Life Experiences In a Different Territory

Haroutioun is a man with experience, someone who has been through a lot in his life. A part of who he is now comes from who he used to be when he lived in the small town of ‘Ayn al-‘Arab. Today Haroutioun spends his days in front of the television; recording his favorite shows on the Arabic channels and listening to his favorite singer, Ibrahim Tatlises. Ever since he can remember he has been interested in singing and listening to music. But before becoming a singer and living his dream, he had to deal with many hardships and obstacles. Haroutioun has lost many loved ones and even with the burden of that pain he is still a happy, healthy, and energetic man, but where he is now was not reached so easily. Living in a small town with people who would not allow you to forget about all the deaths you’ve encountered, makes moving on a challenge. He sat down while I prepared the camera for recording and in a proud, self-confident voice, stated that his life story was such an interesting one, movies and books could be produced about it. I smiled and said one day but for now an interview is all he would get.

My name is Haroutioun Bartanian, I grew up in ‘Ayn al-‘Arab, Syria and Arapoonar it is the same name of the town. ‘Ayn al-‘Arab had a bridge in the middle of it so they called one side, this side of the water, and the other side was called, that side of the water. Both sides had Armenians in it but at the same time there were Kurdish people between us. And the number of Arabs was little but now it has become a town of Arabs. From what I remember it was a rural area; a lot of farming and the towns were filled with Kurdish people who were “ashayer.” Meaning they slept under shacks and had animals like horses. On our yard, in our home, we had a cow and we would raise the cow and we would drink that cow’s milk. Some of the religions in the town were Armenian Catholics, Armenian orthodox, and small groups of armies. There was sometimes the problem of being looked down upon if you weren’t in a specific religion because people wanted others to join their religion so there was some jealousy. On holidays there was a morning sermon and every Sunday there was regular church gatherings. Holidays such as birthdays and Easter were when everyone went to each other’s houses and all the relatives would visit each other.

I was eight years old and had a great voice and ever since I was five years old I would learn songs from my grandmother and sing them. In the backyard we had a fig tree. I would climb that tree and sing on it, the neighbor ladies would listen to me and then they would come to my mom’s house and say, “Mari let your son sing for us.” They would also pay me to sing and I would put a tin can on my head that would cover my eyes and I would sing with the broom in my hands, pretending I was playing the oud (a Turkish Instrument). Also on top of all these things I would do; twenty five year old Krikor Istambulian was someone who went to Shargani church every Sunday, he heard I had a great voice at the age of eight and he would come get me to go to church. My mother would ask him “where are you taking this kid, what does he do at the church?” He would reply “this kid’s voice is enough for the church” and that I have a voice that brings sweetness to the church. And with that I would go to the church every Sunday. There was no homeless in ‘Ayn al-‘Arab, but there was only one doctor in the town. He would come once a month from Aleppo to the town. There was no pharmacy, the doctor would come and if he had medicine he would give it to the sick people. My brother was eleven years old and because there was no doctor around he passed away. He was my twin and it was all because we had no doctor! There was no one poor. Everyone owned his own house and in the house they would make their own bread.

Every year everybody would put wheat in a big tray and then they would cook that and make grain with that for the meat. Also in every home they would kill a cow, sheep, or goat and they would use that meat to store food for the winter incase food was scarce. We were normal townspeople and no one was really poor. ‘Ayn al-‘Arab of course had a government. My father, in the town, was a businessman; he would sell cloths so he had two horses. One he would ride and the other would carry his supplies. One day the police called the Gendarmerie stopped him and told him there was too much weight on the horses. He was sentenced to fifteen days in prison and while he was in prison he got very sick and died from the cold, I was only five years old and that was how I lost my father. The women in the town were respected and didn’t really work, but if they wanted to work they could of course. My mother specifically was the janitor of my school and guys worked in shops, dentistry, and were businessmen. Since my family was Christian Armenian our mothers would make great food like shish kebab, lamajoon, and a variety of salads along with many different meat dishes. My mother and the women of the house would prepare the food of course. We didn’t have anything! There was no radio and there was no television. The people of the town would go to each others homes at night, the older people would tell stories and the kids would look into the story tellers’ mouth to see what that person’s story was about. And with that the days would pass.

There were no newspapers but there were newspapers that came from Aleppo. We would get news from that but it was mainly the people of the government who got the news. Life was cheap where I lived. Whatever we worked for was how much we needed; there were no extra costs. If they bought shoes, it would last them a year. If they bought cloths again it would last them for a year. There was no television, there was no electricity, there was nothing and everybody owned there own houses no one rented and everyone had dirt built homes. A social event everyone was invited to was the cinema. Once a month they would bring a big machine called the cinema they would set it up in the street were there was a lot of open space. The townspeople would gather to watch the movie at the cinema and that was entertainment for us. America is like heaven, over there is just a town of no knowledge and if you live there you’re not going to matter. We lived in sand, there was dust everywhere and when it rained the dust would be everywhere you looked. We had no electricity and no water. Some people didn’t even have candles so they would use oil and a string as a candle. If I had the opportunity, I would only go back to ‘Ayn al-‘Arab for one day, only because it was where I was born and it was where my father died.

        Interviewed by Hripsime Kaichian