Aleppo, SANA- Festival of the “Mahabet Watan” (Love of a Homeland) wrapped up activities on Sunday evening.

The festival was held in Khan al-Jumrok in Aleppo as part of the project to revive the city’s old souqs (traditional marketplaces).

The 4-day festival contained more than 80 pavilions and over 150 participants, featuring a wide variety of products at competing prices.

Various cultural, artistic, and heritage-related activities were also held within the festival, in addition to holding symposiums on the archeological markets and their role throughout history.

The sight of the crowds of enthusiastic participants in the festival, whose numbers exceeded expectations, brings back to mind the bustle and activity that these souqs used to witness before they were targeted by terrorists.

Organizers of the Festival affirmed that the goal behind it is activating the economic and trade movement in Aleppo and that the festival was an initiative by Aleppo tradesmen.

They indicating that it is a message to the owners of commercial shops to return to their work in order to revive the market again.

Participants in the festival noted that they wanted to revive the markets in Aleppo in a way that will encourage many of Aleppo locals to return and restore their role in activating the economic and social movement in Aleppo.

They called upon all tradesmen and industrialist abroad to return to Syria and contribute to the reconstruction process in it, asserting that through the determination and solidarity of Aleppo locals, the trade movement will return again to the city.

They also indicated that holding the festival is one of the form of Aleppo’s recovery after eliminating terrorism from it and that it is now throbbing with life again.

R.Jazaeri/Ghossoun