What is the story of the Mezze 86 neighborhood in Damascus? This is the complete novel
In the Mezzeh neighborhood, Jabal 86, west of the capital, Damascus, the names of many of its shops, grocery stores, and public squares still remind of the era of the ousted Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, and his father, Hafez al-Assad, as evidenced by: “Al-Hafiz Restaurant” is one of the most prominent landmarks of this neighborhood, as for “Al-Areen” squares. “And “The Officers” and “The Bride of the Mountain,” reminding you that these surrounding buildings were the residences of senior officials and officers, who were influential in the intelligence agencies and the corps. Security forces, and they terrorized the Syrians over the past fifty years, before they fled on the historic night of the fall.
In this neighborhood, the effects of the Israeli bombing were clearly visible after it was subjected to several attacks, while its streets and narrow alleys were filled with military uniforms and ranks of leaders who fled before the Military Operations Department arrived and liberated the area from their grip on December 8 of last year.
Here… the stark contradictions became clear during the “Middle East” tour in a region where the majority of the population was recently loyal to the former president. Moaz (42 years old), a resident of the neighborhood, recounts how the majority of officers and security personnel took off their military uniforms and threw them in the streets on the night of Assad’s escape: “Many of them threw their weapons and military ranks in the streets and fled to their original areas on the Syrian coast.”
The Mezzeh District 86 is administratively affiliated with the city of Damascus. It consists of randomly built cement blocks in the middle of the two Mezzeh areas, Western Villas, the Mezzeh Highway, and the well-known Sheikh Saad commercial neighborhood. Its ownership belongs to the Damascene people of the area who lived in Mezzeh. The area consisted of agricultural forests and mountain rocks. As for the peaks extending towards Mount Qasioun, the Ministry of Defense had previously seized it, and instructed the security and army personnel to build houses without the requirement of submitting ownership papers.
The new Syrian flag spreads on cars and shops in Mezzeh Jabal 86 in Damascus (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Suleiman (30 years old), who owns a white meat and chicken shop, and is from the city of Jableh in the coastal province of Latakia. His father came to this neighborhood in the 1970s to work as an assistant in the army.
Suleiman says that he hears the sounds of gunfire every evening, while Public Security patrols roam the streets “looking for remnants of the former regime and wanted persons who refuse to hand over their weapons.” “We fear retaliation and just want to live in safety.”
He told that the prices before December 8 were outrageous and outside the ability of Syrians to purchase, after the price of a kilo of chicken exceeded 60 thousand, and a plate of eggs 75 thousand, and Suleiman added: “One egg was sold for 2,500 liras, which is a purchasing power that exceeds the ability of any employee in the public or private sector.” “, due to low salaries and deteriorating living conditions throughout the country.
On the side of the road, pictures of the fugitive president and his father, Hafez al-Assad, were torn up, while military vehicles were parked awaiting the settlement instructions announced by the Syrian Interim Administration, which opened a center in Mezzeh and Western Villas. The talk of the hour among the majority of the residents of this neighborhood is the necessity of accelerating settlement procedures.
Maram (46 years old), who used to work as a civilian employee in the Ministry of Defense, says that she is waiting for the affairs of employees in army institutions to be settled: “To date, there are no instructions regarding our situation. The army forces and security forces opened the door to settlement for them, but as for us, there is no discussion about it.”
The history of the neighborhood in its current form dates back to the 1980s, after Rifaat al-Assad, the younger brother of former President Hafez al-Assad, was allowed to build the “Defense Palace,” which was called “Brigade 86.” Its headquarters were in the same place that is called today Mezzeh Jabal 86.
The area is divided into Mezze School and Mezze Reservoir. The first neighborhood took its name after the first school built and opened in the area, while the second takes its name from the water reservoir that irrigates and nourishes the entire Mezze area.
Hussam (55 years old) has lived in this neighborhood since the 1990s, and he did not leave it even when battles raged between the regime and the opposition forces, and the latter took control of prominent towns such as Daraya, Douma, and Harasta, and this place was a starting point for the army of “Shabiha and militias.”
This man owns a real estate office where he works to this day. He tells us: “A large portion of real estate, including homes and shops, was seized by security officers and intelligence service leaders. They changed the records of the electricity and water clock to steal their ownership,” noting that there was a large portion of the properties whose owners began demanding their rights to them after their return.
But the winds of war did not pass through the Mezzeh neighborhood without leaving deep effects on it that may take years to remove. Hossam adds: “There are properties that have been sold more than once, and this is a legal problem; Because the property is sold with a forged agency and an invalid contract. “This applies to a lot of properties.”
Two sources from the municipality of Mezzeh and Diwan al-Mukhtar say that the population of the neighborhood is estimated at about 200,000 people today, after exceeding 300,000 before the fall of Assad. The majority of them come from the Syrian coastal areas, followed by residents of the interior governorates such as Homs and Hama. There was a section of Kurds who came from the Al-Jazeera region in northeastern Syria and settled there, but the majority of them returned to their areas due to the security grip, and after the bombing of the crisis cell in mid-2012.
Along the main street connecting “Al-Huda” Square and “Al-Sahla” Pharmacy, passers-by see pictures of President Hafez al-Assad torn apart for the first time in this area in five decades, and on balconies and walls there are still traces of pictures of Bashar al-Assad bearing witness to his era, which lasted 24 years.
Samir, who works as a microbus driver (Mazzeh Jabal 86 tank), says: “The residents of this area, the security and army personnel, have committed crimes against the majority of Syrians, and we fear retaliation and renewed sectarian strife.” (The Middle East)
