Homes of Bashar Al Jafari Seized [Part 1]
Press Release by Dr. Bashar al-Jaafari
April 21, 2025
In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
In a scene that encapsulates the nation's tragedy and embodies a painful paradox between those who have dedicated their lives to defending the sovereignty of the state and the dignity of its institutions, and those who use power as a tool for oppression and the confiscation of rights, I find myself compelled to reveal the arbitrary and illegal seizure of my private real estate, located in the areas of Qaryat al-Sham (formerly Assad Villages) and the Qudsaya suburb, by elements affiliated with the current Damascus security forces. This behavior can only be described as blatant political revenge and the unjustified deprivation of a Syrian citizen of his most basic constitutional and legal rights.
The seizure of private property that had been legally acquired for more than two decades, including my family home in Al-Qura, which I purchased in 2002 with my own savings after my mission to Indonesia, and another home in the Qudsaya suburb, which I purchased in installments over many years when I was my country's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva and New York, represents a serious violation of the principle of the sanctity of private property, guaranteed by the national constitutions of all civilized countries and divine laws, and clearly enshrined in the International Bill of Human Rights.
I have represented my country, #Syria, in the highest diplomatic forums for many years, during which I have been committed to defending its sovereignty and territorial integrity, and I have prevented, to the best of my ability, its slide into the quagmire of Chapter VII. The political terminology I used at the United Nations was not an individual endeavor, but rather a strict adherence to the vocabulary contained in international legitimacy resolutions on combating terrorism, the situation in Syria, the Palestinian issue, and the situations in Iraq and Libya. I also represented the Syrian state as a member of the United Nations since its founding in 1945, not in my personal capacity. I was not working for myself there, nor did I have a private business that I managed in international forums. My role models in my work were national icons, unanimously recognized by the Syrian people as unquestionable authorities, such as Yusuf al-Azma, Saleh al-Ali, Ibrahim Hanano, Sultan Pasha al-Atrash, Hassan al-Kharrat, Faris al-Khoury, Khaled al-Azm, Antoun Saadeh, Shukri al-Quwatli, Hashim al-Atassi, Farouk al-Sharaa, Izz al-Din al-Qassam, Ahmed Urabi, Omar al-Mukhtar, Djamila Bouhired, Abdelkrim al-Khattabi, Emir Abdelkader al-Jazairi, Abdel Rahman al-Shahbandar, Muhammad Kurd Ali, Khaled al-Asaad, Harith al-Dhari, and many others. My message to those who brought me this very tempting bribe offer in exchange for betraying trust was: "Tell whoever sent you that Yusuf al-Azma sends your greetings!"
I served my country abroad because it has been my profession as a diplomat since I successfully passed a diplomatic selection competition for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs 45 years ago. I did not work in the Ministry of Interior, the security services, the Ministry of Defense, or any political party. My duty was to defend my country's supreme interests abroad, in international forums dominated by the hyenas of global politics who prey on nations and peoples. And here is the American economist Jeffrey Sachs exposing the truth at the Antalya Forum in the heart of Turkey a few days ago...! When he said that Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were the ones who planned the "creative" chaos in Syria. The famous American General Wesley Clark and former Secretary of State Colin Powell had preceded them in this, as everyone knows.
Syria is an eternal homeland for all Syrians, with no majorities or minorities. The slogan of independence was: "Religion belongs to God, and the homeland belongs to everyone."
