Hello! Μy name is Omar and I am 28 years old. I was born in Afrin and I was studying in Aleppo for four years. After those four years, we had to choose one language between French and English. I chose to study French but my family complained that French is not so popular. They sent me to a village to study English because they thought that English is more important. After that, I studied Economics at a university. I was in the last year of my studies when the war started. I had only five courses remaining until my degree but I did not have the opportunity to take my degree because of the war. One more reason that I did not finish my studies earlier was that I was afraid that they will send me to the Army. In my country, if you finish university you have to go to the Army. So did my brother, too. He did not have a choice.
My family had a house in Aleppo but when the war started we went to a village. It was about 2011 – 2012 when we moved to the village. There was safer and many more Kurdish people were living there too. I was studying, I was happy and I did not belong to the government. For Kurdish people, this was a big problem.
After that period, I went to Turkey. In the beginning, I stayed in Istanbul for six months and then to my sister in Smirn, where I stayed for more than four years. I did not know the language but I learnt it by myself. It was not so difficult to learn the Turkish language. Because I wasn’t speaking fluently, I could not study and I had to work. Sometimes I was working more than ten hours. In Turkey, I also got married. My wife and I have a daughter. My wife had also one more daughter from her first marriage. She was Kurdish, too, from Afrin. After my marriage, the borders of Syria and Turkey were getting more dangerous. Many people came to Turkey to ask for asylum.
Turkish people normally were good but if you say that you are Kurdish and you talk for the government they do not like it. After that period, we decided with my wife to go to Germany, because many of my relatives are already settled in Germany.. my brother, my sister.
In Greece, I have been for almost seven to eight months. My wife and my daughter are already in Germany. When we came, the relocation was not possible and we had many issues here. Thus, I decided to send her to Germany, while she was pregnant. But now I have a problem and I cannot leave yet. My wife gave birth to our daughter, in Germany.
I am not happy because my wife was sent to another area and she is away from my sister and my brother there. I cannot also be here and there. I do not ask anything from the government, I just want to be with my family. I will have to wait for the documents more than one year and the illegal way of travelling needs much money. Also, it is very dangerous.
I just want to tell the European Government and people: “Please, accept people in this way. Mutual respect for all people. You make more problems but we do not have a choice to return back to our country. People in my country are getting killed. If you take my rights you are not my friend… I do not want to be a soldier, I do not want to fight, that’s why I left.” Many people are getting into debt because they are trying to travel illegal. I love Greece but my family is in Germany and what bothers me more is that the first husband of my wife was killed on the war and his daughter grew up without him. Even though I am still alive, my daughter is growing up without me.
Refugee lives
