عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Interviews

Syrian Maso Brothers: From ‘Death Boats’ to Emotional Embrace at Tokyo Olympics

Alaa Maso from the Refugee Olympic Team — who is competing in the men’s swimming — was photographed embracing his brother Mohamad Maso, who is competing in the triathlon. (Screenshot)
Alaa Maso from the Refugee Olympic Team — who is competing in the men’s swimming — was photographed embracing his brother Mohamad Maso, who is competing in the triathlon. (Screenshot)
TT
TT

Syrian Maso Brothers: From ‘Death Boats’ to Emotional Embrace at Tokyo Olympics

Alaa Maso from the Refugee Olympic Team — who is competing in the men’s swimming — was photographed embracing his brother Mohamad Maso, who is competing in the triathlon. (Screenshot)
Alaa Maso from the Refugee Olympic Team — who is competing in the men’s swimming — was photographed embracing his brother Mohamad Maso, who is competing in the triathlon. (Screenshot)

A photo of two Syrian brothers, competing for different teams at the Olympics, hugging each other in Tokyo went viral on social media earlier this week.

Mohamad Maso is representing war-torn Syria in the triathlon event, while his younger brother Alaa will swim for the Olympic refugee team, reflecting the massive divides that grip their country.

Some media and internet users wrongly believed that the photo of the brothers’ embrace showed them meeting after years of separation due to the conflict.

But the pair, originally from Aleppo, live in Germany after leaving Syria, where their parents still live, in 2015 to undertake the perilous journey to Europe together. They traveled on “death boats” from Turkey to Greece, then traversed various European countries before reaching safety in Germany where they pursued their dreams at work, education and competitive sports.

The recent erroneous media speculation over how long they had seen each other and their political affiliations forced them to quit social media. Asharq Al-Awsat contacted Mohamd Maso through WhatsApp for a brief interview.

How, when and why did you leave Syria?
My brother and I left Aleppo in late 2015 because we no longer felt safe. At the time, I was a student in Latakia. We lived in constant fear whenever we traveled between Aleppo and Latakia. The situation in Syria was heading from bad to worse and we did not want to stay around to watch the conflict unravel further, so we decided to leave the country.

We headed to [the Lebanese capital] Beirut and took a flight to Turkey. There, we paid a Turkish smuggler some 110 dollars each and boarded a rubber boat in Izmir to a Greek island. The smuggler told us that the boat could carry 16 people only, but we counted some 50 people on board, including small terrified children.

I did not wear a lifejacket. I gave it others. My brother and I are professional swimmers. We told the children: “Don’t be afraid. We are trained in rescuing children and we can save you.” The dangerous journey lasted three hours. The first thing we did when we reached the Greek shores was tear up the boat so they wouldn’t force us to turn back.

How did you leave Greece to the Netherlands and later Germany?
After arriving in Greece, we headed to the city center. We boarded a ship to Athens and then started walking north towards Europe. We walked for 12 days. Alaa was still 12. At one point I lost him for a period of three days because he ended up joining another group of refugees.

We eventually reached the German border and had our fingerprints registered with German police, who told us that taking the prints “had nothing to do with refugee status”. After a brief delay we made it to the Netherlands. Soon after arriving at the refugee camp, I donned my sports gear and began to train. I asked around if there was a pool or training center. I needed to make up for the period between 2013 and 2015 when I could not pursue sports.

One day, Dutch authorities informed us that since our prints were registered in Germany we had to go back. And so, we had to begin again from zero.

There, I contacted the Hanover club and was accepted to train and eventually compete. After spending eight months in Dutch camps and seven in Germany, we were finally free to lead a normal life. In 2017, I competed in the European championship in the Netherlands. I had submitted a request to the sports federation to compete in the name of Syria because I could not compete under my own name.

What about the leadup to the Tokyo Olympics?
I do not like to get involved in politics. All I care about is sports and showing a beautiful image of my people and encourage refugees to volunteer and take part in sports. My brother and I have competed in several sports competitions around the world.

After competing at a tournament in the Czech Republic in 2018, my friends asked if I had thought about competing in the Tokyo Olympics. And so began my journey. I knew that the sports federation would be unable to provide the necessary support, so I relied on sponsors and backing from a Dutch family. I participated in several Asian, African and Arab tournaments. Eventually I earned the rank 135 out of 1,000, which qualified me to the Olympics. My brother is a top swimmer and he had registered in the refugee Olympics team in 2019 and trained at the Hanover club.

What’s the story behind that emotional photo of you two at the Olympics?
I had been training in the Netherlands and my brother in Germany ahead of the Olympics. We hadn’t seen each other in eight months because of the coronavirus pandemic. At the opening ceremony of the Olympics, Alaa had appeared with the refugee team and I for Syria. I told him: “This is a historic moment, let’s take a picture of it. Let us embrace and give off a good image at the Games.” And that’s what we did.

It has been our childhood dream to take part in the Olympics. We have achieved it in spite of all of the obstacles and challenges. We are not involved in politics. If I were interested in war, I would have remained in Syria. I do not brandish the image of any politician and do not discuss politics. I represent myself, my country and people. Our people are ambitious and not people of war.

Most Viewed

 
 
Interviews

Goldrich to Asharq Al-Awsat: No US Withdrawal from Syria

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat
US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat
TT
TT

Goldrich to Asharq Al-Awsat: No US Withdrawal from Syria

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat
US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich has told Asharq Al-Awsat that the US does not plan to withdraw its forces from Syria.

The US is committed to “the partnership that we have with the local forces that we work with,” he said.

Here is the full text of the interview.

Question: Mr. Goldrich, thank you so much for taking the time to sit with us today. I know you are leaving your post soon. How do you assess the accomplishments and challenges remaining?

Answer: Thank you very much for the chance to talk with you today. I've been in this position for three years, and so at the end of three years, I can see that there's a lot that we accomplished and a lot that we have left to do. But at the beginning of a time I was here, we had just completed a review of our Syria policy, and we saw that we needed to focus on reducing suffering for the people in Syria. We needed to reduce violence. We needed to hold the regime accountable for things that are done and most importantly, from the US perspective, we needed to keep ISIS from reemerging as a threat to our country and to other countries. At the same time, we also realized that there wouldn't be a solution to the crisis until there was a political process under resolution 2254, so in each of these areas, we've seen both progress and challenges, but of course, on ISIS, we have prevented the reemergence of the threat from northeast Syria, and we've helped deal with people that needed to be repatriated out of the prisons, and we dealt with displaced people in al-Hol to reduce the numbers there. We helped provide for stabilization in those parts of Syria.

Question: I want to talk a little bit about the ISIS situation now that the US troops are still there, do you envision a timeline where they will be withdrawn? Because there were some reports in the press that there is a plan from the Biden administration to withdraw.

Answer: Yeah. So right now, our focus is on the mission that we have there to keep ISIS from reemerging. So I know there have been reports, but I want to make clear that we remain committed to the role that we play in that part of Syria, to the partnership that we have with the local forces that we work with, and to the need to prevent that threat from reemerging.

Question: So you can assure people who are saying that you might withdraw, that you are remaining for the time being?

Answer: Yes, and that we remain committed to this mission which needs to continue to be pursued.

Question: You also mentioned the importance of humanitarian aid. The US has been leading on this. Are you satisfied with where you are today on the humanitarian front in Syria?

Answer: We remain committed to the role that we play to provide for humanitarian assistance in Syria. Of the money that was pledged in Brussels, we pledged $593 million just this past spring, and we overall, since the beginning of the conflict, have provided $18 billion both to help the Syrians who are inside of Syria and to help the refugees who are in surrounding countries. And so we remain committed to providing that assistance, and we remain keenly aware that 90% of Syrians are living in poverty right now, and that there's been suffering there. We're doing everything we can to reduce the suffering, but I think where we would really like to be is where there's a larger solution to the whole crisis, so Syrian people someday will be able to provide again for themselves and not need this assistance.

Question: And that's a perfect key to my next question. Solution in Syria. you are aware that the countries in the region are opening up to Assad again, and you also have the EU signaling overture to the Syrian regime and Assad. How do you deal with that?

Answer: For the United States, our policy continues to be that we will not normalize with the regime in Syria until there's been authentic and enduring progress on the goals of resolution 2254, until the human rights of the Syrian people are respected and until they have the civil and human rights that they deserve. We know other countries have engaged with the regime. When those engagements happen, we don't support them, but we remind the countries that are engaged that they should be using their engagements to push forward on the shared international goals under 2254, and that whatever it is that they're doing should be for the sake of improving the situation of the Syrian people.

Question: Let's say that all of the countries decided to talk to Assad, aren’t you worried that the US will be alienated in the process?

Answer: The US will remain true to our own principles and our own policies and our own laws, and the path for the regime in Syria to change its relationship with us is very clear, if they change the behaviors that led to the laws that we have and to the policies that we have, if those behaviors change and the circumstances inside of Syria change, then it's possible to have a different kind of relationship, but that's where it has to start.

Question: My last question to you before you leave, if you have to pick one thing that you need to do in Syria today, what is it that you would like to see happening today?

Answer: So there are a number of things, I think that will always be left and that there are things that we will try to do, to try to make them happen. We want to hold people accountable in Syria for things that have happened. So even today, we observed something called the International Day for victims of enforced disappearances, there are people that are missing, and we're trying to draw attention to the need to account for the missing people. So our step today was to sanction a number of officials who were responsible for enforced disappearances, but we also created something called the independent institution for missing persons, and that helps the families, in the non-political way, get information on what's happened. So I'd like to see some peace for the families of the missing people. I'd like to see the beginning of a political process, there hasn't been a meeting of the constitutional committee in two years, and I think that's because the regime has not been cooperating in political process steps. So we need to change that situation. And I would, of course, like it's important to see the continuation of the things that we were talking about, so keeping ISIS from reemerging and maintaining assistance as necessary in the humanitarian sphere. So all these things, some of them are ongoing, and some of them remain to be achieved. But the Syrian people deserve all aspects of our policy to be fulfilled and for them to be able to return to a normal life.