Sofyan Aswad: Sofyan Aswad: “They're prepared to welcome 'smart' refugees“
”We Syrians know just how civilians in Ukraine are feeling now.”Sofyan Aswad
When the Russian war against Ukraine broke out on 24th February it made me remember the start of the war in Syria, those hard, bitter days. We Syrians know just how civilians in Ukraine are feeling now. Nobody likes war. We left our country because there were only two alternatives, either we fight against our countrymen or else they will kill us.
It is true that the war in Ukraine is not the same as the war in Syria. But the pain is the same.
I speak every day to my friend Ahmed , who is studying dentistry at Poltava State Medical University. Ahmed left Syria in 2015 to begin his studies there. His mother is Ukrainian, his father Syrian. He grew up in Syria and went back to Ukraine when the Syrian war broke out.
”I spoke to him on the phone, and I could hear he was crying.”Sofyan Aswad
”I've always tried to make a good future for myself in this beautiful country, and planned for my future, a future in Ukraine.... in a Ukraine without Russia”Ahmed, student i Poltava
Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine my friend has tried to explain (find a reason for?) the tragedy that is evolving there. It is a war in which full military capacity is being deployed.
I spoke to him on the phone, and I could hear he was crying. He talked about how everyone there is suffering. He said all the countries in the world had deserted them, everyone had abandoned the people of Ukraine.
– The country where I was born, where I spent my childhood, where I started school, is witnessing a cruel, unjustified, cunning war which is being fought by the Russian forces, he says.
– My heart is bleeding. Today's war has cut me off from my friends.And missiles are flying over the heads of neighbours and fellow-students. ”I've always tried to make a good future for myself in this beautiful country, and planned for my future, a future in Ukraine.... in a Ukraine without Russia”.
As the massive Russian attack increases in Ukraine. and also the risk of a humanitarian catastrophe, more memories from the beginning of the Syrian war flood back.
As a people - who long for freedom, security and stability - both Syria and Ukraine have been subjected to many wars over the past centuries. Our countries have been the scene of events and confrontations in which we have been innocent bystanders.
”We hid from Serbian and Bulgarian border control police to avoid being arrested.”Sofyan Aswad
Two days after the outbreak of war in Syria thousands of Syrians began to flee to neighbouring countries and to the EU. On the way to the European Union, refugees passed through countries in Eastern Europe.
Unfortunately they were not made welcome there, not even to pass through and continue their journey. I was one of them.We hid from Serbian and Bulgarian border control police to avoid being arrested.
Now many politicians from these same countries declare that they are willing to receive 'smart' refugees, as the Bulgarian prime minister Kiril Petkov put it.
That is sympathy with the taste of racism.
