In Syria, he was sought after he had moved from something to fear into a badge of honor

When he recently returned to Syria for the first time in 12 years, he asked Tomen to check the passport control agent to check if he had “had a name” – which means that he was among millions of citizens appointed on the sought -after census within the ejected Assad dictatorship.

“You are looking for a subsidiary 235,” the man told him, smiling as he delivered the news. “Intelligence Branch.”

Mr. Tomen, a journalist who worked for opposition Syrian media when the old government was in power, said he was delighted.

“Today, every Syrian asks as a routine,” did I want? “, He said.” Anyone who closed Assad’s regime with the Assad regime, there is a measure of pride. “

More than five decades, dictator Bashar al-Assad and his father have ruled Syria before him. Each of any of the many intelligence, military or security branches of the regime was appointed on lists that could be checked at airports, border crossings or police stations and risked disappearing in the prison system.

This was known in Syria as a “name”.

Those who have spent all their lives terrified by the look for a security file now openly ask officials about their status under the former government and openly brag about it in conversation or on social media. If the Government who had been tormented or killed by millions of their own citizens wanted to keep the badge of honor – proof that you were opposed to oppression.

Some of those who previously wanted to quote the line from the Arab poet Al-Mutanabbi from the 10th century: “If someone who is a lack criticizes me, it is a testimony that I am perfect.”

In addition to these people considered by the Government, such as anti -government protesters and armed rebels, the Syrians could eventually have a name for anything, from political jokes among friends to wearing foreign currencies or even too long life abroad.

Many of the sought after were men, largely because many avoided mandatory military service and were also those who were dealing with weapons against the Assad regime. But also women, and even children, were on the lists.

If they were caught, they could disappear in the infamous prison system of the old regime, where tortures and executions were full and from which many never appeared.

The danger of searching and catching took millions of Syrians to exile outside the ground or hiding in it.

He also brought in many anti -government activists and rebel fighters to adopt the Nom De Guerre during the Civil War to protect themselves and their families to end up on the sought after lists.

Mr. Tomen, 36, a opposition journalist, recorded his meeting in January with a passport control agent as he returned from Saudi Arabia, where he lived. He then published that on social media.

There is no reason for him to be sought in his file.

“Imagine if I came to Syria before the fall of this criminal regime?” he said.

When the Syrian rebels who ranked Mr. Al-Assad began to set their own government in December in December, they inherited the entire bureaucracy and received access to databases and intelligence files that were retained on millions of Syrians. In the future, it could be used in the future for justice and responsibility for dictatorship crimes.

Said the Ministry of the Interior Ministry in recent interview With the Syrian television channel that more than eight million Syrians have been asked for the old regime.

“Of course, many have forgiven them, such as a question of seeking a spare military duty or recruitment,” said the clerk, Khaled al-Abdullah. “This is a big piece. We put them aside.”

But the new government said he would not dismiss the previous judgments of the civic court or criminal charges, he said.

Tamer Turkman, 35, recently returned home to Syria for the first time after years. When he moved from Turkey, where he lived, the agents did not check his past status.

But when he left the country over the border crossing with Lebanon, he said that a passport controller asked him: “” What did you do that more branches of the regime were after you? “

Mr. Turkmana said he had just laughed.

He knew that he was sought because the relatives who lived in Homs were threatened with security officers in an attempt to press him to engage or stop documenting human rights violations by the old regime. But he did not know the details of which certain branches of power were after him.

At the beginning of the Syrian uprising against the reign of Mr. Al-Assad, Mr. Turkmanana founded the archives of the Syrian Revolution-Base data on videos, photographs and other information documented by a civil war. He was sought by several different military and internal security branches.

“I was so proud,” he said.

He asked for a passport officer to take a quick screen photo showing his file to share on Instagram. Many comments on his publish were congratulations.

At the Ministry of Immigration and Passports in the City of Aleppo on the last day, the stairs outside the building were full of lines of men and women trying to push themselves forward and through those open passport renewal doors, replace lost national cards and check their previous security status.

On the second floor, Ahmad Raheem, a 15-year-old employee in the Archive Department, said he spent his days at the computer, performing checks of those who come to get new documents.

The man who was outside the country for 12 years surrendered his Syrian ID card to Mr. Raheem. On the computer screen, he could see that a man was sought after for avoiding military duties – accusations that he would only land him in military prison two months earlier or sent him to fight on the front line of the Civil War.

“That’s it, sir. You have nothing,” Mr. Raheem told him, not mentioning the charge and handing over his ID to him.

Later, Mr. Raheem explained that he had not offered information about who had been sought earlier, unless he wondered in particular because he did not want people to somehow worry that the new government would follow these accusations from the regime.

Fuad Sayed Issa, the founder of the Violet organization, a charity organization based in Syria, left the Damascus Airport in February, heading back to Turkey, where he lived during the Civil War. He said the passport control agent paused while inspecting his passport on the computer.

“” Did I want? “

“” Yes. Several security branches are looking for you, “recalled Mr. Issa, who told him the agent.

He sought a subsidiary of criminal security and immigration control and to avoid military service.

“These things are ridiculous for us,” said Mr. Issa, who was part of an early warning network of observer to the territory holding rebels who would inform civilian aircraft by Syrian and Russian war planes during a civil and Russian war aircraft.

The Assad regime would go after us “as if we were terrorists,” he said.