To see what kind of regime will be established in Syria, go to Reyhanlı!

12 years ago, I spent two days in the Altınözü refugee camp, where Syrians fleeing the Assad regime had taken shelter, and interviewed the first refugees to arrive. Their numbers had not yet reached 3 million. About 15 thousand asylum seekers had been placed in 7 refugee camps along our border.

I was the first journalist to enter the Altınözü Camp.

What I saw surprised me.

All the girls in the camp had their heads covered. The women were already veiled. Another thing that caught my attention in the camp was the scarves the women were knitting with crochet hooks. 12 years ago, I had seen the flag that changed after the Assad regime around the necks of almost everyone—children, the elderly, and the young. They had said it was the symbol of the 'Free Syria' flag. I had met an opposition sculptor. His name was Mustafa Sabbuh.

“I couldn't study at the Faculty of Fine Arts because of the Assad regime. They asked for a bribe for the talent exam. Because I didn't pay the bribe, I entered the Arabic literature department, graduated, but I didn't even go to pick up my diploma. I followed the path I knew and became a sculptor,” he had said.

“The system is like this. To get into someone's good graces, you have to lie and report those around you.”

I had asked the Syrian sculptor, if the Assad regime falls, what kind of regime do the opposition want to establish in Syria?

I don't forget his answer.

“We want a regime where the way people are treated is in accordance with Islam,” he had said. “Not secular like Turkey. Not like Iran either. An Islamic regime unique to us, where Sharia provisions will be applied!”

80 percent of those staying in the Altınözü camp were from Jisr al-Shughur, and 20 percent were from Latakia.

Over the years, the camps closed, and the refugees scattered all over Turkey. Some went to Europe through illegal means. Many built lives in Turkey and got married. They had children. They even received Republic of Turkey citizenship.

I heard what the Syrian opposition sculptor said in the Altınözü Camp from the Al-Nusra soldiers who were treated in the “secret hospitals of Rabita” that I uncovered in Reyhanlı.

In 2013, in Reyhanlı, I entered hospitals financed by the “Muslim World League (Rabitat al-Alam al-Islami) International Organization for Relief, Welfare and Development,” which had a sign on the door saying Yörük Pension but was a hospital inside, where Free Syrian Army soldiers were treated. The Muslim World League, headquartered in Mecca, was founded by King Saud on May 19, 1962.

There were four such hospitals in Reyhanlı. Arab doctors worked in the hospitals where wounded soldiers fighting against Assad were treated. One of the hospitals I visited was a physical therapy center. It was headed by a Syrian chief physician. He had explained that everything from the medicines to the equipment used in the physical therapy center was provided by the Saudi non-governmental organization. I asked the Free Syrian Army soldiers receiving treatment the same question.

What kind of regime do you want in Syria?

“We want a free Syria governed by Sharia provisions!”

In 2014, again in Reyhanlı, I knocked on the door of a school that had no Turkish flag in its garden and was not registered with the Ministry of National Education.

It was a 4-story building in one of the back streets of Reyhanlı. It said Al Salam School on the door. I went inside. The Syrian-born Canadian headmistress, who wore a headscarf, stated that they provided education to children between the ages of 6 and 15, and that they had continued the education they started with 300 students in 2012 with 1500 students today.

She had mentioned that the number of students increased every month and that additional buildings would be opened soon. In the middle of our conversation, when she learned that I was a Turkish journalist, she panicked and kicked me out of her school in a hurry, saying, “We were instructed not to talk to the Turkish press, I cannot talk to you, they will close my school.” What I had seen in the school up to that moment was this;

Syrian refugee children were separated into classes as girls and boys. There was also a separate prayer room for female students. Sharia education had already begun in Reyhanlı…

Both of my reports were published in the Cumhuriyet newspaper; “The Al Salam School, which provides Sharia education, had not created as much of an agenda as Rabita’s secret hospitals.”

12 years later, the Assad regime has been toppled. Today, we are discussing what kind of regime will be established in Syria. There is no need to go to Idlib or Damascus for this. Reyhanlı tells us a lot!