Mohammed is one of over three million refugees living in Turkey, who is now facing the question of what the future may hold for him and for fellow Syrians.

"Most Syrians will go back. No one wants to stay far from their country," Mohammed told ANSA in an interview in Istanbul. "Many are now waiting to see how the security situation will develop," adding that he does not want to return to Syria immediately also because he feels the country is not safe enough yet.

"At the moment we are waiting. We are worried that the criminals that were involved in the [former] regime may escape or avoid justice. Syria isn't entirely safe at the moment."

The 21-year-old, who asked ANSA not to use his last name, is very happy about the fall of Assad but also surprised by how quickly opposition forces took over Damascus after years of war.

"No one expected that the change would be so quick," Mohammed stressed.

Discrimination in Turkey

Mohammed was born in Damascus, and was not even of adolescent age when the civil war broke out in Syria in 2011. At age 13, he and his family moved to Turkey -- the country that hosts most of the 5.5 million people who fled Syria in the past 14 years.

In Istanbul, he is now enrolled at university, studying International Relations in Turkish, a language he now speaks fluently. Despite having new roots in Turkey, he says he has experienced discrimination in Turkey because he is Arab.

He has not made friends with any of the local population and feels that, in general, Turks do not feel much empathy towards refugees.

Economic woes also a major concern

"Many of them now tell us that the war is over, and ask when are we going back to Syria," Mohammed said, adding that under these circumstances, he, too, would like to go back but knows that this will not be immediately possible, at least for the time being -- also because of the precarious economic situation in Syria.

"In my case, I don't even have a home in Damascus because ours was stolen. We need to save to be able to buy another one," said the young man.

Since the regime of former president Bashar al-Assad fell on December 8, about 8,000 Syrian nationals have crossed the border from Turkey to return to northern Syria. But at what rate will this trend continue?

Focus on northern parts of Syria

Mohammed stressed that the Syrians who left Turkey in recent weeks were mostly people from northern parts of Syria; most of those remaining in Turkey have yet to decide when -- and whether -- to return home.

Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced an initiative to build at least 240,000 housing units for refugees returning to Syria in order to incentivize voluntary returns to the country. However, the majority of those construction efforts will also be in the north of the country, which Mohammed says remains a security concern for a different reason:

"There is also the problem of the PKK," he said, referring to the Kurdistan Workers Party, which is recognized as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US, and the EU. Mohammed said that he, too, considers them terrorists, adding however that the Kurdish population itself is fully part of the Syrian population.

The PKK meanwhile is closely linked to the Kurdish-led forces controling the northeastern part of the country, mainly the YPG, who were instrumental in the fight against the "Islamic State" terrorist group. It is unclear

"Until the interim government controls all the cities, we will not be able to feel entirely safe," Mohammed stressed, saying that he wants to live in a Syria with "democracy, freedom, justice, freedom of expression, and economic equilibrium."

'Harsh sentences needed for Assad supporters'

Syria's fresh start, however, is not only about what the future may hold but also about taking a good look at the past: Mohammed believes it is "necessary" for those who supported the former regime to be subjected to harsh punishments.

"We do not want chaos. We do not want people to take revenge on their own for what happened. However, we are angry and I want to say this clearly: Syrians will not be satisfied if these people are simply put in prison. We want them to be hanged in the center of the city."

"We do not want influence from any other country. We do not want anything that could change the value of this revolution, because Syria is for Syrians and not other countries; not Turkey, not Israel, or Iran, or Russia," Mohammed said, referring to military engagements and incursions on Syrian sovereign territory.