Fashion Statement: From war at home in Aleppo to compromise and `calm’
in Yerevan
Features | 25.01.13 | 13:22
NAZIK ARMENAKYAN
ArmeniaNow
By Gayane Lazarian
ArmeniaNow reporter
Women’s hair slide, curl and dance in his hands. With artistic
movements of a skillful craftsman he styles another customer’s hair.
Watching him work you realize that hairstyling is an art, and a real
master has to know all the secret techniques to make his creation
perfect.
`Indeed it takes a lot of creativity and then you get your jewel,’
says 57-year-old hairdresser Alex (short from Alexan) Habeshian, who
moved to Yerevan from Aleppo last December when life in his war-torn
country became intolerable. `A hairdresser must have a big heart and
patience to be able to deal with women’s whims. For as long as I
remember myself I have been surrounded by women, I love my
profession…’
Alex works at one of Yerevan’s numerous beauty parlors. His
Yerevan-based friends had helped to find the job before he actually
arrived. In Aleppo he used to live in New Syria district.
`I never could have predicted things would take such a turn in Syria,
especially in Aleppo. We resisted for months, but then saw that things
were getting really bad, my daughters couldn’t go to school, I had
closed my beauty salon, the fear was just too big…we were witnessing
how the city was being destroyed. And Aleppo was a very nice city,
Arabs and Christians co-existed quite nicely in that city. But
politics messed it all up,’ says Alex.
In Aleppo he had his own hairdressing salon with a staff of 14. He was
well known for his skills and talent and enjoyed great demand, also
among Arabs.
`And that’s an important thing: Arabs trusted Armenians, meaning that
an Armenian man hairdresser could give a haircut to an Arab woman or
style her hair. In Yerevan, too, many of my Aleppo-Armenian customers
have found me. Just like me, they too have been driven away by the war
and have found refuge here,’ says Alex. `Back in Aleppo [after the
conflict started] I would open the salon once in a while if I had a
customer, but our services had gotten more expensive. There was no
electricity and we were using petrol [for power generator], hence just
a haircut cost $20′.
The Aleppo-Armenian master doesn’t feel inferior because of becoming
an employee when he used to run his own business. Outwards he seems
very calm and peaceful, but confesses that inside he feels anxiety and
is trying hard to be strong.
He stands out among his local colleagues with his movements and
speaking manner. The salon’s other employees say Alex has different
training, he is a representative of a different school [of
hairdressing], so his work differs from theirs’.
`He has skillful hands, a magic touch,’ they say.
Alex explains that there certainly is a distinction between beauty
parlors of Aleppo and Yerevan.
`Here every chair [each hairdresser has his/her designated chair] has
its own customers. There, if someone came to `Alex’ salon it didn’t
matter which master would work with them. A master is a master and
knows all the newest fashionable haircuts. Here local customers’
desires are prioritized. I have one issue – sometimes they speak
Armenian and use some Russian words, which I do not understand. But my
friends here help me out, explain what this or that word means,’ he
says.
With 42 years of professional experience, Alex says twice a year he
attends fashion clubs of European countries for training to get to
know all the newest trends. Last time he went was before the war. In
Aleppo conditions were good, he was well-off, but the war has ruined
all the plans.
`I wanted to lead a quiet, prosperous life…my sister, brother, mother
are there now. My house door is shut, my salon is closed, my cars
stand abandoned. Here we live off of the savings we have brought with
us. I am happy to have this job, some don’t have even this, but my
earnings hardly cover some of the most basic expenses,’ he says.
Alex has three daughters Meghry, Rachel, and Alexandria. His wife’s
name is Talin. Meghry is a student at the American University of
Armenia (AUA), Rachel is in high school, and Alexandria attends
kindergarten. The family has started a new challenging period in their
life, this time in their motherland.
Alex says he had never thought about leaving Syria.
`My business was good there, so I never thought about coming here. We
had everything we wanted. What cares would someone who traveled twice
a year have? But we should have thought deeper, looked farther, should
have left the country earlier. If Assad’s administration is defeated,
Lebanon, Iraq, Iran will come tumbling down right after it,’ says Alex
with frustration. `I am thinking of going there, but not staying, no.
It’s a matter of time, things will eventually get settled in Syria,
but we still have to think about the future. After Assad’s defeat we’d
have a lot to fear, because many among the opposition are hostile to
Christian nations…’
Alex is renting an apartment in downtown Yerevan for $400 per month.
He doesn’t complain and says, as opposed to many others, he has come
and immediately started working.
`I know many have returned to Syria unhappy with the conditions here.
It all depends on a person, though. Of course, if I didn’t work I
would eventually run out of my savings. I, too, could be going to
cafes and restaurants every week, fritter away my money at casinos and
party, and then what? It doesn’t work for me. I have heard that some
came, spent $20,000, and left. But, what did they do? It’s not a joke
to spend $20,000,’ he says.
He shows the photos he has in his cell phone of his apartment in
Aleppo and the one in Yerevan.
`My mother, brother and his wife, my sister – they are all in Aleppo.
And these photos are taken here, in our current apartment. It’s the
first New Year that we celebrated outside our home. We have to endure,
wait and see what happens, go back, sell it all and come back here,
what else can we do? At this moment selling anything would be very
hard,’ he says.
Alex’s heart is stormed; thoughts collide like waves in troubled
waters, the future is fuzzy, veiled by dark clouds of indefiniteness.
But just like many other Syrian-Armenian families, the Habeshians,
too, live with what seems endless anticipation and try to be
optimistic.
`Maybe I will open my own beauty salon here, I just might, who knows?
Everything is possible, I just don’t know for sure yet. We might move
to Yerevan for good, why not? It’s a calm, clean country, we are among
Armenians, Yerevan is a sweet city, and, most importantly, we can feel
at peace and safe here,’ he concludes.
http://armenianow.com/society/features/42859/aleppo_war_syria_assad_syrian_armenians