013, when war came to their northern city, had they seen such a parade.
In
2014, the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group seized the city, making it their de
facto Syrian capital and imposing its strict interpretation of Islam on
everyone. But US-backed forces expelled the jihadists in October after a
months-long battle.
Leaning
on a handcart loaded with electrical cables, the boys grinned as they watched
the Santas make their way through streets strewn with rubble and twisted metal.
Stopping
by what remains of an Armenian Catholic Church in the city centre, the festive
duo handed out toy cars and dolls to those few families present.
After
they left, a boy came running.
“Where’s
Father Christmas?” he asked. “I wanted to see him.”
Most
Christians fled after IS arrived to avoid the choices offered by the jihadists
– converting, paying a tax or death.
The
Church of the Martyrs has been reduced to a concrete shell and rubble, but it
was more than enough on Tuesday for the city’s first Christmas in years.
Dozens
of people – mostly Muslims – milled around inside, curious to see the
celebrations put on by the US-backed Kurdish-Arab alliance that had ousted the
jihadists.
There
was no priest and the only congregants were Christian members of the Syrian
Democratic Forces.
Loudspeakers
belted out hymns as some set up a large wooden cross on a pile of rubble, near
a Christmas tree decorated with red and yellow balls.
“There
are no words to describe how we feel right now,” said Harou Aram, a 24-year-old
commander with the Syriac Military Council, a Christian faction of the SDF.
“All
our efforts have not been in vain.”
Before
the jihadists swept in, around one per cent of Raqqa’s 300,000 residents were
Syriac or Armenian Catholic Christians.
Among
the crowd, Hajer al-Ahmad, a woman in an Islamic veil, had come to celebrate
with three friends.
“We’re
so happy today” for the Christians, she said. “IS used to forbid these
festivities and accused them of being apostates.”
Another
SDF commander, Chafkar Himo, said freedom had returned to Raqqa.
The
city “has regained its colours. Everyone can return with their culture and
religion,” he said.
Elsewhere
in the city, on a roundabout that was infamous under IS for beheadings or other
forms of gruesome punishment, canvases had been set up on easels for artists.
Beyond
the fence where jihadists once displayed severed heads, painters and female SDF
fighters flicked paintbrushes.
One
depicted a jail cell, another a Father Christmas on a black background.
“My
painting is linked to Raqqa,” said Farhad Khalil, 47, as he stood beside a
canvas covered in black, red and yellow. “There’s blood but there’s also
light.”
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