Reports | 16 11 2016
After three years, the young man -Ahmad Youssef Al Jader- who is called "Furat" came back to his city Carchemish which aligned with the Turkish border, accompanied by the Syrian Opposition Forces who expelled ISIS and controlled the city last week.
This military progress was a happy event for the residents who have lived under the rule of "ISIS", and an emotional moment especially for Ahmed, who returned to visit the grave of his father, Yousef Jader (Abu Furat), the dissident Colonel of the regime's army, and a commander in the Free Syrian Army, who died in Aleppo in 2012 and was buried in Carchemish, but ISIS had been destroyed parts of his grave during its existence in the area.
Furat family descend from Carchemish but lived a long time in the city of Latakia. The young man was watching the demonstration from the window stunned, at the beginning of the Syrian revolution.
Furat says in an interview with the German newspaper "Das Build": "I was stunned, they described all the demonstrators as terrorists, but I saw them demonstrating peacefully."
A Friend of Abu Furat, who was also an officer in a patrol in Banias city, where two men were caught for having anti-tank shells, and the patrol thought they were "terrorists", so they shot them after they tried to attack the patrol. According to Furat: "When the soldiers searched the bodies they found two cards prove that the two men were affiliated with intelligence. They were wearing civilian clothes, and trying to carry out an attack to defame the opposition and accusing them of being terrorists."
That evening, the official TV broadcasted that the terrorists killed two members of the military intelligence. And after this misinformation by the regime, Abu Furat and his friend decided to split from the regime and fled to Turkey.
Furat said: "My father who knew the regime well, did not tell me then about his plans. He said that if I was arrested by the Syrian regime, I am going to tell everything about his plans for being fear."
Abu Furat returned again to northern Syria, where he met the first groups of the FSA, which was a group of dissident soldiers and volunteers who were opponents to the Syrian regime. Furat says: "They wanted to take over all regime’s military bases in the city of (Bab) in Aleppo."
Abu Furat persuaded the Free Army soldiers not to attack directly, and put his military experience as commander in studying the regime’s locations and put an elaborate scheme, Furat explains: "It did not take a week until they have controlled the military bases of the regime in the city, where the violent attacks by the regime were reduced."
In an interview with Abu Furat in which he expressed his feelings towards the war, saying: "These are our fellow soldiers, I swear to God I feel sad every time I saw someone is killed, either by us or by them. If al-Assad left Syria, it would be the best country in the world."
After this interview with Abu Furat, he died in Aleppo. Furat says, "when I was in Carchemish, many people have come to our house, the rumor spread that Abu Furat has been injured, I traveled to Aleppo, where I learned that he died after a missile targeted him, I collapsed, I thought he only injured."
Abu Furat buried in Carchemish near the Euphrates River, and thousands from coming from Manbij, Bab, and Aleppo have participated in his funeral.
The incessant shelling by the Syrian regime forces on civilians, in addition to the lack of Western support for the Free Syrian Army, what led to the emergence of extremist groups that have nothing to do with what Abu Furat had said. Where jihadists spread in Carchemish, Furat said: "There have been clashes in Carchemish between the FSA and ISIS, and the FSA had to withdraw several days later."
Firat was arrested by the organization ISIS, "They said that I offended the name of God. Which is a common ploy when ISIS wants to kill someone, I was tortured with beatings and electric”. He added: "They were torturing us exactly as the regime forces used to torture detainees. We were making fun, saying they are taking all the institutions of the regime including the torture equipment.”
Furat was released after ten days of torture, where a friend took the role of mediator with ISIS Amir in Carchemish who spoke on condition on Furat to pay allegiance to al-Baghdadi. Then he fled to Turkey, where he got help from his younger siblings.
In 2014, ISIS smashed the cemetery in Carchemish, considering it is forbidden in the doctrine of the organization, including the tomb of Abu Furat.
Three years after his escape from the city, Furat was able to come back again, accompanied by the FSA, he says: "it feels strange, I'm happy and sad at the same time." Furat could not enter the family's house because it was booby-trapped by ISIS. Furat continued his journey to the cemetery and visited his father’s destroyed grave, "I found the stones destructed so I built it again."
Furat hopes that Syrians will always remember the words of his father: "The aim of our revolution is freedom and dignity for all Syrians."
