“He
is not going to fall. The entire world is on his side. Even God is on his side!
I pray every day for the souls of martyrs and I read the Quran every morning,
but something is wrong with my heart.”
The
woman is a mother of three kids and migrated with her family to Istanbul from
the coastal city, Lattakia.
“I come from a village from Jabal Al-akrad
(the mountain of Kurds). My home was shelled like most of the homes in the
mountain. I lost a lot of my neighbors and young boys were martyred. I love my
village because I was born there and every time I go to the village, I remember
my childhood memories. I wonder now if I go back to sit with the other women
what sort of conversations would take place? A lot of them have lost someone
they love! How can we talk about simple things again?”
They
migrated to Istanbul few months ago, and it has been difficult for her to cope
with the new place and perhaps the new life now.
As it is always the case in the Syrian households,
Aljazeera TV channel accompanies Syrians most of the evening. She made us some
delicious spinach pies and I tell her in Damascus, we put some pomegranate in
spinach pies. She starts making jokes of the soar pomegranate we put in food in
Damascus and that people do not know how to cook there.
We
made few jokes on the Damascene cuisine and that home food in Damascus is not
up to the taste of people in the coast. I laugh my heart out and she concludes,
“We are all one in Syria, we just like to make fun of each other whenever there
is a chance.”
Getting
to know each other seem to be the first positive outcome of the revolution. The
Assad regime during its 4o years of rule has caused a lot of fissures within
the Syrian society. The Assad ruled Syria with the policy of divide and rule.
I
ask her if I could smoke a cigarette and we go both to the window. They live in 5th floor apartment
in Findikzade and it has a nice view of Al-suleymanih mosque. She comes closer
to me and says, “my son had to find a place fast since we had to come here. I
do not like it that much. My place back in Lattakia is much better. I wish I
can go back there!”
“Are
you planning to settle here?” I push it further. “I do not know. I am waiting
for the end of war. I want to go back home, but we are safe here.”
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