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Three of the six children of Omer and Khadija Hajj Abdo, the evening before their escape from Idlib
Photo: private
If you follow someone for a year and interview them over and over again, there is almost no other way than to think at some point that you have come close to this person in some way.
We exchange ideas, every couple of weeks, and I notice, for example, that some anecdotes recur almost every time I talk, so they seem important to my counterpart.
I then have something to tie in with the next call.
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We send each other photos via WhatsApp, pictures from Hamburg in exchange for photos from a tent in the north of Syria.
There comes a moment when we have to laugh at the same thing at the same time.
A year has passed since February 2020.
Since then I have been in contact with the Hajj Abdo family in Syria.
At that time, the Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad launched an offensive on the province of Idlib, he bombed almost a million Syrians from their homeland and made them displaced in their own country.
The Hajj Abdos also got into a car and fled when their village of Teqad near Aleppo came under fire.
The family ended up in the far north of Syria, in a refugee camp near Azaz.
Since then, she has been reporting on her new life in diary entries in SPIEGEL.
She lets us look into her everyday life as refugees.
Twelve months in which we talked regularly.
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Photo from September 2020: Omer and Khadija Hajj Abdo (left, with headscarf) with four of the six children
Photo:
Private
The device that enables us to connect, Omer's cell phone, is very rarely in the hands of its owner.
That's why it's not that easy to reach Omer.
Most of the time one of the children has the cell phone, they learn with it, school in corona times;
or they play games on it, watch videos.
Often the battery runs out.
The internet often fails in the camp.
When Omer, Khadija and I speak, we always have a translator to help us, including a Syrian who fled to Turkey a few years ago.
Often the translator calls the family first and later calls me on a separate call, depending on how easily Omer and Khadija are available that day.
“We are survivors.
We are fighters. "
Omer Abdulhamid Hajj Abdo, 43, Arabic teacher from Idlib Province
There are always difficult moments.
For example, when Omer told me that half of his house had been bombed and he didn't dare tell his children.
What else can you say?
"Syria deserves more than what the world has done for us so far," Omer said a year ago.
At that time, the family was just moving into the tent in the refugee camp, where they still sleep today.
Neither of us could have imagined that one year from now they would still have to live in this tent.
Omer knows that his diaries are read in a country that has often sent warning words in the direction of Bashar al-Assad, but which the warmonger and his allies do not really have to fear to this day.
In the current diary, Khadija and Omer Hajj Abdo speak alternately.
Thursday, February 11, 2021, Omer:
“There are pictures from our last dinner at home.
A year ago today.
We prayed together, then ate.
The next morning we went.
We didn't take anything with us.
We're in a big car
just got out of our village of Teqad.
In the days before that, my wife and the children had to crawl into the rocks on the outskirts, small caves that were safer than the houses.
Because Syrian troops were about to take our village.
They shot at our houses.
My feelings are mixed up when I look at the pictures from our homeland.
Life from back then seems far away to me.
But I miss the neighbors, the street, how everything smelled, every day.
A great sadness. "
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Because it is the first anniversary of the family's escape, Omer has looked at old pictures from home and, he says, "was overcome by" great sadness "
Photo: private
Friday, February 12, 2021, Khadija:
“How we fought back then to even get a car that would get us out of Idlib - it goes in my head like a movie.
At that time, thousands of families fled, all just wanted to leave.
After a year the wound tears open again, it hurts.
That wound will stay forever.
I will never forget the pain of losing my home in my life.
When there was a thunderstorm recently, our daughter Eilaf was so scared.
She thought the thunder were bombs and she hid under her covers.
Even the little ones haven't forgotten any of this.
The other day there was another bomb attack in Teqad.
When I hear this news, there is fear again: Have there been victims?
Have people died we know? "
"Everything has been said, written, so often that it makes you feel strange repeating it."
The SPIEGEL reporter Christoph Reuter wrote on the occasion of the Assad offensive on Idlib a year ago
Sunday, February 14th 2021, Omer:
“We planned to visit our village.
At least wanted to stop by.
With the kids, a day or two before the anniversary.
The little ones often ask when we're going back.
But then our former neighbors called.
'Don't come!' They said.
> It's too dangerous.
They're shooting again. 'You said that some people who have returned are now fleeing again.
I'm glad I didn't tell the children about the plans in advance.
Because we stayed in the refugee camp. "
Ten years of civil war in Syria.
Even before that, the terrible situation of the people in the country was not given enough attention by the international community.
The pandemic has completely obscured the urgency to finally create peace, to end the war.
Since February 16, 2021, Russia, Turkey and Iran have been negotiating the future of Syria again, each with their own interests.
The UN representative on Syria was "deeply disappointed" at the standstill in negotiations.
SPIEGEL correspondent Christoph Reuter wrote about the failure of the UN in his text "Before the eyes of the world" a year ago: "Everything has been said, written, so often that it makes you feel strange repeating it."
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Aerial view of a refugee camp near Azaz in northern Syria
Photo: Cerrah Deyri / Getty Images
Tuesday, February 16, 2021, Omer:
“We always wanted our children to be good at school.
That they are doing something useful in their future.
Maybe study.
That they have better lives.
That's how I imagined it even before the war, when I wasn't even a father.
We still have the same goals.
But we have to lower expectations of our children and of ourselves as parents.
We are now displaced persons, so-called DPs.
There is also Corona.
The homeschool thing affects us too.
Yes, my six children study in our tent most of the time.
We have exactly one cell phone on which they watch the tutorial videos.
And in the evening there is usually no light because the solar battery then gives up its ghost.
Then the kids can't read anything.
Nevertheless my daughters are among the best in their class, Fatima achieved 94 out of 100 points in the final test.
Like in the old school. "
Tuesday, February 16, 2021, Khadija:
“The teachers here at camp are different, not as good as at home.
Because of the pandemic, classes were canceled for a long time.
But I don't blame the teachers.
Their conditions are very different and most of them are displaced themselves.
You have other worries.
They too have to make sure that their children have enough to eat every day.
We often only have potatoes with a little spice and salt.
I used to cook chicken once or twice a week.
Since we've lived in camp - and since food prices have been so high because of the pandemic - we've only brought meat to the table once a month.
Our middle daughter Rama actually needs a special diet because she has a thyroid disease.
That is also the reason why it is growing so slowly.
But that is too expensive."
Wednesday, February 17, 2021, Omer:
“A year ago today we arrived at the camp in Azaz.
Until we finally had a tent, my goodness!
And it was very cold.
I know we made the right decision.
The most important thing in life is to accept your situation.
You have to get by.
There are so many who are worse off.
For example, a friend here in the camp, he comes from Deir ez-Zor, in eastern Syria.
When he fled, he was mistaken for an IS fighter en route and shot at.
Many families have been injured or even killed.
We haven't lost anyone.
We are all together.
I consider myself happy.
I found a job.
We are sure.
We are survivors.
Fighter.
We fight to ensure that our children have a life of peace.
That this war will come to an end after all. "
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