Kemaleddin Mustafa-Abu Hamza who has a grocery store lost many members of his family. When he could no more stand the living conditions in Syria, he came to Turkey.
Kemaleddin Mustafa-Abu Hamza: I come from Dana district of Idlib province in Syria. I am a father of 4 children. I am 43 years old. I have a grocery store. I have 3 brothers and 17 cousins. We are an extended family.
ORSAM: Could you tell us about your life before the civil war in Syria, what you went through during the civil war and the reasons why you came to Turkey?
Kemaleddin Mustafa-Abu Hamza: When the civil war broke out, my relatives and brothers joined Jaish al-Hur. Some of them fought in Idlib, while some of them fought in Aleppo against the Regular Army. Three people in our family were martyred. Wives and children of the martyrs were desolated. I started to support them. As the violence became more intense, our house and grocery store were destroyed. We could save some of our stuff, but most of them were buried in the wreckage. We could see those who joined Jaish al-Hur once every ten days. We got information from them about what was going on, and we learned the issues we could be helpful about. First of all, I sent the orphaned children to Turkey. Currently, they stay in the tent city in Kilis. On the other hand, we settled in somewhere near Tirmenin Village. When the Army completely seized the control of Idlib, my grocery store was plundered. When someone migrated, their house and stores were plundered by the Regular Army and those who still lived there. Nobody had pity on others. Some people robbed not to starve, and some others started a gang and took advantage of it.
Everywhere with lights on started to be bombed. When cluster bombs started to be dropped, people were stuck in a completely difficult situation. Some people were injured on their face and hands, while some other were hospitalized. There was no hospital, school, groceries left in the neighborhood. Electricity and water was constantly cut off. In addition, when winter was about to come, I decided that we could no more live there. I brought a family of one of my brothers along with me, and firstly we came to Atma Village of Idlib near the Turkish border. Then we crossed the border and took shelter in Turkey. While we lived in Syria in peace and abundance, we became poor and people were martyred and we had to migrate. Currently, we live in a rent squatter's house in Reyhanlı. I cannot hear anything from anyone in my family in Syria.
* This interview was made by Feyyat Özyazar in Reyhanlı district of Hatay, on 25 November 2012
