Residents of Idlib, the last opposition-held stronghold of Syria, most of them living in displacement and with sparse electricity, have stayed glued to their phones. “We have become a toy in the hand of other countries,” said Abu Hayyan, a man displaced from his home in Taybet al Imam, southern Hama, moments after learning through a WhatsApp group about the new agreement reached between Russia and Turkey to suspend fighting in the province. Under the agreement, Hayyan and hundreds of thousands of others in Idlib would not be able to return to their homes since the Syrian regime controls their towns, and, like many in Idlib, he expects to be killed if he returns to live under government rule.

The mood was much more upbeat on the night of Feb. 27, when Syrians huddled into overcrowded camps in the country’s northwest cheered, with a sense of vengefulness mixed with relief, as videos were shared from one WhatsApp group to another. Nine years into their country’s devastating civil war, Syrians watched Turkish drones destroying tanks, armored vehicles, and air defense systems operated by Syrian army soldiers. “For the first time, we are seeing aircrafts and saying, ‘Praise be to God, these are on our side,’” said Omar,* a journalist displaced from his home in Maarat al Numan. The displaced were cheering at their countrymen being killed by a foreign power because the same Syrian soldiers being targeted by the Turks drove them from their homes, looted them thoroughly, and desecrated graves of regime opponents.