Excitement and trepidation: Syrians with ties to Calgary ready to welcome a new chapter

Since the news broke that the Assad regime in Syria was toppled after a weeks-long rebel offensive, many Syrians across Canada have been celebrating what this could mean for the future.

But the events of the weekend are still difficult to digest for many Syrians who were displaced by civil war. 

For Syrian-Canadian author and the University of Calgary's current Writer-in-Residence, Danny Ramadan, the emotions brought on by the fall of Bashar al-Assad's dictatorship are complex and uncertain.

"This is a day that we have been waiting for … so waking up to it finally happening felt like a dream," said Ramadan.

"At the same time, it has been 13 years of war … and the people who are walking into Damascus, taking the reins of the country are folks that we're not sure about their agendas. We're not sure what they want to do with the new power that they have in Syria."

Under Assad, who has since reportedly fled to Moscow, a brutal crackdown on the Arab Spring insurgency led to a near 14-year civil war that killed hundreds of thousands, displaced millions and saw the then-leader accused of war crimes.

The opposition's seizure of the capital Damascus on Sunday marks a stunning shift of power in the country, which has been ruled by the Assad family for the last 50 years.

Assad's downfall is what many Syrians have been waiting for, Ramadan said, yet there are still concerns for the future and what a new era of political power will look like in the region. 

The jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, was formerly the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda and known as the Nusra Front. HTS has since distanced itself from al-Qaeda, seeking to promote itself as a more moderate group. It is classed as a terrorist group by the United Nations, Canada and the U.S.

As a Queer man, he says, he's still not sure Syria is a safe place for people like himself. 

"I don't know if I can pack my things and take my husband and be like, 'Hey, do you want to move to Damascus?' I don't know if I can take all of my friends to visit the place that I come from," said Ramadan, who currently resides in Vancouver, B.C.

"I wish I can show this beautiful heritage, this beautiful culture that I come from to all the people that are important to me in my life. But I still am not sure that that would be safe for us. I'm still not seeing a future where somebody like me can go back to Syria."

For now, he's celebrating what this day means to those who have been waiting for the civil war's end. 

"The day is beautiful. The end of that dictatorship is amazing," he said.