by Melisa Abdulhadi
How would you feel if your life turned upside down. If you wake up one night to the sound of bombs..... Wouldn't you feel scared and in danger? You can't neither fight against it nor run away from it. This is what we Syrians have experienced. I will start from the beginning. In Syria my family led a good life. There was a family atmosphere. They were always going to each other. I am Jealous because I can only see my relatives through video calls and photos. My grandmother lived in the same building and they used to go on picnics together. I only see the photos.
We were happy until that day... The day the perfect storm started.... That night...... I still remember how I heard the first bomb. My mom woke me up from a deep sleep in a hurry. She was very agitated. She woke everyone up quickly then she put a few pieces of clothing in the suit case and we prepared to leave. My father drove from Arbin to Damascus. I didn't understand what was happening. We left everything behind, all those experiences, those memories, that house. We had to start from the scratch .
When we went to Damascus, we lived at my aunt's house. When she heard we were Leaving Arbin, she asked us to live in her house. We accepted because we thought we would be there for a short time. We lived in Damascus for about three years. We lived these three years with the hope that we would return home. When things become difficult for my brothers, we couldn't stay in Damascus. If we had stayed in Damascus, my brothers would have gone to the army. Military service in Syria isn't like in Turkey. There was a civil war and soldiers were killing their own people. If my brothers had become soldiers, they might even have killed us. If they didn't do the military service. they would go to jail.
But that prison wasn't a normal prison. Prisoners were tortured. Too many people died behind those iron bars. They didn't just die, their bodies were molded there. They were 30-40 people in a cell.
So we had two options: Either to immigrate to Turkey or wait for my brothers to be taken to the army. When they told me we were leaving Damascus I didn't react much . We were leaving everything behind again, but that was okay, I got used to it. Even though I was a small child, I adapted to everything easily.
In order for us to come to Turkey, we first had to take a bus from Damascus to Lebanon. Even though we left at 3 a.m. I wasn't sleepy at all, I was so excited . There was a huge roadblock. There was a very long line. They were stopping every passing car and bus. They were going through every passenger's bag.
I was more excited when we arrived in Lebanon. It was my first time on an airplane. There was one thing that really upset me. I didn't sleep in the bus but I slept in the airplane. I was upset by myself because I was more excited in the airplane but I slept there. When I woke up, I was at the airport. My cousin picked us up from the airport and that's when a whole new life started for me.
The first thing that caught my attention in Turkey were the buildings. Buildings were very tall here , which isn't the case in Syria. The second thing was unhijabi girls. In Syria most of young girls are wearing hijab. I thought it was weird . But after some time I realized it was normal around here.
Before coming to Turkey I neither knew about Turkey nor knew how to speak its language. At first, I was understood by using hand gestures with my friends. Then I started to learn little by little. The first two years my Turkish wasn't good but with time it got better.
My brothers learned Turkish as well as I did, but my mother and father didn't learn it so well. We eventually got Turkish citizenship and our story of getting it was very iconic.
We had just moved from Bursa to istanbul. Since we had a foreign identity card, we had to go to Beyazit to change our address. There was a super long line. Some people had even pitched tents. There were people who came from a long time ago and waited in line. The line was going all the way outside the building. We came at noon and just got in the line, It was very hot and crowded. I was very bored and I kept complaining to my mother. My mother said "Every cloud has a silver lining." and at that very moment an official came out of the building. He was asking the people in the line one by one and then he came to us. He asked about my father's profession. My father told him he was not only professor of chemistry but also physics and studied in France. The man let us into the building despite the long line. In half an hour he gave us our IDs and made our application for citizenship. We got citizenship after about a year .
That's my life story . Thank you for reading .
We were happy until that day... The day the perfect storm started.... That night...... I still remember how I heard the first bomb. My mom woke me up from a deep sleep in a hurry. She was very agitated. She woke everyone up quickly then she put a few pieces of clothing in the suit case and we prepared to leave. My father drove from Arbin to Damascus. I didn't understand what was happening. We left everything behind, all those experiences, those memories, that house. We had to start from the scratch .
When we went to Damascus, we lived at my aunt's house. When she heard we were Leaving Arbin, she asked us to live in her house. We accepted because we thought we would be there for a short time. We lived in Damascus for about three years. We lived these three years with the hope that we would return home. When things become difficult for my brothers, we couldn't stay in Damascus. If we had stayed in Damascus, my brothers would have gone to the army. Military service in Syria isn't like in Turkey. There was a civil war and soldiers were killing their own people. If my brothers had become soldiers, they might even have killed us. If they didn't do the military service. they would go to jail.
But that prison wasn't a normal prison. Prisoners were tortured. Too many people died behind those iron bars. They didn't just die, their bodies were molded there. They were 30-40 people in a cell.
So we had two options: Either to immigrate to Turkey or wait for my brothers to be taken to the army. When they told me we were leaving Damascus I didn't react much . We were leaving everything behind again, but that was okay, I got used to it. Even though I was a small child, I adapted to everything easily.
In order for us to come to Turkey, we first had to take a bus from Damascus to Lebanon. Even though we left at 3 a.m. I wasn't sleepy at all, I was so excited . There was a huge roadblock. There was a very long line. They were stopping every passing car and bus. They were going through every passenger's bag.
I was more excited when we arrived in Lebanon. It was my first time on an airplane. There was one thing that really upset me. I didn't sleep in the bus but I slept in the airplane. I was upset by myself because I was more excited in the airplane but I slept there. When I woke up, I was at the airport. My cousin picked us up from the airport and that's when a whole new life started for me.
The first thing that caught my attention in Turkey were the buildings. Buildings were very tall here , which isn't the case in Syria. The second thing was unhijabi girls. In Syria most of young girls are wearing hijab. I thought it was weird . But after some time I realized it was normal around here.
Before coming to Turkey I neither knew about Turkey nor knew how to speak its language. At first, I was understood by using hand gestures with my friends. Then I started to learn little by little. The first two years my Turkish wasn't good but with time it got better.
My brothers learned Turkish as well as I did, but my mother and father didn't learn it so well. We eventually got Turkish citizenship and our story of getting it was very iconic.
We had just moved from Bursa to istanbul. Since we had a foreign identity card, we had to go to Beyazit to change our address. There was a super long line. Some people had even pitched tents. There were people who came from a long time ago and waited in line. The line was going all the way outside the building. We came at noon and just got in the line, It was very hot and crowded. I was very bored and I kept complaining to my mother. My mother said "Every cloud has a silver lining." and at that very moment an official came out of the building. He was asking the people in the line one by one and then he came to us. He asked about my father's profession. My father told him he was not only professor of chemistry but also physics and studied in France. The man let us into the building despite the long line. In half an hour he gave us our IDs and made our application for citizenship. We got citizenship after about a year .
That's my life story . Thank you for reading .
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