Consultant military dams, compulsory control. We cross Ghouta, on the outskirts of Damascus. Over several kilometers, they are only apocalypse landscapes: lying buildings, mosques ripped by bombs. After 45 minutes by car, we see the steep flanks of the rocky and snowy mountains of Qalamoun.
Below is one of the oldest villages of Eastern Christianity. Maaloula, which means “entry” in Aramaic, is aptly named. Over the centuries, Christians have found refuge in his troglodyte caves. Its inhabitants still speak the language of Christ. Barely arrived in the central square, the spirituality of the place takes on its full meaning when we hear in the distance the Ode of Fairouz, Ya mariam el bekr (O virgin Mary). This time of the timeless Lebanese singer resonates in echo three times a day.
Several families have already hit the road that leads to Damascus
A true place of pilgrimage, before the war, several thousand tourists went there. Nine years after its occupation by the jihadists of Al-Nosra, the scars of the war remain present: impacts of bullets on the walls, icons vandalized in Christian places. The Safir hotel overlooking the city is literally in tatters. Slate still litter the ground. The last register of the establishment dates from 2011 and mentions the name of Turkish tourists.
Since the taking of Damascus by the jihadists of HTS, the 2,000 Christian souls in the village have feared the worst. In narrow and steep alleys, we meet Firas, a farmer. The man in the sixties explains to us that the inhabitants no longer feel safe. “Since the fall of Bashar, the Muslim community has started to return to the village”he said, adding that most of them had joined the Islamist rebel bastion of Idlib when the city had been taken up by the Damascus regime in 2014. “We cannot trust. In 2013, when the jihadists arrived on their pick-ups with Kalashnikovs, our Muslim neighbors that we have known for decades did not hesitate a second to join them. »» Firas and his friends actively participated in the defense of their city. Supported by Lebanese Hezbollah members, they managed to take over. “We had our HQ in the crypt of a church”.
Christians and Muslims rub shoulders without talking to each other, without knowing each other
Today, several dozen Muslim families have returned to Maaloula. The only mosque in the city gradually resumes from the service. In the central square of this small town, precarious calm has settled. Christians and Muslims rub shoulders without speaking, without knowing each other. Each community has its own stalls. An old elected representative of the village receives us. A supporter of the early Baas, political party from the Assad family, the man is very discreet and fears reprisals. “We walk on eggs, we have no security guarantee. If tomorrow I get killed in the mountains, there will be no court, no justice ”he alerts. In his right hand, he hugs a rosary and struggles to imagine a peaceful future for the Christian community. “Everyone is afraid, stays at home, nobody dares to be afraid of suffering a persecution. »» The thirteen churches and chapels of Maaloula “Risk emptying”he still worries.
For economic but above all security reasons, several families have already hit the road that leads to Damascus. “My neighbors left in the capital”reports Firas. He insists that the majority wish to leave the country to join Lebanon or the Gulf countries. Fear of the future is felt in the eyes of this man who only knew Maaloula. When asked if he intends to leave the village one day, his answer is unequivocal: “I was born here, I will die here. »»
