A child is shown in a parking lot holding a very large Syrian flag.

Ibrahim Jouja, a student at Emory University now in 2024, is shown as a younger child protesting conditions in Syria under the Assad dictatorship.

Credit: Ibrahim Jouja

Syrians living in Georgia are responding with a mix of elation, caution and hope after last week’s fall of the brutal Assad dictatorship.

Dr. Ahmad al-Dabbagh of Roswell said he escaped from Syrian repression shortly before both his parents and eight siblings were killed, along with thousands of others, in a 1982 massacre.

He said he never imagined that he would see the day when the Assad regime, which had been in power for 50 years, would fall.

Roswell, Ga. doctor Ahmad al-Dabbagh remembers his family that was killed by the Assad regime in the 1982 Hama massacre: his father and mother, Fahim’i Al-Dabbagh and Alyya Alameer, and his siblings, Zelal, Warif, Amir, Maher, Safa, Rana, Kamar and Yasir.

Ahmad al-Dabbagh, a Roswell, Ga., doctor, remembers his family that was killed by the Assad regime in 1982: his father and mother, Fahim’i Al-Dabbagh and Alyya Alameer, and his siblings, Zelal, Warif, Amir, Maher, Safa, Rana, Kamar and Yasir.

Credit: Ahmad al-Dabbagh

“Actually, it is like a dream,” he said. “We could not believe it. Every time we think about it, the joy, you cannot describe it.”

Al-Dabbagh said he plans to return to his country to help rebuild it.

Emory University student Ibrahim Jouja said he was born in the U.S. but his parents fled from Syria out of concerns for their safety about 30 years ago.

He said he has cousins who were jailed by the regime and are still missing.

While members of his family plan to return, he said they also are waiting for the situation to settle before doing so.

“Of course, things aren’t very stable right now with Israel’s bombardment and these days of instability,” he said. “But people just want to go home and especially see their families.”

Both al-Dabbagh and Jouja say they hope the end of the Assad regime brings stability and democracy to Syria.

According to the U.S. Department of State’s Refugee Processing Center, 264 Syrians were resettled in Georgia in fiscal year 2024, which ended in August.

Many of them were resettled around existing Syrian communities in Georgia, including in Clarkston, east of Atlanta, and in Savannah.

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