My name is Osso and I come from Hassaka, the city in North East Syria is about an hour away from Turkey. About 700,000 citizens of different nations live there. Kurds, Arabs, Armenians. There are many religions represented in Hassaka, Hassaka is a colorful city almost like a small Syria. I love it very much, my little town.
Before I came here, I lived there with my parents and my siblings. I always miss my old life, we were a community, we lived together, ate together, cooked together. It was much nicer for me than it is today.
On July 22nd 2015 I left my home country. I lived in Turkey for a month. On 5.9.2015 I arrived in Germany with my brother. Actually I wanted to stay in Turkey to work there for two years, then I decided for Germany.
My trip to Germany was quite exhausting, especially the route from Syria to Turkey and from Turkey to Bulgaria. That was very difficult. I twice tried to come to Turkey. The first time I didn’t make it, the cops saw us and I had to hide in the river for an hour.
Then I went back to Syria, we were there for two days, then I tried again. We were actually three people, my cousin, my brother and I. We walked for five hours, it was summer and it was very hot, we had no water. We were almost on the highway, then we were arrested by Turkish soldiers. We were locked up for a day, then we were released, we got a 15 days’ stay.
We’ve been trying to find smugglers who can help us these days. In Istanbul there were many smugglers and groups of people looking for smugglers. I tried it twice to go to Greece, where the same thing happened to us as in Turkey. We were arrested and then sent back to Turkey.
We found a better way from Turkey to Bulgaria, but we were afraid to stay there when they saw us, because we did not want to stay in Bulgaria. That is why we have tried it twice here.
The borders in Bulgaria had to be crossed on foot, followed by cars that carried our group in smaller groups. After four hours of walking, four cars came and brought us to Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. We paid a lot for it. In Sofia we stayed for four days, we were picked up again by cars that brought us to the border between Bulgaria and Serbia.
Again we had to walk a lot, it was always the same procedure. Wait, be picked up, change, get out…
It was always at night, because it had to be dark while we were walking and we had to be quiet, it was dangerous. We ate dates, bread and water. Dates are very sweet, we ate them just to get energy.
We also spent four hours in Serbia. From Hungary to Vienna we drove by car. In Hungary we had the same fear as in Bulgaria, we did not want to be registered there under any circumstances. Hungary is very dangerous, people don’t want to stay there, or even just wait there. They are treated very badly there. From Hungary to Vienna we drove by car, a cousin of mine lives in Vienna. We stayed for one day, then we took the train to Germany.
We arrived in Munich, it was quite cold. We also bought a ticket at the main station. There were many people there, more than 1000 people, the people had demonstrated in Hungary and trains were sent to Hungary to pick up the people there. The people who demonstrated at the main station, I think they all came for nothing.
So we all came together in one train, actually we wanted to go to Dortmund. In Munich we were then four days. Then to Bielefeld, then to another city I don’t know and then to Cologne. In the end we ended up in Cologne.
In general, life is always difficult, no matter where. There are countries there one works and gets little for it, there are some countries there there is little security. It’s always different. In Germany I would like to continue studying and learning, and making music. I’ve been making music for two years. I play music in a German band. The music is called Oriental Rock.
We always mix Arabic with German and Kurdish music. At the moment I am taking the C1 course and would like to continue my education. I would like to study musicology.
I have no special wishes, I think of my future and everything I still have to do. My wish is that there will be no more wars in the world and everyone can think about their future. Of course I wish to see my family again.
Storyteller’s name: Osso
Interviewer’s name: Sarah El Desoke
Country of origin: Syria
Sex: m
Age: 24