A SYRIAN REFUGEE’S TEARS OF JOY
Tears of joy as refugees separated after fleeing war get a fresh start in Canada
Hagop Karageozian and his daughter were reunited Friday in Toronto, six months after they were separated in Lebanon.
Hagop Karageozian rarely cries, but when he hugged his daughter outside the Armenian Community Centre of Toronto on Friday, the tears flowed freely.
It had been six months since the pair had separated in Lebanon, where they had fled from Syria — a country under the siege of bombs.
“I hadn’t seen him in so long. He was missing me very much,” said Maria Karageozian, Hagop’s daughter, who arrived in Canada with her husband and three children months earlier. “I was happy and (feeling) like a little girl. He cried. He hasn’t really cried like that before.”
Back in Syria, Maria said the family had lived under frightening conditions. Bombs would regularly explode near their home and there was often no electricity or water.
“It was horrible. The kids were going to school in the war,” she told the Star. “I don’t want to talk about that very much because it is a very sad story.”
Conditions got so bad that the family fled their home with only a small bag of clothing, leaving behind their house, car and restaurant. Their eatery in Aleppo was the talk of the town, said Maria, especially because of her dad’s famous burgers and fried chicken.
When the family hastily migrated to Lebanon, Hagop stopped working.
Then, Maria got word that her family had finally been granted entry to Canada as refugees. She was forced to say goodbye to her parents and hope that they would soon follow.
Last week, her phone rang and she and her husband, a mechanic, heard that her wishes had come true.
“They said, ‘We are coming,’ ” she said of the heartfelt call from her parents. “We were surprised. Of course I started crying. I couldn’t believe it.”
Her sons, 5 and 11, along with their 3-year-old sister, were ecstatic to be reunited with their grandparents, who would share their home. After their arrival, they watched television and shared a meal together, happy to be in each other’s company once again.
Earlier in the day, Hagop and his wife had piled off a packed Greyhound bus in North York with other refugees, many gripping Canadian flags. Others had eyes welling with tears. Some attended a mass at the local Armenian church, after spending the night at the Travelodge Hotel near the airport.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne had been on hand to greet them as they stepped off a Royal Canadian Air Force plane just before midnight on Thursday. The Armenian Community Centre of Toronto, a government-sanctioned sponsorship agency, is responsible for co-sponsoring about 2,500 Armenian Syrians who fled the country amidst violence over the past two years.
Some 1,300 have already been approved, and about 300 have been welcomed this year.
When more refugees arrive in Montreal Saturday morning, Hagop, who was resting when Maria spoke to the Star, will have awoken to the start of a new day and a new life.
“Everything will be good,” said Maria. “Everything will be perfect.”