Dubai: Dubai cafes were packed Tuesday night with Syrian expatriates closely watching their national football team’s World Cup qualification match.
Syrians were elated after their team secured a draw against Iran giving it a third-place finish and a playoff spot in the six-team Group A of Asian qualifying.
Excitement and commoderie
In a crowded cafe in Business Bay, the excitement and commoderie was palpable—a rarity for a nation of people deeply polarised by a six-year civil war.
Speaking to Gulf News, Ghizwan Salahi, a native of Aleppo, said after a very long time he felt proud to be Syrian.
“I love Syria and I will always love Syria, but the events that unfolded in our country over the past six years distorted my love,” he said.
He said many of his friends had defriended him on Facebook that didn’t agree with his politics.
Sense of hope
“That hurt me a lot because just because we have political views, we are all Syrians and at the end we have to share and rebuild a broken country together.”
He said watching the game, gave him a sense of hope for a united Syria—even though he predicted it would be shortlived.
“Politics is a dirty game and they will always want us to be divided, but the feeling I had watching this game gave me a glimmer of hope that we can rise above.”
Judy Kalpakjian, a Syrian-Armenian from Damascus, proudly wore the Syrian flag as a bandana as she cheered on with her friends at the same cafe.
She supports Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, but many of her friends are deeply against him.
“The game didn’t bring me closer to my fellow Syrians, because I never felt divided from them,” she said.
“Yes, many of my friends hate Al Assad, but that is their opinion. I respect people to have their own views, but I would never break up a frienship over politics.”
“I make it a point not to flaunt my support in front of them, because I feel its unecessary.”
She agrees with Salahi, that Syrians will have to come together to rebuild their country—a far more important task than getting to the World Cup.
Facebook and Twitter feeds of Syrians were cluttered with messages of support and unity.
Meanwhile, in the Ummayad Square in the heart of Damascus, thousands of people watched the game on giant screens setup for this specific event.
Crackles of celebratory gunshots reverberated after the match as an expression of happiness.
Holding Syrian flags and wearing T-shirts of the Syrian national team, people jumped and danced on the rhythm of national songs, as cars honked their horns in happiness.
“It’s a happy moment we have long been waiting because we deserve to be happy after all these years of war,” Kinda, a Syrian journalist, said.
Anas Joudeh, the head of the Nation Building Movement, said the game is a chance for all Syrians to unite, at least for the two hours of the game time.
“We wish to win the game, but the real victory is when we can agree on one thing ...,” he posted on his official Facebook page.
-with inputs from agencies
