Damascus witnesses subtle demographic changes amid official policies

Several education directorates in Damascus and its countryside have witnessed heavy crowding, with the majority of applicants being families from Idlib and Deir ez-Zor seeking to transfer their children from northern Syrian schools to schools in Damascus and its suburbs.

According to sources speaking to ANHA Agency, a recent directive from the Ministry of Education in the Damascus government—which reopened external transfers among directorates after being suspended for several additional days—was designed to facilitate the relocation of employees to Damascus. It was noted that most officials and personnel within the Damascus government have been granted military housing units, previously allocated to regime soldiers, or have seized properties belonging to associates of the regime or to former officials.

The same sources stressed that what is occurring now, on the eve of the school year, amounts to the largest “silent displacement” imposed upon residents, following a series of massacres such as those committed in the Ash al-Warwar neighborhood in Barzeh al-Balad, Damascus.

A local resident, Alaa Rahiya, from Ash al-Warwar, told the agency: “I was forced to sell my home for less than its value, because all of my neighbors, whom I had lived with for decades, left for their provinces. The newcomers are from Deir, many of whom have access to remittances from relatives abroad. They are purchasing homes en masse, as prices are cheaper compared to other areas. I will move my children to a school in rural Tartous, where housing is less expensive, in the hope of eventually securing funding to send them abroad and escape the ruling authorities.”

Informed sources also indicated that many government officials in Damascus have been commuting every Thursday, after working hours, to Idlib aboard dozens of private buses. The intention, they said, is to permanently resettle these families in Damascus by granting them housing. Today, no units remain vacant in the military or police housing complexes. Even other residential blocks, such as those in al-Sumariyah and al-Haras, have been seized through coercion and intimidation. Residents have been required to present ownership documents, which authorities often refuse to recognize, dismissing electricity or water bills as invalid proof of ownership.

Educational sources anticipate that the proportion of students transferred from northern Syria to Damascus schools this year will be unprecedented. Schools have been instructed to accept all students, even if they are not local residents or are newly arrived.

From his perspective, Abu Khaled, a service taxi driver on the Mezzeh route, remarked that “the faces of passengers have changed.” He noted the unprecedented presence of riders from Deir ez-Zor and Idlib, adding that many of them appeared unfamiliar with navigating Damascus, suggesting their recent arrival. Some, he said, have even inquired about purchasing their own vehicles for transport.

ANHA Agency documented the establishment of a new transportation hub in the Marja district of Damascus dedicated to Deir ez-Zor, where dozens of minibuses operate continuously, departing almost every hour.

These visible indicators of displacement and resettlement—in districts such as Marja and Ash al-Warwar, as well as in school transfers and transport patterns—reveal what can be described as a gradual and silent demographic transformation in parts of Damascus, taking place quietly and far from official statements.

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ANHA