As his family learned about Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fleeing the country amid a bloody multifront civil war, a deafening cheer erupted late Saturday night at the Baltimore home of Jay Salkini.

“We were anticipating that he was going to put up a big fight. There was the anticipation of a massacre. It was a great feeling,” said Salkini, a founder of a multimillion-dollar telecommunications company and Ammorra, an opulent fine-dining Syrian restaurant in the Ritz-Carlton Residences off Key Highway. Salkini has been closely following the happenings in his native Syria.

The Assad family’s regime, which ruled Syria for more than 50 years, suppressing freedoms and silencing dissent, folded after less than two weeks of fighting throughout the country’s northwest, leading rebels to seize control of the capital and resulting in al-Assad and his family fleeing to Russia.

The moment is “one that fills our hearts with joy and pride,” said the 61-year-old Salkini, who came to the United States at age 17 for college. Turmoil in Syria has prevented him from ever moving back.

“Despite the hardship, Syrians at home and abroad never gave up hope,” Salkini said. “Yesterday, that hope became reality with the fall of the regime and the liberation of the entire country as Assad fled the country. This is a new chapter for Syria — a chance to rebuild, heal and thrive.”

For people of Syrian descent with Maryland ties, the news of rebels toppling the Assad regime has been met with mixed emotions. Most have been exuberant over the ousting of the controversial leader and his family from power in the Middle Eastern country. Others are more somber — reflecting on decades of often-violent terror associated with various leaders of that country.

Following this weekend’s developments, Salkini and 20 family members were among 1,000 people who went to Lafayette Park in Washington, D.C., Sunday to celebrate a “monumental moment” in Syrian history and commemorate the “stunning fall of the Assad family’s dictatorship,” he said.

“It was a gorgeous day to see friends, family and shed tears. So many people were hugging and crying. … It was a very proud and special moment. Everyone was ecstatic,” he said, adding the majority of his family lives in the United States and Turkey. He still has extended family living in Syria.

Similar celebrations were held throughout the world. More than an estimated 13 million Syrian refugees have been displaced since the start of the uprising against al-Assad in 2011, according to Al Jazeera.

Alia Malek, a journalist and former civil rights lawyer who was born and raised in Baltimore to Syrian parents, describes “immense joy” among the Syrian community.

“There is happiness and relief because of the stuff we know the Assad regime has done won’t be happening anymore,” Malek, 49, said. “There is also a ton of apprehension about what comes next.”

Malek also reports on Syria — she said she has a New York Times magazine piece running in January looking at Syrian refugees in Turkey — and is the director of the International Reporting Program at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism in New York.

Malek, who has extended family living in Syria, referenced the violent realities of life under the Assad regime that included mass rapes, executions and Assad dissidents being “disappeared,” leaving families separated and on edge, wondering about the status of their loved ones.

“Friends with missing relatives still haven’t gotten happy endings. It’s intense. It’s a super-traumatized society that have been living this particular trauma for 54 years,” Malek said, adding that those refugees who fled the country have been processing the trauma of displacement — particularly those who have moved to countries that do not want them. “You’ll likely see people collapsing under the weight of the realization of what they have gone through.”

Salkini was last in Syria in 2011 as part of a 16-member group that met with Assad, urging the controversial leader to “steer away from bloodshed.”

The group met with Assad for close to five hours, Salkini said, adding that he went as far as presenting a PowerPoint detailing a peaceful way of leadership.

“I gave him steps,” said Salkini, whose Hanover-based telecommunications company, Tecore Networks, provides wireless networks around the world and in the Middle East. Salkini has remained dedicated to pushing for progress in Syria, attending meetings at the White House and State House to discuss Syria with top U.S. officials in the past month.

Ultimately, Salkini said, there is much to do to rebuild and establish a stable government and country.

“We have a lot of work to do. And we will need a lot of help across the board — medical and tech. We want to help them,” he said.