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The joint statement released by US and Russia at the APEC summit in Vietnam, calling for a negotiated, non-military solution to the armed conflict, the defeat of the Islamic State, is meant to ensure Syria’s emergence from the seven-year long war. For Father Bahjat Elia Karakach, parish priest in Damascus

“we see the glimpse of a horizon.” But for this to happen it is urgently necessary to promote a culture of welcome and tolerance, critical to uprooting ISIS’ mindset and to rebuild a better Syria. Children constitute the cornerstone of this renaissance. “The are the greatest guarantee for Syria’s future”

No to a military solution to the Syrian crisis and the commitment to sustain Syria’s “sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity:” it’s what emerges from the joint statement released by Russian President Vladimir Putin and by US President Donald Trump, on the sidelines of an APEC summit in Vietnam. The two world leaders agreed that “the definitive solution to the conflict must be found in the Geneva political process.”

Father Bahjat Elia Karakach, Franciscan Fr. from the Custody of the Holy Land, shares the same hopes. Born in Aleppo, since 2016 Father Karakach serves as the custodian of the convent of the Conversion of St. Paul in Damascus and as parish priest of the local Latin rite community, numbering approximately 250 families, attended also by many faithful of other Christian rites. We asked him to share an overview of the Syrian crisis, which seems to have reached a turning point after the military defeat of Daesh.  

Father Karakach, it seems that the war is slowly coming to an end, and that Syria will soon be able to turn a new page. Is it really so? What’s the situation in the Country?

There is greater hope today compared to a year ago, we see the horizon. We entered a new phase after the capture of Aleppo (December 2016, Ed.’s note). We are experiencing progress in everyday life. In Damascus, for example, electricity supply has been restored and some public services are going back to normal; this makes the daily life of the local population much easier. However, it should be said that

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