This is the 1st part of the continuous story written by Hagop
by Hagop Barouyr Gojigian
A famous German novelist recently got hold of a voice recorder. Now the value of this tool was not in its price but in its content. The novelist had a strong passion in writing a novel about the war in Syria, or about the living conditions of a family living during the war. This device carried the voice of a young Syrian, who had narrated about his life, his pains, his adventures, his happy moments…
The novelist had listened to the recording several times, but he had difficulty in presenting the story, so he decides to spend his Summer vacation listening to the voice recorder again and try to come up with a way to turn this unknown young man’s story into a novel. His vacation time arrives, and he goes to his father’s mountain house that was located just below the mountain. There was no one at the house, since only he used it, due to the difficulty of reaching the house and the locals had left the area for some time now. However, this was the best condition for the novelist to relax and concentrate on his work. He doesn’t want to waste time, he places his bag on the floor, pours rose wine and goes behind his desk. He had nearly learnt by heart the story of the young man, but decides to listen to the voice recorder again and the baritone voice of the young man is heard through the speaker…
"… am I Syrian or Lebanese? I’ve been living in Lebanon for several years, I’ve grown up here, but I’m Syrian. Every six months I have to renew my residency permit at the Lebanese Security office, and every year I have to go out of the Lebanese border. Now, I speak the Lebanese dialect and not the Syrian dialect, that’s why whenever I go to Syria and meet my Arab friends they tell me, “you’ve become Lebanese”, but my Lebanese Arab friends consider me as a Syrian citizen.
There are many who are in this dilemma, one of whom was Vartan. Many are living in the same conditions because there are no legal means to acquire the Lebanese citizenship."
