Sawt Falasteen - Syrian whose selfie with Merkel went viral wants to stay in Germany

While right-wing politicians in Europe have been quick to demand that Syrians "go home" after the fall of president Bashar al-Assad, Modamani's story typifies how many have put down roots in their host countries.

"I am a Berliner, I have my life here," said the 27-year-old cameraman who arrived in the German capital in 2015 at the age of 18, and is now part of the biggest Syrian refugee community in Europe.

Having financed his studies in communication with a part-time job at a supermarket, Modamani is now working as a freelancer video journalist for public broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

He lives with his Ukrainian fiancee, a mechanical engineer who herself arrived in Germany a few months before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of her country in February 2022.

"I have a wonderful apartment and a very beautiful woman, I have everything I need here," Modamani told AFP.

He said he originally fled Syria because he "did not want to perform military service" for Assad's regime, and that now he doesn't want to return as he had "experienced terrible things there".

"I lost friends," he said. "Members of my family died because of the regime."

- 'Worried' for friends -

Less than three months before early elections are expected in Germany on February 23, far-right and conservative politicians have made the repatriation of Syrians a campaign issue.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock of the Greens party on Wednesday criticised such calls, saying they revealed "a lack of realism about the situation in the Middle East".

Modamani said that "for my friends who, unlike me, don't have a German passport, I am worried".

"The war is over but the situation is uncertain, we have to see how it develops."

While he has "more friends in Berlin than in Syria", his parents and siblings still live in Syria, around half an hour's drive from Damascus.

He said he also worries about the air strikes Israel has carried out since Assad was overthrown, targeting the ousted regime's military assets.

"It could affect anyone," Modamani said, noting that "when I phoned my mother recently, she was hiding in the cellar".

- 'Part of history' -

Modamani is safely settled but the fate of others hangs in the balance after German authorities this week decided to freeze issuing decisions on pending asylum applications from Syrian nationals.

Since his famous Merkel selfie, Modamani has become something of a celebrity in the Syrian community and says he want to use his platform of more than 50,000 followers on TikTok to be a "voice for people who come from Syria".

The selfie at the time became a symbol of Berlin's welcome of almost a million people escaping the war-torn country.

But it also attracted some negative attention as it was used in disinformation linking him to terror attacks.

In 2017 he took Facebook to court in an effort to make the social media giant remove such photos but he lost the case.

While Modamani and Merkel have not crossed paths again, the former chancellor still remembers the incident.

In her memoirs published last month, Merkel admitted she had been surprised by the stir the photo caused, when supporters and critics used it as a symbol of Germany's migrant policy.

"Even now, I cannot understand how anyone could assume that a friendly face on a photo could encourage people to flee their homeland in droves," she wrote.

"Or that, conversely, the grimmest possible expression would have stopped them from doing so."

Modamani thinks it's "great" that his photo found its way into Merkel's tome.

"My picture is going to be part of history forever."

W.Mansour--SF-PST