Syrian-Armenian couple did not plan to settle in Armenia (video)
Armine Nazaryan, who settled in Armenia with her husband after fleeing from Kessab, an ethnic Armenian-populated town in northwestern Syria at the border with Turkey, lives in a small room in a hostel in Yerevan’s Nor Nork district. The moved to Armenia in 2013 and settled here though they did not plan to stay in the country. “My husband was to work here under a Turkish-Armenian project. I came with him and we planned to return to Kessab after he finished his work. But the border was closed and we had to stay in Armenia. I had not taken anything with me because I knew I would return, but the border was closed and we were unable to go back. When we were still in Kessab, the fight had already started, there were shootings and explosions but they had not entered Kessab yet,” Armine Mazaryan told A1+. The couple has been living in the hostel for four months. They moved to the hostel with the assistance of Mission Armenia" Charitable NGO. Earlier they lived in a rented apartment. Armine’s husband works in Sanitek Ltd, the company that collects garbage in the Armenian capital. Nazaryans are not citizens of Armenia. Nor do they have a refugee status. All their relatives have stayed in Kessab and they communicate with them via Skype. They want to relocate to Armenian but cannot afford to do it at present. About 5000-6000 Armenians lived in Kessab before Syria's civil war but man had to leave their homes and find refuge elsewhere after the attacks on Kessab in May 2014. “There were many Armenians in Kessab before the war. We lived a different life had our schools, clubs, churches and were very satisfied with life. But today many have fled to Lebanon, Europe, Dubai, Canada and other corners of the world,” Mrs Nazaryan said.
