In the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli, a former security center during the regime of former president Bashar al-Assad now houses a cafe and theater classes.
Yassine Sheikhmous, who told Reuters he was detained in the building three times between 2008 and 2011 because of his political views, frequents the cafe regularly.
“It’s wonderful that this place has transformed from a place of oppression to a place of comfort and safety,” says Sheikhmous.
In spring 2025, a group of young people, with the support of the local Kurdish administration, repainted the walls of the former detention center and opened the complex as a recreation center.
Today, visitors drink coffee and attend theater classes in rooms that were once associated with intimidation.
“We brought the colors of life to this building,” said Shavzan Mahmoud, a theater actor who helps run the place.
In Damascus, a former police station underwent a similar transformation. It was converted into a cafe, where the cells remain as one of the local ones.
Khaled al-Orabi, co-owner of the cafe that was formerly a police station, tells the story of how security forces used to blackmail gold traders and detain people trading foreign currencies.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the sources’ stories.
Assad, whose family ruled Syria with an iron fist for 54 years, bringing an abrupt end to a devastating 13-year civil war.
Thousands of prisoners escaped after his fall during a lightning rebel advance that ended five decades of his family’s rule.
Throughout the civil war that began in 2011, security forces held hundreds of thousands of people detained in camps where, according to international human rights organizations, a. Families were often not informed about the fate of their loved ones.
