The world killed each Syrian, and God will see them!
He gave up all the miraculous opportunities coming his way to support the sons and daughters of his country. A true hero who sacrificed his future for the sake of others. — Ferdi Ferhat Özsoy
His Story:
It was only 2012 when, I had to leave my country, Syria. My eldest child had heart problems, so we had to get him somewhere to be treated, and in the United States. We went there so my son could be treated, but we ended up staying there for two years. There, I worked with the UN in 2013 in logistics of a global feeding program which gave me a lot of humanitarian work experience. By the time my eldest son finished high school, we decided to move to Gaziantep, Turkey.
The reason I came here was to benefit the humanitarian NGOs with my experience. Throughout my stay here, I’ve joined and helped a lot of Syrian organizations. We had the chance to stay in the US as a refugee but I wanted to help my country, and I thought I could do more when I’m here, in Turkey, solving problems of Syrian Organizations.
As I’ve observed in my stay here, the Syrians in Turkey, today are the productive members of their communities; they are the ones who are benefiting the Turkish economy. I think the Turkish government should realize how beneficial Syrian NGOs are for their economy instead of scaring them with investigations which are discouraging a lot of them, pushing them too close.
Personally, I think education for children — especially our children, as Syrians — is a critical topic. I’ve had a terrible experience with education here in Turkey; I’ve heard one school’s administrator stating that “Syrians are despicable people.” I got furious about it that I sent a message to the Turkish Ministry of Education with full details and names about what happened, but I still didn’t get a response — I guess because it was in English. Due to our who we were, my son was prevented from getting into a national school just like that — imagine that! They should have special treatment for Syrian kids, yet they do nothing and simply ignore the oppression they face. In the US, they treated my little child had special care and knows English better than me, and he’s only 10. I strongly think that Syrians are quite ready to cooperate with the government to provide better education for the children.
As I am a Circassian, I wanted to be reconnected to my culture and heritage so my children could also get to know their origins and roots. Communicating with Circassians was quite hard, in my opinion, because of how hard it’s to find them. We once were offered to get a Russian citizenship because we were Circassians, but I rejected it to stay here and help more. To be honest, working with humanitarian organizations and seeing their lack of experience and sources made me realize something in myself and change the course of my life — I realized I was headed on the way to training and development.
A message to the world? I’d like to say that the whole international world killed each Syrian from both sides. They killed them! Because they are only sharing and that cannot stop the damn war. Every child is killed by them. And God will see this.