Damascus, Syria – Around Damascus’s Umayyad Square, children leaned out the windows, waving Syria’s green, white and black flag as fireworks burst in the sky.

December 8, the anniversary of liberation for the capital and the country as a whole, was two days away, but crowds had already begun to gather in the square.

Nearby, standing alone and watching the festivities, stood Abu Taj, 24. Ten years earlier, he had left his home in the Aleppo countryside when his house was destroyed in fighting between the regime and anti-Assad forces.

From there, he fled to Damascus and then Beirut before flying to join his father in Saudi Arabia.

After a decade in exile – eight years in Saudi Arabia and two years studying in Egypt – Abu Taj moved back to Syria. He arrived just more than a week before p

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