Eleven years ago I left Damascus, not knowing if I would ever return.
Then the city was a prisoner of war. Intense violence following President Bashar al-Assad’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests engulfed the capital. At any moment you could are shot in the streets.
I reported for the BBC from Syria on the first protests in 2011. I reported about “day of wrath”then to executions, murders, disappearances, airstrikes and barrel bombs – until I myself became numb and lost hope.
I was arrested several times. The regime restricted my movement and threatened me, and in 2013 I was forced to leave.
Over the past decade, I’ve lived through a roller coaster of hope and despair, watching my country tear itself apart from abroad. Death, destruction, detention. Millions flee and become refugees.
Like many Syrians, I felt that the world had forgotten our country. There was no light at the end of the tunnel.
When people then took to the streets to call for the overthrow of the regime, I never thought it would actually happen, given President Assad’s powerful supporters in Russia and Iran.
But on Sunday, in the blink of an eye, everything changed.
