Syria represents melancholy, love and longing, and it can’t become a memory and dream

The word “Syria” is so close to my heart! It’s as if it conveys the feeling of patriotism. Perhaps it is because of the hospitality and generosity of the Arabs who supported and received the Armenians following the massacres of 1915. Perhaps it is because Syria is the place where multitalented Armenians and their generations were born. Perhaps the mystery of this familiarity lies in the formation of the world by the Armenian people and the truth about the nation…Perhaps it is the harmonious synthesis of all this…

Many Armenians were freed and saved from the criminal Young Turks with the help of Arabs. “If it wasn’t for the humanitarianism of the sincere Arabs, most of the Armenians of Syria and the Mediterranean wouldn’t have existed,” one of the eyewitnesses of the crime of 1915, A. Torosyan, writes in his letter. After receiving Talaat’s order to annihilate the Armenians, governor of Aleppo Zelyal-bey sent a telegram to Istanbul, stating “I am the governor of this state and I don’t want to become a criminal of this state”, after which the governor was dismissed from office. In his memoirs, the well-known Nayim-bey emphasized that the new governor of Deir ez-Zor in the Aleppo Vilayet would do everything possible to mitigate the worries of the exiled Armenians to a certain extent. Contrary to the orders of the central authorities, he didn’t drive the Armenians to the depths of the deserts, but allocated areas for them to set up tents and provided them with the opportunity to become involved in trade and crafts. Armenians opened tailor shops and shoemaking workshops, as well as stores and grocery stories. They also built several bakeries. Among the exiled Armenians were many builders and architects. They helped build a large hospital in Deir ez-Zor. When Istanbul found out that the governor had treated the Armenians well, the governor was immediately dismissed from office and was replaced by criminal mastermind Zevdet-bey. Nearly 200,000 Armenians were sent to Mosul where they were shot by police officers and died from hunger and illnesses. After being told that some Armenians had stopped in Aleppo, Talaat ordered to wipe the city of Armenians and drive them to the depths of the deserts. The horrible assaults of the Young Turkish government against the Armenians made different layers of Arab society angry and frustrated. One of the Armenians having survived by chance states the following: “The Turkish gendarmeries sat 70 Armenian children in a boat and let them flow on the waters of the Euphrates until they reached the waterfall. The boat flipped over, and all the children drowned.” The Arabs witnessed the perdition of those helpless children and addressed the Turkish authorities of Aleppo with the demand to punish the criminals. There were cases when the Arabs would attack the police officers escorting the Armenians, free the starving women and children and hide them in their homes. The Turkish authorities weren’t able to annihilate all the exiled Armenians…and the Armenians lived, got back on their feet, grew in number, created, and the world was amazed to see how the Armenians who had remained after the annihilation had managed to rise and flourish after all the sorrow…

And the Armenians continued their lives in different corners of the globe, and Syria became a second Homeland and place of birth for many Armenians. The holy masses were served to the sounds of the songs by Komitas, Armenian children recited the Armenian alphabet, and Armenians spoke Armenian and preserved the religion. Syria thrived. Hard-working Armenians lived, worked and created with the Arabs, and the greatest message of the Creator-“Love each other”-was a reality.

After seeing all the atrocities of the Turks and having undergone persecutions, the Arabs have once again found themselves in the focal point of military operations, and this time, they are in a domestic political struggle, but based on the expectations of foreign powers and foreigners’ interests. Ruined cities and districts, numerous victims, including many Armenian victims, and Armenians have become migrants once again, settling in different countries, as well as in the Mother Homeland…

Perhaps this is the road to the Homeland…It is cruel because Syria is a birthplace, the land of ancestors, it’s home, a wealthy Armenian community where there are sanctities like churches, schools, cultural centers, tombstones of relatives, workshops and studios, stores and many relatives who have stayed in Syria…Syria represents melancholy, love and longing, and it can’t become a memory or a dream for the Syrian-Armenian boy attending the Cilician School who says in Western Armenian “Yes im khaghateghs, mahtchakals kkarotem…” (I miss my playground and my bed…) with sad eyes. There will come a day when Syrian-Armenians will return to their hometowns upon desire, when they will no longer hear shootings, blood won’t be shed, homes won’t be destroyed and dreams won’t die…That day will come, and the words of prophets saying Syria will fall and WWIII will begin, won’t turn into a reality…Syria will rise, and the Syrian-Armenians with interests and ideas will understand that they are brothers. There won’t be a war between brothers and dictated by others…And the Syrian cedar and cypress trees will only bring sweet whispers and will fill everyone’s souls with peace. With the words of one of the famous Armenian poets, let’s wish that “peace is established in the eastern side…”

Karine Avagyan