Syria · updated 2h ago · 3 min read
Syria Plans Civilian Mezzeh Airport, Residents Protest Over Mass Graves And Assad-Era Land Seizures
Syria plans to convert Mezzeh military airport into a civilian/private jets hub. Residents protest expropriation of 2.76 sq km built airport land; demand compensation.
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5 of 7 outlets skipped it: SJAC provided coordinates of suspected graves in July 2025.
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Mezzeh to civilian airport
Syria plans to convert the former Mezzeh military airport in Damascus into a civilian airport for private and executive aviation, with SANA saying debris removal and infrastructure upgrades have already begun.
“preparing to reclassify Mezzeh military airport for limited civilian use, focused on private and executive aviation”
Reuters reported that Syria’s civil aviation authority is preparing to reclassify Mezzeh from a military-use facility to a limited civilian airport to complement Damascus International Airport.
Rights groups and residents are raising alarm that redevelopment could disturb sites suspected of housing mass graves and override private land claims tied to decades of expropriation under Bashar al-Assad and his father Hafez al-Assad.
Reuters also reported that Air Force Intelligence documents obtained by the Syria Justice and Accountability Centre show senior Syrian military officials approved in 2012 using Mezzeh as a site to carry out executions of detainees sentenced to death by military field courts.
The same documents discussed using a firing range and then a hangar beside the runway as potential execution sites, with officials ordering construction of a platform and bringing in nylon ropes under Air Force Intelligence supervision “in utmost secrecy.”
Families, investigators, and protests
Amer Matar, founder of the Syria Prisons Museum, told Reuters that the planned works show a lack of respect for Syrian families still seeking answers, saying, “To construct a business airport on a site that may contain mass graves, without a thorough prior investigation, without site protection, without searching for the missing and their remains, and without preserving evidence, is an act of extreme recklessness and disregard.”
Reuters said a 2025 investigation by the Syria Justice and Accountability Centre identified two suspected grave sites linked to people who died in detention at Mezzeh, where it said more than 1,150 detainees died, some by execution and others from torture or maltreatment.
In a July 2025 letter seen by Reuters, the centre provided Syria’s National Commission for Missing Persons with coordinates of two suspected graves inside the airport and urged authorities to prevent construction or excavation until the sites were investigated.
Reuters reported that the commission told the centre at the time that there were no construction or refurbishment plans for Mezzeh, but that the centre wrote again on September 8 warning that excavation, rubble removal or other works could damage human remains and evidence needed to identify the dead.
Residents also staged protests in Moadamiya a day after redevelopment plans were announced, with one protest organiser named Abu Khaled saying, “We welcome investment, but we should be sitting at the table and discussing our share with investors, not the state.”
Land rights and what’s at risk
Land records reviewed by Reuters said Mezzeh airport was built on land belonging to hundreds of private citizens across 2.76 sq km (1.1 square miles), and a former municipal official told Reuters that expropriation decrees retroactively justified the government’s use of those lands when the airport was built in 1956, with compensation not paid.
“Land records from the Moadamiya municipality shared with Reuters”
Reuters reported that the dispute over land claims is decades old and that residents demonstrated in Moadamiya a day after redevelopment plans were announced, while the project’s backers say it is meant to attract investment and redevelop state assets.
On September 2, UN land rights experts urged the Syrian government to suspend and repeal laws that they said enabled systematic property confiscation during Assad’s era, and to either establish mechanisms to return properties to rightful owners or provide appropriate compensation.
The Syria Justice and Accountability Centre told Reuters it had not yet received a response to its second letter dated September 8, after warning that digging, clearing debris, or other activities could harm human remains and evidence needed to identify the dead.
With SANA citing the civil aviation authority spokesperson saying refurbishment would take into account the surrounding urban area and relevant legal and social considerations, Reuters said it remained unclear who would develop the airport amid the competing demands over graves and land ownership.