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WHEN YOU CAN'T GO HOME: MY LAST VISIT TO SYRIA BEFORE ISIS
Yahoo! Travel
March 12 2015
Greg Keraghosian, Associate Travel Editor
When I think of Syria, of the place where I was baptized, where
my parents were born, where my grandparents escaped to during the
Armenian genocide, where I'll probably never visit again, I think of
The Great Gatsby: "Can't repeat the past? Why of course you can!"î~B~@
Gatsby was proved wrong about that, and I'm not about to try waving
his flag. My mother and I spent three weeks visiting family in Syria
in May 2008, and I couldn't possibly replicate that experience now --
not when the historical sites I photographed are damaged by war or
too dangerous to approach, not when my family has once again had to
flee their country in a hail of death, not when my mother has since
developed dementia that prevents her from travel, and the list goes on.
Then again, isn't the point of travel to absorb everything as if you'll
never see it again? Because you just might not? If each trip is a
trophy, this one goes on my top shelf -- out of reach, irreplaceable,
and beautiful to look at. I'm lucky I got to see that country when
I did, because precious pages of history and a part of my identity
have since been torn to shreds there in the civil war that erupted in
2011 and hasn't settled down yet. All six of Syria's World Heritage
Sites have been damaged or destroyed, and once-popular destinations
are off limits to tourists now.
View photos at
https://www.yahoo.com/travel/throwback-thursday-visiting-syria-before-the-war-113412677122.html
Yahoo! Travel
March 12 2015
Greg Keraghosian, Associate Travel Editor
When I think of Syria, of the place where I was baptized, where
my parents were born, where my grandparents escaped to during the
Armenian genocide, where I'll probably never visit again, I think of
The Great Gatsby: "Can't repeat the past? Why of course you can!"î~B~@
Gatsby was proved wrong about that, and I'm not about to try waving
his flag. My mother and I spent three weeks visiting family in Syria
in May 2008, and I couldn't possibly replicate that experience now --
not when the historical sites I photographed are damaged by war or
too dangerous to approach, not when my family has once again had to
flee their country in a hail of death, not when my mother has since
developed dementia that prevents her from travel, and the list goes on.
Then again, isn't the point of travel to absorb everything as if you'll
never see it again? Because you just might not? If each trip is a
trophy, this one goes on my top shelf -- out of reach, irreplaceable,
and beautiful to look at. I'm lucky I got to see that country when
I did, because precious pages of history and a part of my identity
have since been torn to shreds there in the civil war that erupted in
2011 and hasn't settled down yet. All six of Syria's World Heritage
Sites have been damaged or destroyed, and once-popular destinations
are off limits to tourists now.
View photos at
https://www.yahoo.com/travel/throwback-thursday-visiting-syria-before-the-war-113412677122.html