Mohamed Sharbaji and his family are lucky to be alive. To be a mayor in one of the districts of Aleppo would require a consummate politician. Before the civil war he would have had to balance the needs of those loyal to Assad, the rebels agitating for democracy, and the die-hard fundamentalists. After the uprising, when those agitating for democracy were quickly overwhelmed by the fundamentalist groups of al-Quaeda and worse, his life would have been in mortal danger. We now know that police and government officials in occupied Aleppo were summarily executed at this time. 
The grandparents of our daughter-in-law suffered a similar upheaval when Mao Tse-tung steamrollered through the Chinese landscape. Their property was confiscated and they escaped with their lives to Canada. They never learned English, but their children and grandchildren  became high achievers, and their g-grandchildren are also our grandchildren. 
Sharbaji will be thanked and remembered by his Canadian descendants.