MIDEAST-CRISIS/USA SYRIANS Four years on, US-based Syrians tormented by civil war at home

Record ID: 276658

  • Title: MIDEAST-CRISIS/USA SYRIANS Four years on, US-based Syrians tormented by civil war at home
  • Date: 13th March 2015
  • Summary: PATERSON, NEW JERSEY, UNITED STATES (MARCH 3, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MAHMOUD ALZOUABI ON COUCH (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) MAHMOUD ALZOUABI, SYRIAN FROM ELMAH, DARAA LIVING IN PATERSON, SAYING: "The shelling began to intensify, to the degree that at night, when I was at home with my children, and shelling would start to fall on the city from every direction, we would run from one room to another based on the direction and the sound of where the shelling was coming from." ALZOUABI WIPING EYES (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) MAHMOUD ALZOUABI, SYRIAN FROM ELMAH, DARAA LIVING IN PATERSON, SAYING: "The thing I miss the most about Syria? Is everything in Syria. Everything in the country, the people, the relatives, the old homes, the plains, the good relations I have with my relatives and my friends. I have lost everything in Syria." DAUGHTERS MARIAM, NOHA, HODA ALZOUABI ON COUCH (left to right) (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) NOHA ALZOUABI, SYRIAN FROM ELMAH, DARAA LIVING IN PATERSON, SAYING: "I feel scared and sad because I am homesick. I feel that there is something in my life that is still missing or incomplete." VARIOUS OF NOHA ALZOUABI DOING HOMEWORK FLAG READING FREEDOM MORE OF NOHA ALZOUABI DOING HOMEWORK VARIOUS OF SULEMAN ALZOUABI DRAWING SYRIAN FLAG FAMILY ON COUCH VARIOUS OF PEDESTRIANS WALKING VARIOUS OF AL ZAEEM RESTAURANT EXTERIORS SIGN FOR CITY OF PATERSON ISLAMIC FASHION CENTER EXTERIOR PATERSON, NEW JERSEY, UNITED STATES (MARCH 4, 2015) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF ALEPPO RESTAURANT RALLY FOR SYRIA SIGN IN WINDOW VARIOUS OF SYRIANS ABDUL NOURI AND GHUSSOON ALZOUABI AT TABLE OF RESTAURANT ABDUL NOURI'S HANDS (SOUNDBITE) (English) ABDUL NOURI, SYRIAN FROM DAMASCUS LIVING IN PATERSON, SAYING: "It's just been nightmare after nightmare after nightmare. When the revolution started, it was our only hope and it turned out to be totally different than what we hoped for. No one ever expected or dreamed of what's going on right now in Syria could happen," GHUSSOON ALZOUABI (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) GHUSSOON ALZOUABI, SYRIAN FROM ELMAH, DARAA LIVING IN PATERSON, SAYING: "My observation is that this is very tragic. I don't know how this will end because there are children, people who are dying. There is a future of young men simply lost. There are children dying and women in pain." VARIOUS OF PICTURE IN RESTAURANT (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) GHUSSOON ALZOUABI, SYRIAN FROM ELMAH, DARAA LIVING IN PATERSON, SAYING: "Our lives have really changed because it will never go back to the way it was. We lived through so much pain. Until this day living in the U.S., when I hear fireworks for any special occasion, immediately the whole family jumps as if there is shelling. Until now. We've been here two years now." VARIOUS OF NOURI BROTHERS SHOPPING CENTER
  • Embargoed: 28th March 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA1GSE2JIXFSC40XC7U0D7RT7ZF
  • Story Text: With the arrival of the Syrian uprising's fourth anniversary, Syrians in the U.S. are struggling to make sense of the violence that has engulfed their country, killing an estimated 200,000 people.
    In the immigrant community of Paterson, New Jersey, where Syrian restaurants and businesses line a long stretch of Main Street, Syrians say they feel powerless.
    "It's just been nightmare after nightmare after nightmare," says Abdul Nouri, a 49-year-old from Damascus who has been in the U.S. for 27 years.
    "When the revolution started, it was our only hope and it turned out to be totally different than what we hoped for. No one ever expected or dreamed of what's going on right now in Syria could happen," he adds.
    What started as peaceful anti-government protests in major cities like Aleppo and Daraa, morphed into a violent civil war that has attracted tens of thousands of foreign fighters who have joined Islamic State and other jihadist groups in the country.
    The conflict has displaced millions, with more than 3.7 million Syrians registered with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
    Since January 2011, the State Department says the U.S. has admitted 570 Syrian refugees, all of whom were referred by the UNHCR. As of August 2014, the U.S. had received 2,500 referrals.
    Ghussoon Alzouabi came to Paterson from Elmah in the southwestern Daraa province. She arrived shortly after her brother, Mahmoud, who came to the U.S. in December 2012.
    She says while she is safe in the U.S., she is still suffering.
    "Our lives have really changed because it will never go back to the way it was. We lived through so much pain. Until this day living in the U.S., when I hear fireworks for any special occasion, immediately the whole family jumps as if there is shelling. Until now. We've been here two years now," Alzouabi says.
    And while Syrians agree that the destruction has been devastating, talk of a political solution remains deeply divisive.
    Owners from several Syrian stores on Main Street declined to be interviewed on camera or permit interviews on the property, citing a potential impact on their business.
    Other neighboring stores, however, advertised an upcoming anniversary protest in Washington, D.C.
    Mahmoud Alzouabi, a 43-year-old who works as a custodian at the Islamic Center of Passaic County, brought his wife and eight children to Paterson.
    Alzouabi had applied for a visa in 1996, but by the time he was approved in 2000, he had started his family and did not want to leave.
    But as the uprising went from protests to combat, Mahmoud and his family had no choice.
    "The shelling began to intensify, to the degree that at night, when I was at home with my children, and shelling would start to fall on the city from every direction, we would run from one room to another based on the direction and the sound of where the shelling was coming from," he says.
    While he had family already in the U.S., the move remained daunting, especially for his children, who have had to adapt to a new education system in another language.
    With social media showing the never-ending chaos of barrel bombs and raids, the fighting has stayed with the family. The escalation in fighting has given daughter Noha Alzouabi, 16, the feeling that she might not ever return.
    "I feel scared and sad because I am homesick," she says. "I feel that there is something in my life that is still missing or incomplete."
    The feeling is the same for her father, who says he would return if a peaceful solution were near, but believes that's unrealistic.
    In the meantime the only thing he can do is continue living and raising his family while missing his home.
    "The thing I miss the most about Syria? Is everything in Syria. Everything in the country, the people, the relatives, the old homes, the plains, the good relations I have with my relatives and my friends. I have lost everything in Syria," he says.
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