Smiles. Asbed Cholakian noticed the smiles.
Just over two weeks after landing in his new country from an uncertain life in Lebanon, the 40-year-old Syrian refugee of Armenian descent, his wife and two children aged 10 and seven were taken with the looks on peoples’ faces after they touched down in Canada on Dec. 31.
Strangers, new acquaintances, even bus drivers gave them a pleasant look. Canada had rolled out the welcome mat and the Cholakians were grateful.
“The people here, they like to smile,” Cholakian said, a smile breaking out on his own face when the News interviewed him recently. “When we enter a place — a train or a bus — we meet some people we don’t know and they smile and sometimes they greet us.
“The Syrian people are also friendly people, but we don’t have the habit of greeting people. We don’t do that on the street,” he said. “The bus driver smiled and said ‘Hello, how are you?’ And when we left the bus he said, ‘Goodbye and have a nice day.’ People are so friendly.”
Sometimes, people will enquire where they are from, and when they learn the young family is from Syria they get an even warmer reception.
“They tell us they hope we can find a lifestyle we can enjoy,” Cholakian said.
Family sponsorship
The family, one of 15 that have so far been brought over with the sponsorship assistance of Richmond ‘s Saint Gregory’s Armenian Church and its congregation, currently live in temporary housing in Burnaby. And they have ventured out in their new surroundings with the help of church members to get their new lives on track.
There’s been trips to the driver’s licensing centre and food shopping expeditions that have resulted in some curious and welcome surprises.
“We used to hear that we wouldn’t find the types of food we ate in Syria. But when we made a tour of the shops in the market here, there is almost everything here that we had in Syria,” Cholakian said. “We even found a Syrian (cooking) oil, and even Persian and an Iranian one in the grocery store.”
But some items, such as fruits, while available here, lack the freshness of those from back home because of their lengthy journey to market.
“My wife was very worried about the food, but day by day we are finding new items. It’s not the same taste, but we are getting used to it,” Cholakian said.
“There’s a popular food here called poutine?” Cholakian asked. “That is what I’ve heard. I’d like to try that.
“We will continue our food tradition here, but from time to time we will try Canadian food. We must try and integrate and do things the Canadian way,” he said. “My wife likes to cook foreign dishes, so I am sure she will try.”
Getting acclimated also includes the local weather.
“I like the rainy days. I also like the dark clouds,” Cholakian said. “My wife, she likes the sunshine, but she will get used to it.”
“Well you’ve come to the right place,” quipped Eddie Papazian, a member of Saint Gregory’s congregation who, in partnership with the church, co-sponsored the family.
Preserving a people
Papazian said he got involved with bringing Armenian families here because of his links to the local community.
“I don’t have any relatives in the Middle East, but because I am so involved with the Armenian community here and seeing the pictures and hearing news about the civil war, your heart goes out to them,” Papazian said.
He added it’s ironic that when Armenians were forced out of Turkey about 100 years ago and relocated to Syria, it’s now many of their descendants who are again seeking refuge. Helping preserve the Armenian population — which is estimated at around 10 million globally — was another consideration.
“When you are a small nation, the danger of extinction is very high. And we have faced that danger so often that we cannot sit still and not do anything about it,” said Father Hyar Hrant, pastor at Saint Gregory’s.
Most Canadians were not aware how desperate the situation was in Syria until they heard about the tragedy of Alan Kurdi, the three-year-old refugee whose body washed up on a shoreline near Turkey after his family attempted a dangerous crossing of the Mediterranean Sea, Father Hrant said.
“We knew what was going on from day one because there is an Armenian community of about 75,000 in Syria,” he said. “And at first, in 2012, we did fundraising, not to bring refugees here, but send money there because there was still hope the war would end soon.”
Local families concerned for the safety of relatives in Syria added urgency to the congregation’s actions which quickly turned to bringing families to Canada, he added.
“Since we are a small congregation, that sponsorship of families with relatives was soon exhausted. So, we decided to bring in families that had no connections,” Father Hrant said.
“To date, we have 17 families here, and roughly another 15 or so coming,” Papazian added. “Plus, we have another five families that have decided to move here from back east that were not part of our original sponsored groups.”
Time to leave
For the Cholakians, the decision to leave their home in Syria was not immediate, nor was it easy.
They lived in the city of Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest, in the north near the Turkish border.
When the rumblings of a civil war started in 2011, the conflicts were being played out in other cities far from their home. So, at first, they felt leaving was not necessary — the war wouldn’t impact their lives. But as time wore on and the conflicts became more widespread, the Cholakians believed that a more stable and safe future for their sons would need to be somewhere else.
And the closest place of refuge was just over the border in Lebanon.
“We used to watch the news and see the war spreading,” Cholakian said. “Daily life in Aleppo became difficult with power cuts and lack of fresh water, heating fuel and sometimes food.
“We had our work there, our social life and family, friends, school and church. It wasn’t a very easy decision to leave,” he said. “But things were getting worse and not becoming safe, at all.”
So they left for Damascus.
“Lebanon was the best choice for us. It was the nearest and the language was the same. And we could enter the country only with ID. We didn’t need a visa,” Cholakian said. “The road from Aleppo to the airport was very dangerous. There were many snipers there, and checkpoints from both sides — the Syrian army and the rebels.”
But they made the trip safely and ended up settling in the small town of Anjar, an Armenian settlement in eastern Lebanon that was very close to the Syrian border.
There, Cholakian, a special needs childcare worker, and his wife, Mania, managed to get work running a boarding school originally established by German missionaries in the 1950s.
While life was better, there were always fears the border town would be caught up in the Syrian war. Plus, there were concerns that tightening border restrictions would not allow them to return home. More troubling was the possibility their young boys could be subjected to Syria’s mandatory military service once they turned 18.
“They could ask why are you not serving in the military and maybe they could be taken away from us,” Cholakian said. “The time came that we had to make a decision of where to live. Our kids were growing up too fast.”
That’s when the opportunity came to connect with an acquaintance at Saint Gregory’s and the wheels were set in motion to bring the Cholakians to Canada. The process, from first contact to arrival, took about six months.
And now, instead of worrying about safety, there are more pleasant aspects to address in their new country which they researched during the wait to leave Lebanon.
“I was very interested in geography as a teenager and I would learn the cities and capitals of countries around the world,” Cholakian said. “But with my children, I’d watch lots of YouTube videos of what life was like in Canada. I could see that Vancouver was a very beautiful city.”
They also discovered the region’s cultural diversity.
“I saw the mixed cultures here,” he said. “There were so many kinds of people.”
And when they arrived and began to venture out, they found a certain sense of order they were not used to.
“My family, we respect the rules. So, we thought it would be nice to live in a country like Canada where people respected that,” Cholakian said.
“Now, when we cross the streets, it is the proper way on a crosswalk, waiting until it is safe and the cars are stopped. That’s something new for us to live like this.”
Having the ability to speak English well has made the family feel more encouraged to explore.
“We’ve learned how to get the bus — the 135,” he said.
But the process of integrating is slow, mainly because of a lack of affordable, long-term housing in Metro Vancouver.
“Because everything is related to your house address, our kids right now are not going to school,” he said. “And we want them in school as soon as possible so they can begin making new friends.”
Imagining the future
So, where does the family see themselves a decade from now?
“We imagine ourselves with grown up kids who are continuing their studies in what they want to do,” Cholakian said. “That is different from Syria where the schools decide what you study, based on what your marks are.
“Here, you can study what you want. That’s one of the good options about Canada. Our kids will have the opportunity to decide.
“We will be adapted to life here and working hard to continue living and surviving in this community, and have many friends, either Armenians or Canadians.
“We don’t want to forget our history or our memories in Syria,” he said. “Maybe one day we will visit.”
Donations to the refugee efforts at Saint Gregory’s Armenian Church can be made by visiting online at:http://syriahelp.ca or www.stgregorychurch.ca
