Syrian cyclist Bassel Sufi traveled 40 km (25 miles) from the northwestern city of Latakia to visit the Assad family’s private coastal resort on Friday, as local residents strolled around the compound for the first time in decades.
After the family’s brutal 54-year rule and 13 years of civil war, Syrian rebels ousted President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday in a generational change for the Middle East.
Since then, many properties owned by Assad or his family have been looted or destroyed by Syrians trying to erase his legacy.
They included the family’s huge summer resort at Burj Islam. The complex, which features a white villa with balconies overlooking the Mediterranean, a private beach, several gardens and a walking path, was left in ruins on Friday after heavy looting and damage.
Windows were broken and broken glass scattered across the floor, no furniture remained, while toilets, showers, lights and other items were all broken or destroyed.
“Coming here, I feel freedom for the first time in my life,” said 50-year-old Saufi. Reached by bicycle with phone in hand to take pictures of the sea.
“I can’t believe my eyes, they’ve created something we’ve never seen in our entire lives,” the former Syrian national team cyclist told Reuters. He said he believed the entire complex should now be open to the public. And not “for any other president”.
“Syrians haven’t been able to do anything of their choice for a very long time. This is a first for me,” he said.
After Assad’s overthrow, locals – mostly Syrian Turkmen who had moved to nearby villages during the resort’s construction – entered the area for the first time since the Assad family built it 50 years ago.
Sayit Bayerly, a Free Syrian Army fighter of Turkmen origin at the compound, said, “Everything they did they did with people’s money. If you look inside the villas it’s ridiculous.” He said the land where the resort was built used to have olive trees.
“We arrived hours after the fall of Assad… We don’t want these views, these beautiful places, to be damaged,” he told Reuters. For those who originally owned it.
Byerley said Assad had removed his valuables from the villa by sea using small boats and that FSA intelligence revealed that his children were at the compound this summer.
“It was an incredible excitement, everyone was so happy to see the place back after years,” Byerly said.
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