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The main wish of the residents of the northern city of Aleppo for the new year is to be able to rebuild their broken homes and bring their war-shattered city to life again.
Pancaked buildings, streets strewn with rubble, shattered concrete bricks, toppled telephone poles and charred, crumpled carcasses of cars were everywhere in eastern Aleppo.
The horrendous and apocalyptic destruction that has befallen their homes didn't break their spirits, but injected an ever stronger will to survive and live again.
"I hope the traders will return to the city so that we can rebuild this city and restore Syria to what it had used to be ahead of the war," Alaa Addien Fardosi, a displaced Syrian who returned to his neighborhood in eastern Aleppo, said.
Following a month-long military offensive, the Syrian army and allied fighters succeeded to wrest control on the rebel-held part east of Aleppo, after dislodging the rebels out of the city.
Since then, thousands of people started returning to check on their homes to see what can be fixed and what needs to be rebuilt from scratch.
Government trucks were quick to start removing the sandbags and the wreckages of buses blocking the crossings or streets between both parts of the city, which facilitate the flow of civilians, who had fled eastern Aleppo for a long time, to return to check on their homes.
Adel Khatib, another resident of eastern Aleppo, said that he hopes to return to make the place safe again and to rebuild the destroyed homes.
Khatib urged the government to help them in the reconstruction process. "We want the government to restore electricity and water, and to provide us with the means to rebuild our city because now it's in rubble."
For his part, Youssef Bailoni, a 55-year-old man, said the people of Aleppo are hard workers and determined to restore their homes.
"I want to come back and fix my home as we, the people of Aleppo, are hard workers, we like to work and build with our hands without waiting for anyone's help," he said.
"We will return, build our homes, and live here again. These are our homes, this is our land, and this is our honor," he added.
The military victory against the rebels in Aleppo was seen by the Syrian officials as a victory that will enhance the chances of political solution.
This comes as a Russian-Turkish cessation of hostilities will go into effect at midnight Friday.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said the cessation of hostilities is a real chance to commence a political process to end the nearly six-year-old war in Syria.
"This agreement comes after Aleppo victory, so it reflects the trust of the Syrian state, and the army in the victory," he said, adding that "we need to invest in that victory, and the first investment is in the cessation of hostilities."
Meanwhile, the head of the Syrian diplomacy said that the new year will bear glad tidings to the solution for the Syrian crisis, and "a victory on ground that we will invest politically to bring the solution to the crisis."
(APD)
