SUWAYDA, Syria (North Press) – The house of the famous artist Asmahan al-Atrash in Suwayda, south Syria, is still a headquarters for the National Defense Forces (NDF), a Syrian pro-government militia, despite official requests and legal calls from family, artists, and organizations in the city.
All the efforts made by those interested in artistic heritage of Suwayda and the al-Atrash family failed to restore the house from this military group and turn it into a cultural and artistic landmark.
Cultural and artistic landmark
Many in Suwayda believe that it is very important to preserve this house due to its cultural and historic value, as it is the home of one of the most important artists in the Middle East, who enriched Arabic music with her unique and entrancing voice.
The western-style house was built during the French Mandate in 1941, and Asmahan and her husband, who was Suwayda’s mayor at that time, oversaw its construction.
The house is located in the old French quarter, surrounded by old heritage houses.
Asmahan’s house extends over 1500 square meters, and consists of two floors of brick, a courtyard, and features a unique view of the Martyrs’ Square and the Sabaa’ roundabout, according to the Tourism Directorate in Suwayda.
Army barracks
Majed al-Atrash, a lawyer and a historian of the heritage of the al-Atrash family, said “it is socially and technically unacceptable for the Syrian government to transform the historic home of Asmahan al-Atrash into a barracks and a military headquarters.”
He added to North Press, “The house of Asmahan was acquired by presidential decree in 1974, to become owned by the Ministry of Tourism, and since then, the Syrian government made it a military and security center under several names.”
The house had become a headquarters for military security between 2005 and 2007, and the headquarters of the government-affiliated People’s Army until 2014, after which it was turned into a headquarters for the government’s volunteer force known as the National Defense Forces.
Al-Atrash stated that the family of Asmahan and the Syndicate of Artists in the city of Suwayda had made several requests to government agencies in the governorate to end the military occupation of the house.
These requests included calls for the restoration of the house and the remembrance of its owner, so that it would be a museum for its possessions, a heritage and artistic center, and a tourist attraction to which anyone wishing to know the history of Asmahan and Farid al-Atrash.
A systematic policy
Basman Doeir, a composer from the city of Suwayda, said, “The house of al-Atrash’s Family is a sight for sore eyes.”
Doeir said “The military are everywhere in the house; it is full of militants; its walls are so dirty. It is something heartbreaking.”
“They are disrespecting and humiliating the people of Suwayda, disgracing one of its significant cultural, artistic and heritage landmarks,” Doeir added.
He added to North Press that the transformation of the heritage home into a military headquarters came within the systematic policy of the Syrian government over five decades to impose the policy of “one leader, one party, and one star,” and erasing all artistic creativity or popular heritage around which people gather.
No better place for soldiers
Yaroub Arbeed, director of tourism in Suwayda governorate, said that several official letters were directed to the government security and military agencies that occupy Asmahan’s house asking them to vacate the home and restore it as a museum.
“However, we have not received any answer with an evacuation date yet.”
He added, “The answers coming to us from the leaders of the National Defense Forces were always slow, as the faction will not find a better place than this site, justifying it by saying that Asmahan’s house is located within a security square that includes the most important military sites.”
Three-year time limit
Since the armed militants didn’t respond to the requests of the family, the Artists Syndicate and the Tourism Directorate as well as civil organizations in Suwayda governorate called for legal action regarding Asmahan’s house and pressure on government security and military agencies to evacuate the house.
Syria’s Cultural Roots, a civic organization established in 2013, sent a letter containing more than three thousand signatures to the Ministry of Culture in Damascus in 2016.
Meanwhile, the Dar Balad Organization for Culture and Books, which was established in 2012, invited an elite group of intellectuals in the governorate of Suwayda to form a delegation that went to Ali Mansoura, the governor of Suwayda at the time.
A number of lawyers were assigned by civil organizations in Suwayda to file an administrative case in June 2018 through the administrative judiciary, but the other party (the National Defense Forces) did not attend the pleading sessions, according to one of the assigned lawyers.
This was followed by a decision by the Ministry of Justice in Damascus in September 2019 to give the occupying body a legal deadline of three years until another headquarters for the National Defense Forces is found.
Although the attorneys in charge of the Asmahan house file appealed against the decision, because it is unlawful from the judicial point of view, all these efforts have not yet saved the house.