SYRIAN REFUGEE RYYAN ALSHEBL SWORN IN AS MAYOR OF GERMAN TOWN

Sat 08 July 2023:

A refugee from war-torn Syria has made history after he was sworn in as mayor of a German town.

Ryyan Alshebl took the oath as mayor of Ostelsheim, a town 30km (18.6 miles) from the city of Stuttgart, in a solemn municipal council meeting on Friday evening.

The 29-year-old fled the war in Syria eight years ago.

In April, the citizens of the Swabian community of 2,500 inhabitants elected Alshebl as the new head of the town hall with an absolute majority of 55.4 percent.

The Young Mayors Network in Germany said it was unaware of any other refugee who had come to Germany and become the mayor of a German municipality.

There has been no other applicant with Syrian heritage for a mayor’s office in the southeastern German state, according to the municipal association of Baden-Wurttemberg.

“It’s a liberal country. Whoever is ready to do something here can get the opportunity to do so,” Alshebl had told the Reuters news agency in April.

Travelled across Mediterranean

Alshebl, who arrived in Germany aged 21 with a group of friends, was one of hundreds of thousands of refugees who fled Syria when then-chancellor Angela Merkel opened the country’s borders in 2015.

According to the state-run Deutsche Welle (DW) news agency, the new mayor travelled across the Mediterranean at the time before ending up in Germany.

After learning German, Alshebl did an internship at the Althengstett town hall near Ostelheim where he had his first inside look at how public institutions work.

“I asked the mayor whether I could do vocational training here. I made an application and interviews and I got accepted,” said Alshebl, who studied financing and banking in Syria.

Meet Ryyan Alshebl, a Syrian refugee who is also the mayor-elect of the German village of Ostelsheim 👇 pic.twitter.com/2AARavQTHh

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) April 29, 2023

“In the first year of my training, I knew that I would do this but the question was when,” he said.

After receiving his German citizenship, Alshebl had been working for the local council in the nearby town of Althengstett before he was elected mayor, DW reported.

Syria’s uprising-turned-civil war conflict, now in its 13th year, has killed nearly a half million people and displaced half of its pre-war population of 23 million.

The International Commission on Missing Persons cites UN estimates that in 2021 more than 130,000 Syrians were missing as a result of the conflict.

Tehran has been a main backer of al-Assad’s government since a 2011 uprising turned into fully fledged war and has played an instrumental role in turning the tide of the conflict in his favour.

Iran has sent military advisers and thousands of Iran-backed fighters to Syria to fight on al-Assad’s side against the opposition. Tehran has also provided an economic lifeline for al-Assad, sending fuel and credit lines worth billions of dollars.

Syrian government forces have regained control of large parts of the country in recent years, with the help of its two main allies – Russia and Iran.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

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