Did Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, threaten Syrian refugees in Turkey with the revocation of their citizenship if they did not return to Syria in six months? No, that's not true. There is no evidence that the Syrian president made such a statement. In fact, in his recent interview with Sky News Arabia, Assad claimed that less than half a million refugees have returned to Syria and none of them have been imprisoned. He did not give an ultimatum to the refugees who do not return in six months.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) which was published on TikTok by @01psm1 on September 15, 2023, under the title:
"Bashar al-Assad: if our citizens in Turkey do not return to their country within 6 months, their citizenship will be revoked and their assets will be seized, including inheritance. They cannot enter Syria or claim any rights".
(Translated from Arabic by Lead Stories team)
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed Sep 27 12:18:51 2023 UTC)
The claim went viral on TikTok and it was published by many different accounts on the platform, for example here, here and here.
In his latest Interview with Sky News Arabia, Assad stated:
The past few years have witnessed the return of less than a half million refugees to Syria and none of them were imprisoned.
(Translated from Arabic by Lead Stories team)
During the interview, without threatening those who do not return to Syria with the revocation of their citizenship or the confiscation of their assets, Assad cited the obstacles facing refugees as the reason they do not return:
Why has this return stopped? It stopped because of standards of living. How can a refugee return when there is no water, no electricity, no schools for their kids and no healthcare for treatment? These are basic needs of life and this is the reason. Regarding us, in Syria, we issued an amnesty law for all the ones who were involved in the events of the past few years, of course, except the proven crimes that involve personal rights, blood rights, as they call it.
(Translated from Arabic by Lead Stories team)
A search by Lead Stories of the Google News index of thousands of credible news sites on September 27, 2023, for the past 12 months, with the following keywords in Arabic: "Bashar al-Assad threatens to renounce citizenship from the refugees who do not return to Syria in 6 months" did not show any reference to the Syrian president making such a threat.
