Interview by Sami Jinich ’25 and Aline Malek ’25.
Tarek Zakanda works as an Arabic tutor for NaTakallam language service in Istanbul, Turkey. In addition to teaching Arabic and spreading his Syrian culture, Tarek works as a freelance graphic designer. His artwork is heartfelt and reflective of his displacement as a Syrian refugee and issues he sees in the Middle East today, addressing climate change through a recycling initiative.
Tarek fled his home in Damascus in 2016 to Beirut, Lebanon where he struggled to find a stable job and get proper documentation. Eventually, he was able to attend Lebanese University and study English Literature, avoiding enlistment in the mandatory Syrian military services. After facing seemingly endless documentation issues and experiencing the horrific Beirut explosion in 2020, Tarek was forced to move to Turkey. Despite facing a plethora of obstacles including racism in Lebanon and the brutality of the military services, Tarek remains to be an optimistic and passionate person. Tarek works to support his family that remains in the poverty-stricken country of Syria today. And while Turkey has been a stable place for Tarek to improve his financial stability and overall safety, he knows that it will not be his home forever; He wants to continue his journey and improve every day.
Tarek encourages people to learn more about the world around them and what people are going through. Although he has remained positive throughout his journey, Tarek stresses the importance of recognizing that refugees don’t choose to leave their homes, they are forced to leave.
Listen to his story, below:
Transcript:
First, I was living in Syria for twenty three years and in 2016, I moved to Lebanon. Definitely because of the war, the military services. It’s mandatory in Syria and so there is a war so I didn’t want to die, so I just moved to Lebanon. I don’t want to get involved in a war that I don’t believe in. If you go to military services, you will die and you’re just fighting for the regime and they send you somehow to a very far city just to keep you away from your family.
And also, we heard like about how food was really bad, and how the situation like in the in the training camps was and like but then when I became at 18 and the war started, I was definitely trying to get into one of the university which allowed me to just postpone it. And yes, we have to postpone it every year so we have to go to this military center to tell them that I am studying. And there, you can see how bad the situation is because like, the least offensive word, they tell you that like you are animals and donkeys and just like you don’t understand anything, “please stay in line” like that and they just like they make you wait for hours and hours and hours just to get somehow a signature. So you see that and like, who the hell would like to go to a military like that, and just like be treated as an animal? And definitely, I don’t understand it. So I was just like going every year and this was the worst like day ever in the year every year. So just going there just to postpone somehow the military services thing for year for another year, was just my worst nightmare. And that I wished somehow I die in just like the day before I go I was like I really don’t want to meet these people. Because like, you just feel that you are in the worst place on earth and you just want to die. But yes I had to go around five times or something like that and it was definitely the worst five days of my life.
I lost a few friends in the army just because they were killed there. And definitely when you hear people are dying and definitely you see the world around you. And I am from the people who didn’t support the regime so I will definitely not defend the dictator and I will definitely not kill my peers. There’s like other Syrians, that would be just killing people who are asking for freedom of speech, and just like asking for freedom. I’m with them. If I’m fighting, then I’m fighting with them, not against them. But anyway, the whole war thing was just, not my game. Please, no, I prefer to make some art.
And yes, so when you see that, like, it’s mandatory military services so that’s why I call it nightmare. So because I still dream about it. And until now, and that I somehow have visions or have like, dreams that I’m in Syria, and shit, I don’t have the papers. And I, they will take me at some point to military services. So it’s a nightmare. And like I’m not finished with the nightmares.
Yes, I came out of a really dark place and I saw the worst in the world so what else could happen to me? So, haha let me learn as much as I can before I die, and let me do some good stuff before I die. And I’m just learning this now trying to meet as many people as I can from all over the world and ha try to hear their stories and hear more about other countries and try to somehow uh tell them about my country and how is the situation there. And also teaching my language is something I like, and teaching Arabic is something beautiful. And, I’m in a good place I would say, and hopefully I can go up and up more just like uh.. so yeah haha.
