Two old Friends
The most amazing thing talking to an old friend from a past life. And listening to him as if we were never friends. I got to see a whole different side to him. So glad to see you again. — Subhi Moazzen
His Story:
I am an ambitious guy who has been always praised by my teachers and relatives. I was a senior high school student when I decided to be independent and responsible of myself as a young man. I established my first business before I went to university. It wasn’t that big but it could help me to afford my expenses and pocket money without asking any money from my family during that time. Even I could provide financial help for them sometimes!
I studied Architecture in the University of Aleppo. Architecture has made a great impact on me. I loved it because it is where you can learn things in and combined approaches between the function and beauty. A building value comes from being functional and beautiful at the same time. From this point, my personality started to emerge, the personality that tries to find itself between contradictions, between function and beauty, good and evil, hot and cold, localizing and globalizing, east and west, or left and right in everything. Though I don’t mean by that to be in the middle! Not at all, but rather to have a balance. Having a balance does not mean placing yourself in the middle.
With the beginning of the second year of the Syrian crises, I started to get involve in the social work as a volunteer, mainly in the educational field. Because I believe that Educating a person is like building a home. I believe that investing in humans is the biggest investment. I say, if you want to invest for 1 year, you plant rice. 10 years, you plant olives. 100 years, you invest in human being.
Knowing that I came to here recently made me experience, for the first time, different feelings. I really miss my family and fiancé back there in Aleppo. I see myself sitting with them every day.
I see myself as a Syrian guy who speaks Arabic fluently, an Architect with a strong mindset and good CV and professional background, English speaker. All these things made my identity different from a lot of people, not only in Turkey, in Syria as well! I see in this differences as a fortune, that develops great opportunities, that builds healthy relationships, and deepens a person’s perspective. I’m still not sure about whether I am going to be in Turkey in the future or not. But I know that wherever I am, in Turkey or outside, in Gaziantep or Istanbul, in Diyarbakır or Izmir, I will do my best to create a community where people can contribute and invest in their energy and talents to reach a state of confidence and productivity. Also I am fond of Urban Planning which I would like to enhance my knowledge about it, and Turkey is one of the countries that excel in this field. Gaziantep won a lot of prizes in urban planning.
Besides having the dreams like every young guy, I aim to keep good relationships with people I know and to leave a good impression on people I meet.
Two quotes of wisdoms I always recall when things become difficult with me.
“Every great story on the planet happened when someone decided not to give up, but kept going no matter what” form, Spryte Loriano.
And “Don’t love half lovers. Don’t entertain half friends. Don’t indulge in works of the half talented. Don’t live half a life and do not die a half death….” form Gibran Khalil Gibran.
My message to all Syrians in the world would be as follows. The integration in the new society that you are in does not mean to lose your current identity. There is no problem being Syrian-Turkish or Syrian-German. There is no problem either to be a Syrian-Turkish-German at the same time. You might have different experiences in different places in the world that made you who you are now.
For Turks, I would like to thank them for their favors and I appreciate their hospitality and kindness that I experienced personally, and I hope to be a good guest for you here.
