Across Europe, Syrians are rallying to celebrate the end of Bashar al-Assad.

BERLIN: Thousands of excited Syrians rallied in Berlin and cities across Europe on Sunday, waving flags and singing cheers to celebrate the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad.

“At last we are free!” Bassam al-Hamda, 39, smiled at a spirited rally in the German capital, home to the largest Syrian community in Europe.

Many people waved the Syrian opposition flag and signs that read “Free Syria” and “Freedom.” Others chanted “V” for victory, chanted “Allahu Akbar!” shouted.

Many came with their families braving the cold drizzle. Children’s faces were painted in the evening’s national colors on a crowded square in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district, where slogans echoed with honking horns from passing cars.

Germany is home to more than a million Syrians, the EU’s largest migrant population, most of them asylum seekers who have fled the civil war since 2011.

Many live in Berlin’s working-class district of Neukoelln, where relief began spontaneously in the early hours of Sunday – a day that also saw rallies by the Syrian community in Athens, London, Vienna and other cities.

Hundreds of people celebrated in jubilant scenes outside the Fatah Mosque in central Istanbul, one of the focal points for the Turkish city’s 500,000-strong Syrian community.

“We are happy. The dictatorship is over. Assad is gone,” said Ahmed, a 39-year-old resident of Berlin, who preferred not to give his last name.

“All Syrians are together now,” said the railway technician, who fled the northern Syrian city of Aleppo in 2015.

Also joining the cheering crowd in Berlin was Ahmed al-Halabi, 27, a mechanic from Aleppo who fled to Germany via Turkey and Greece in 2015, the height of the EU’s refugee influx.

“Ten years ago I was in Syria and saw things that no one should see, things that are impossible to erase from your memory,” he said.

“Assad is the worst terrorist imaginable… I hope that there will be peace and that everything destroyed by Assad and his cronies will be rebuilt.”

Many at the rally expressed cautious hope that they would soon be able to return to their war-torn homelands.

“Like many Syrians, I would like to go back to my country to help rebuild it,” said Bassam al-Hamda, a social worker who arrived in Germany in early 2016.

His compatriot Sabrin, 36, an architect, said he planned to “help from Germany” for the moment.

“They mainly need skills and money. All this, we can gather here for the moment,” added the young woman.

Like many protesters in Berlin, Sabrin called on Assad to be held accountable for the killing and torture of his own people. “He should be prosecuted at the International Court of Justice in The Hague,” he said.

Hundreds of excited Syrians celebrated the fall of Bashar al-Assad in London’s Trafalgar Square, hugging each other and chanting “Congratulations!” Raised slogans. (Congratulations!)

Syrians greeted each other, many with opposition flags draped over their shoulders, and chanted: “Syria is ours, not the Assad family’s”.

Several hundred Syrians also rallied outside the parliament in central Athens. “Allah, Syria, Freedom!” And “Together, together, together,” they chanted in jubilant atmosphere.