A few hundred Syrian migrants gathered at the Turkey-Syria border as dawn broke on Tuesday morning, waiting to return home for the first time in years.

Turkish soldiers waved them into a long line for processing. Some carried cardboard boxes, others lugged bin bags filled to the brim. Every container was full of an array of belongings – rugs, clothes, roller skates, electric stoves.

“It’s over! We will never come back here to Turkey,” said Zayliha Sadiq, 51, who was leaving with her husband and their three children at the Cilvegozu checkpoint in southern Turkey flanked by hilly terrain next to the Mediterranean coast.

On the other side is Aleppo, once the largest city in Syria, just 30 miles further down the road.

“My heart is so full today,” said her husband, Maarif, who plans to reopen his bakery in Idlib. “After so many years away, I am so, so happy to return to my country.”