By Samer Yassin
TEL TAMR, Syria (North Press) – Wardiya Khoshaba is busy with Christmas preparations. She bought candies and sweets to receive her loved ones, her relatives and neighbors. However, for a moment, she remembers that they all have become immigrants living outside the country.
Khoshaba, 67, an Assyrian woman from the town of Tel Tamr in the north of Hasakah, northeast Syria, says she did not get married so that she does not experience the pain of being apart from her children. Every holiday, she longs to see her relatives, siblings, and neighbors, most of whom immigrated from the country. She says that holidays without them is not the same as it used to be.
Khoshaba told North Press that holidays nowadays do not bear joy like previous ones. It is completely different. “How can you be happy when your loved ones are away?” she said with tearful eyes.
Khoshaba recalls the past, saying Tel Tamr used to be filled with people. “Christmas celebrations started a month in advance. Despite the large number of residents here, we felt like one big family,” she said.
Empty town
Khoshaba misses the days when she used to celebrate the Christmas with her relatives, but now she is alone after they immigrated.
“I feel alone here, my town’s church, which used to be full in holidays, is almost empty, I miss my people,” she said. “When I talk to them on the phone, I wish I could hug their voices.” She expressed concern that she might pass away without seeing her loved ones.
The Assyrians used to reside in the formerly Assyrian-majority town of Tel Tamr and other 34 villages in the northern countryside of Hasakah in northeast Syria. There were also families in the cities of Hasakah and Qamishli, and a small number in other Syrian cities such as Damascus and Aleppo.
Kerdiyanos Marokel, 60, from Tel Tamr, preferred living in his hometown over Germany, where he sought refuge four years ago, but he later decided to return to Tel Tamr refusing to leave it again.
Marokel shares his feelings with North Press correspondent when he sees his town devoid of Assyrians. “Tel Tamr used to be one of the liveliest towns in NE Syria,” he says. “When I see the empty streets of Tel Tamr, I feel sad. All our relatives and friends have either immigrated or passed away.”
Regarding his decision to return from Germany, he explains, “There is no social life there. I could not stand staying at home. I used to be happy and comfortable here. I used to live the best life here, but now our town is empty due to the Syrian crisis.”
Crises and immigration
Adonya Kina, official of the Assyrian Democratic Party, told North Press that the population of the Assyrians on the banks of the Khabur River was about 21,000, due to the Syrian conflict and economic hardships a large number of them immigrated, particularly after ISIS attacks.
The Assyrian official said that after the ISIS attack on the Khabur Basin on Feb.23, 2015, more than 90 percent of the remaining Assyrian people in the area were forced to flee. “Now, the Assyrian population in Northeast Syria does not exceed 1,200 individuals.”
The majority of the Assyrians immigrated from the Khabur Basin at the beginning of the ISIS offensive in early 2015. ISIS seized control of more than 30 Assyrian villages, killing numerous Assyrians and abducting over 220 ones, including women and children. The majority of them were later released through international mediation.
Comparing the days when the Assyrians were present in Northeast Syria to the present, Kina noted, “During those days of Christmas celebrations, the festivities used to be widespread and grand. Previously, all family members would gather for Christmas, exchange visits with other families, and the villages would be filled with their inhabitants.”
Churches used to be filled with worshippers, especially the children whose faces and eyes were always bright with the joy of the holiday. But now, the churches are almost empty of children, the Adonya Kina concluded.