“I began to remember everything in Syria”
The sight of Russian planes dropping bombs on civilians brought back painful memories for Mahmoud, a Syrian who fled his country in 2015 when it was also being attacked on Vladimir Putin’s orders. During a two-week journey, he crossed the sea between Turkey and Greece on an overcrowded dinghy with 60 people on board, trying to “calm people down” as panic set in when the boat’s engine cut out during the crossing. “It is a really dangerous trip… nobody should do it,” Mahmoud said. Surviving that, he continued by bus and foot across the continent until he arrived in the Gare area of Luxembourg’s capital, where he entered the local police station and sought asylum. ‘Moudy’, as he is also known, initially worked as a pharmacist – his job prior to leaving Syria – before opening ‘ Syriously’, a pop-up Syrian restaurant in Hollerich in 2017. That site has since closed, but the restaurant continues to thrive at its new home in Bonnevoie. Employing a team of refugees, Mahmoud has found his vocation. “I like to cook, I like to work with refugees,” he said. “When this ( Ukraine war) started, I began to remember everything in Syria,” said Mahmoud, who has never returned to his home country. He describes the gut-wrenching emotion of fleeing as “like having something cut out of your body”. “You are leaving behind your culture, your language, your home,” he said. But while that pain remains, Moudy now feels at home in Luxembourg. “It is a multi-cultural country which welcomes people. It is like a small world here. I am lucky to be in Luxembourg,” he said.