Worrisome Aleppo Armenians

Manuel Keshishian

Translated and abridged by Vahe H. Apelian

Born and raised in Aleppo, Manuel Keshishian is a playwright, stage director, and long-standing teacher.

Manuel Keshishian with the Aleppo youth

-       “When are you both getting married?” I asked a young man I know.

-       “God only knows.”  Answered the boy.

-       “True, God knows, but what are you planning?” I continued asking.

What plans? What can he plan? I know his fiancée. She is a recent graduate with dying dreams.

The boy has a good job. He works and earns well. He lives with his parents.

-       “How are you doing?” I asked a newly married young man.

-       “Don’t you know?” He answered.

A newlywed young man who married the love of his life should be happy and there should be no reason to ask.

However.

Before the conflict, the monetary exchange rate was 48 to 50 Syrian pounds to a U.S. dollar.

Today one U.S. dollar is equivalent to 460 Syrian pounds.

The salary of a young teacher before the conflict was between 20 to 25 thousand Syrian pounds (500 U.S. dollar). Today the adjusted salary with additional bonuses is between 40 to 50 thousand Syrian pounds (80-110 U.S. dollar.) 

Those who work for companies that deal with banks receive a salary between 60-70 thousand Syrian pounds.  Those who work for the United Nations receive even a larger salary. But the number of such persons is limited. The least paid are the teachers. Artisans and craftsmen likely earn similarly but those who own their business earn well. Owning a shop is a dream these days.

How are the young to get married to have families of their own? How are they going to support their families?

That is why asking a young person how is he doing, one receives a dismissive answer.

The prices of the houses nowadays are 50% of what they were. However, the salaries have dropped to one-fifth of what they were. Before the conflict banks extended a long-term favorable mortgage to those who wanted to own a house. Before the conflict, there were Armenian organizations that facilitated Armenian families own house by loaning them interest-free and long-term payment options. Before the conflict professional and trade associations erected buildings and sold them to their members for the cost. Before the conflict Armenian organizations built houses and rented them affordably to Armenian families in need.

In Syria, almost everyone owned a house. Many owned a few houses. They lived in one and had the other ready for their children. Many owned houses in the villages and many villagers owned houses in the cities. Would you believe that in Syria there were between 400 to 500 thousand houses that were not occupied year around?

Nowadays none of them exists.

Nowadays there are high prices, high prices, and high prices. Everything costs ten times what it cost before the conflict.

I know three married couples who work in the same office. Their spouses work as well. These three families live in vacant houses left behind by those who have left the country. They are in constant fear that the owners of the houses might one day call them and let them know that they put their houses for sale forcing them to vacate the houses and face inordinate high rents they can ill afford to house their families.

These days in Aleppo a family needs at least 150 thousand Syrian pounds per month to have a decent living while most earn no more than 50 to 60 thousand pounds per month.

Most families get by through with assistance. Incidentally, most of the benevolent organizations that assist them are not Armenian although we should note that the Armenian General Benevolent Association assists 1200 families. We cannot afford not to note that some of the families that receive assistance do not really need it.

We get used to it, in fact, we got used to being in need for subsidy. Some of us are on the verge of losing our self-worth.

For how long and until what time, are we going to let our youth in such predicament?

We say. We herald loudly from the stage, and without exception during every occasion and event, we repeat that we will keep our community going and that we will rebuild.

What do we do to get the community going? What can we do?

The stark reality is that we do not believe in the possibility of overcoming the odds against us. Saying that “we will rebuild” is a sort of a social obligation, a duty. We have not collectively come to the decision to keep and rebuild the community.  We simply react to the circumstances; otherwise, we should have long planned to face the present. At the very least we should plan for the future from today and on. Who are our future, if not our present day youth?

What do we do, or what can we do for our youth?

We should have thought beforehand setting up an endowment fund the interest of which we would devote to our collective needs. We should have done it before the conflict, but we did not do it. We should have done at the start of the conflict, but we did not do it.  Many were articulating then to devote the 5% of all assistance received towards an endowment fund. But there seemed to be no one in the leadership to heed to the call.

Our youth are living in a precarious situation. This is not an unexpected sate. Extraordinary states call for extraordinary steps to be taken.

All of us realize individually that we have a responsibility. Each and every one of us is to set some money aside for our youth. Even those who receive assistance should set aside 5% of their assistance towards an endowment fund we need.

Let us not forfeit our individual responsibly if we do not want our youth facing an uncertain future  and if we want to preserve our community.

I repeat, extraordinary times demand extraordinary solutions. I pray that I do not invite the animosity of our organizations and establishment when I ask:

-       “To whom belong our communal real estates, if not for the people?” 

These real estates have been bought and built by the community as a whole during the past 100 years. Why can’t we devote part of these real estates for the benefit of our youth, if we want to preserve our community?

Why can’t we start implementing our much-said call for repatriation?

Why can’t we transfer the income from the sale of some of these real estates to Armenia and have housing built for our youth without interest and with a long-term payment option? I am sure that the authorities in Armenia will procure land for the Aleppo Armenian youth who would like to move there.

-       “You talk idly.” Some will say.

I will have no response other than repeating.

“Extraordinary situations call for extraordinary measures.”

Aleppo, October 28, 2018