16 July 2018•Update: 17 July 2018
By Omer Koparan and Adham Kako
AL-BAB, Syria / ANKARA, Turkey
At least 19 Syrian children evacuated from Eastern Ghouta received a certificate on Sunday for memorizing the Holy Quran.
They have been relocated to Syria’s northern city of Al-Bab, liberated from the Daesh terrorist group last year in Turkey's Operation Euphrates Shield.
The children aged 8-15 had completed their education but were unable to obtain a certificate due to the evacuation efforts in the besieged district.
A ceremony to award the certificates was held at Usama Bin Abu Zaid Mosque in the city center.
"Before we left Eastern Ghouta, there were 35 children who had completed their education. 19 of them had to migrate with us to al-Bab. These children completed their education under attack and blockade in Eastern Ghouta," Abu Muaffak, director of Divinity Institutes in Eastern Ghouta, told Anadolu Agency.
Home to some 400,000 residents, the district remained under a crippling siege by the Assad regime for the last five years.
On April 14, the regime forcefully captured Eastern Ghouta, a formerly opposition-held suburb of Damascus, displacing 140,000 people from their homes, according to the UN.
Syria has been locked in a devastating conflict since early 2011 when the regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected ferocity.
According to UN officials, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict to date.
