When Syrian rebels captured Damascus earlier this month, Fariz Turkmani says "it was overwhelming."
"It took way too long," Turkmani told KCUR's Up To Date. "53, 54 years of this same regime, torturing, killing just beyond belief."
Turkmani first arrived in the United States in 1979. He owns and operates a limousine service in Overland Park, and frequently serves as a spokesman for the Kansas City Syrian community.
Turkmani says the fall of the Assad regime has ushered in a period of relief and a chance to voice opinions within Syria. Under Assad, Turkmani said the Syrian people were too afraid to speak out.
"(If) somebody hears something that you said, you're arrested and you're gone forever," Turkmani says. "My mother, God bless her soul, used to say, 'Walls have ears. Don't say anything that you may regret.'"
Mohamad Albadawi, president of the Overland Park-based international charity Mercy Without Limits, has firsthand experience with how the Assad regime treated dissidents.
"I got detained three times by the government, just because I expressed my opinion," Albadawi says.
Albadawi, who moved to the United States in 1981, last visited his family in Syria in 1991. The trip didn't go as planned.
"I stayed one month," Albadawi says. "Three weeks detained by government, and one week with my family."
But Albadawi says even that was lucky. "A lot of people I know, friends of mine, he (Assad) killed in the jails."
Now, Albadawi says, "I try my best to help my country from from here."
Both Albadawi and Turkmani have worked extensively with Syrian refugees in the United States and abroad. Albadawi says Mercy Without Limits has built schools, houses, and water infrastructure for internally-displaced Syrians, and its refugee camps administer aid to over 300,000 people.
Turkmani has focused on aiding Syrian refugees as they arrived in Kansas City. He has helped new arrivals buy cars, find jobs, learn English, and adjust to American life.
"It's a huge challenge," Turkmani says. "We've been able to help them establish better life here."
Now that the war is over, both men are hopeful for Syria's future. "I know lots of people are so optimistic about going back home," Turkmani says.
After a war that has at various points involved Russia, Iran, Turkey, Israel, and even the United States, Albadawi say it is time for the Syrian people to rebuild and determine their own destiny.
"We ask everybody to leave us alone and rebuild our country by ourselves," he says.
- Fariz Turkmani, Kansas City Syrian community leader
- Mohamad Albadawi, Mercy Without Limits president and CEO
