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New Airport Plans in Damascus Spark Grave Concerns
Confirmed
In Short: Plans to redevelop Mezzeh military airport in Damascus for private aviation use are facing criticism over potential disturbance of mass graves and unresolved land rights.
Syria’s civil aviation authority announced last week that it was preparing to reclassify Mezzeh military airport for limited civilian use, focusing on private and executive aviation, according to a report by Syria's state news agency, SANA.
The Syrian civil aviation authority, Syria's National Commission for Missing Persons, and Syria's defense ministry, which has been operating the airport, did not respond to questions about suspected graves and land claims.
What's confirmed
- Syria’s civil aviation authority said last week it was preparing to reclassify Mezzeh military airport for limited civilian use, focused on private and executive aviation, to complement Damascus International Airport, according to a report on Syria's state news agency, SANA.
- The project is emerging as a test of how Syria’s new authorities balance a drive to attract investment and redevelop state assets with two unresolved legacies of Assad’s family rule: the fate of tens of thousands of missing Syrians and property rights clouded by decades of expropriation.
- "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," Matar told Reuters.
- The Syrian civil aviation authority, Syria's National Commission for Missing Persons and Syria's defense ministry, which has been operating the airport,did not respond to questions from Reuters about suspected graves and land claims.
- SANA cited the civil aviation authority's spokesperson as saying that Mezzeh's refurbishmentwould take into account the surrounding urban area and relevant legal and social issues, but did not specifically mention the graves or land rights.It is unclear who will develop the airport.
- Mezzeh airport was built on land belonging to hundreds of private citizens across 2.76 sq km (1.1 square miles).
- A former municipal official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters that expropriation decrees retroactively justified the government's use of those lands when the airport was built in 1956, and that compensation had not been paid.
- One document proposed moving executions fromSednaya — the country's most notorious prison at the time —to Mezzeh because it was a "closed security compound" close to Damascus.
What's still developing
- A 2025 investigation identified two suspected grave sites linked to people who died in detention at Mezzeh A 2025 investigation identified two suspected grave sites linked to people who died in detention at Mezzeh Syrian government plans to turn a former military airport in Damascus into a hub for private jets are raising alarm among rights groups and residents who say redevelopment could disturb suspected mass graves and override private land claims.