Syria’s Mezzeh airport plan sparks fears over mass graves

Plans by Syria’s new authorities to convert a former military airport in Damascus into a hub for private and executive jets have alarmed rights groups and local residents, who fear redevelopment could disturb suspected mass graves and override longstanding private land claims.

The civil aviation authority said last week that Mezzeh military airport would be reclassified for limited civilian use to complement Damascus International Airport. Rubble removal and infrastructure upgrades have already begun, Reuters reports, citing local media.

The project highlights the challenge facing Syria’s new authorities as they seek investment while confronting unresolved legacies of Bashar al-Assad and his father, Hafez al-Assad, including the fate of tens of thousands of missing people and property seized during decades of authoritarian rule.

Mezzeh housed key branches of Air Force Intelligence and detention facilities where government opponents were allegedly tortured, executed and forcibly disappeared. Documents obtained by the Syria Justice and Accountability Centre (SJAC) and shared with Reuters show senior officials approved the site in 2012 for executions of detainees sentenced to death by military field courts.

The documents detail plans to move executions from Sednaya prison to Mezzeh, citing its status as a “closed security compound” near Damascus. Officials later discussed a firing range and a hangar as execution sites, ordering construction work and supplies under Air Force Intelligence supervision “in utmost secrecy.”

SJAC said a 2025 investigation identified two suspected graves at Mezzeh linked to detainees who died there, with more than 1,150 deaths documented. It warned Syria’s National Commission for Missing Persons on Sept. 8 that excavation and rubble removal could damage remains and evidence.

“...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,” said Amer Matar, founder of the Syria Prisons Museum.

Residents are also contesting ownership of the land. Records indicate the airport occupies 2.76 square kilometres belonging to hundreds of private citizens. Residents protested in nearby Moadamiya after the plans were announced.

“We welcome investment, but we should be sitting at the table and discussing our share with investors, not the state,” protest organiser Abu Khaled said. “We have a documented right to this land.”

The dispute comes after UN land-rights experts on Sept. 2 urged Syria to repeal laws enabling property dispossession and establish mechanisms for restitution or adequate compensation.

By Tamilla Hasanova