How Syrian refugees are rebuilding their lives in Turkey

In his new book, ‘A Handful of Dust: Syrian Refugees in Turkey’, photographer Nish Nalbandian gives us a glimpse into the lives of Syrians who have fled war in their home country and are now living in Turkey. In this excerpt, he opens the shutter to their new existence

by Nish Nalbandian

9 March 2014, Görentas, Turkey

Former Nusra Front judge Abu Hamid, 43, takes a moment of fun, joking that he should be riding a Harley Davidson.

Working as a judge and a religious teacher before the Syrian Revolution, he was conscripted to work for al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra as a judge when the group took over his hometown of Deir ez-Zor.

When he was ordered to rubber-stamp the executions of innocent people he was appalled and terrified. When he asked the local Nusra Emir why they had executed these people he was told to stop questioning his orders or they would kill his family. That day he piled his family in his car and fled for Turkey.

March 17, 2014, Gaziantep, Turke

Hannan Alkadar with three of her kids and grandkids in the courtyard of their borrowed home in Gaziantep, Turkey. The Alkadar family left Aleppo nine months earlier. They spent six months in the Bab al-Salameh camp just inside the Syrian border. They received almost no aid there. In January, a car bomb that damaged part of the camp convinced them to leave and enter Turkey, hoping that they would be safer. They left Aleppo with no money, no food, no land, completely empty-handed.

September 12, 2014, Gaziantep, Turkey

Ali Hanke is a traditional coppersmith from Aleppo. He has found business to be very good in Antep, and has been able to well provide for his family, and help other Syrians who have been forced to flee. Ali says, "Most Syrian situations are bad. There are no jobs. Thank God I have this career. Other people sit in a park or garden while I am at work with my family and I love it. I love going to work.”

September 14, 2015, Reyhanli, Turkey

Raed al-Masri, a teacher before the war, runs a clinic along the Turkish/Syrian border that provides prosthetic limbs for refugees injured in the war, like this boy.

September 14, 2015, Reyhanli, Turkey

Al-Masri and his staff are working with very little fuding to provide services to those in need. They started with simple techniques and now have evolved to modern modular techniques.

8 December 2015, Reyhanli, Turkey

In early December, boys play on bags of coal that literally are what Western children are threatened with getting for Christmas. They fled to the farming area of Hatay in southern Turkey after bombing and fighting escalated near their home in 2014. In 2015, the family was squatting in a small abandoned farm building with a leaky roof and no insulation.

14 December 2015, Gaziantep, Turkey

Many refugees do their best to continue their lives, and try to make the best of their circumstances. Many Syrian footballers defected and fled to Turkey. With the aid of a wealthy benefactor they formed a team in the hopes of representing Syria in international competitions. The team sadly disbanded when funding ran out.

28 June 2016, Gaziantep, Turkey

More than half a million people are thought to have died in the Syrian war since 2011 – and up to 50,000 men, women, and children have been detained or forcefully disappeared in regime prisons. Turkey provides an escape – a chance to start over. For some, this is much harder than others.

30 July, 2016, Gaziantep, Turkey

Syrian refugee Taher Hamada is an agricultural engineer from Aleppo who is struggling to find work in Turkey. He volunteers for a Civil Society NGO to keep busy and do some good for other Syrians. He got married while living under ISIS rule, so has no marriage certificate, and is not listed as his daughter’s father in Turkish documentation. He is lucky to have brothers living in the US, Germany, and Saudi Arabia who help him out when he cannot find work.

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Published: Friday 27th April 2018

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Almost 12 million Syrians – nearly half the country’s population – have been displaced from their homes by their country’s rapacious civil war. About three million of them have ended up in Turkey, an unprecedented number for a single country to take in and shelter. Western media has focused on Syrians fleeing (mostly through Turkey) to seek shelter in Europe, where they believe they will have a brighter future.

While the ‘migrant crisis’ was occupying the news cycle in 2015, I was working mostly in southern Turkey. I’d stopped going into Syria in 2014 owing to the increased risk associated with the rise of ISIS and the Syrian government’s massive barrel-bombing campaign. Several people I knew had been killed or kidnapped, and I came to believe the risk was too high. I started focusing instead on the story in front of me at the border: the lives of the Syrians who were now living in Turkey.

When all the news outlets turned to the streams of Syrians entering Europe, I stayed and continued working in southern Turkey. It was the less glamorous angle, but I’m not really a news photographer; I’m a documentary photographer. I didn’t want to run off and chase a new story without completing the one I was working on.

This is the story of the millions of Syrians who still live in Turkey. Some Syrians have adjusted well, settled in, and are in Turkey for the long haul. Many, if not most, though unhappy to have to be there, are very grateful to the Turks for letting them stay. Despite some grumbling, most of the people I’ve talked to realise that Turkey has done far more for them than anyone else, and has taken in more of them than any other country, under relatively lax conditions, as far as refugees go.

In Turkey, Syrians are not considered refugees. They are called ‘guests’. Once they register they are entitled to health care and ostensibly some food aid or relief.

My goal is to get you to see yourself in these pictures. These people lived lives in Syria not too different to your own

Approximately 250,000 (or about 11%) of Syrians in Turkey live in camps. The rest have ‘self-settled’ in both urban and rural areas. The degree to which they adapt to their new communities runs the gamut from full integration and the ability to obtain legal residency or even citizenship to squatting and being completely out of the system, taking whatever jobs they can get.

There is no single description of life for a Syrian refugee in Turkey. I have met some very poor people who are eking out subsistence living in the countryside, or squatting in abandoned buildings in cities. I’ve also met some wealthy Syrians who have moved their factories to Turkey, craftsmen who have shifted their practice and are doing well, and young people who have taken the opportunity to live in large cities such as Istanbul and blend in with an urban population, finding jobs and building social lives.

The common factor is that they all fled a brutal and relentless war that has literally destroyed their cities. Many are opponents of the regime of Bashar al-Assad, who seems poised to win military victory with the help of his Russian and Iranian allies. They can never go back, even if the fighting stops.

My personal opinion is that Syrians in general are resilient, and they are making the best of a shitty situation. Some are doing better than others. Some are in very grim situations. Trafficking and abuse of women, girls, and boys is rampant and terrible.

The goal of any documentary photography is to get the viewer to gain some insight into the lives of the people in the pictures. My specific goal is to try to get you to see yourself in these pictures. Because these people lived lives in Syria not too different from your own. Try to imagine what your life would be like if a sudden war or disaster had you fleeing your home to a different country with nothing but a suitcase and some documents.

A Handful of Dust: Syrian Refugees in Turkey by Nish Nalbandian is out now (Daylight Books)

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