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It’s been a year since Syrian-Armenian Levon Keoshkeryan has been living in Yerevan. He was a silversmith in Aleppo but had to leave everything because of the war. Now in Armenia, Keoshkeryan continues his craft.

“Today I sell those items at Vernissage Market. The small objects are better sold than the big ones,” the Syrian-Armenian told Panorama.am.

According to him, when the war had just begun, they never imagined it would last this long.
“We were thinking it would end in six months, then a year. Yet it’s already the fifth year. The situation keeps getting worse. We’ve seen terrible days. It was very dangerous. We realized that all this wouldn’t end soon,” Levon Keoshkeryan said.

Some of his friends and relatives sill live in Aleppo.

“I keep in touch with them. They say the situation gets worse and worse. I tell them to come live here but not everyone can pack up and leave. There are some issues like travel expenses, the rent they will have to pay. They cannot afford it,” he said.

According to Keoshkeryan, when the war is over, they will return to Syria, because that’s where they’ve left everything.

The Syrian-Armenian doesn’t think about moving to another country.

“I’ve been in many countries. We are more comfortable in our motherland. The only problem is finding a job. If you could earn your daily bread easily, there would be no place like Armenia,” he said.

It’s been five years since the war started in Syria. According to UN data, about 18 million people live in Syria. 7 million people have left the country. Before the war, 80 thousand Armenians were living in Syria. Most of them left Syria for Armenia, Lebanon, Jordan and other countries. 17-20 thousand Syrian-Armenians still live in Syria.