Memories of a different Syria
Long-standing Embrace friend, and volunteer, Jane (Lady) Green remembers what it was like living in Damascus in the early 1990s, when her husband Andrew (Lord) Green was Ambassador. Here she shares happy memories of a different time in Syria, as we grapple with the country's still unfolding tragedy.
One of my first impressions on arriving in Damascus in 1991 for a three-year stay was seeing churches scattered across the city among the mosques. Having lived in Saudi Arabia where Christian worship is forbidden, it was a joy to see Christians and Muslims living peacefully together in Syria. I remember being astonished by the number of Christian denominations represented in Syria with Roman, Greek, and Armenian Catholics and Greek and Armenian Orthodox believers. One of them lent their church for Anglican worship on certain Sundays led by a chaplain who visited from Jordan.
It was widely known and accepted by Syrians that in order to keep out of trouble with the authorities you did not get involved in politics. Many of them were running very successful businesses. In previous years, however, many Syrians had left the country, often for political reasons, and settled in North and South America, Europe, and Australia. I found it reassuring that they would frequently return in the summer to Syria to reconnect with family and friends. I remember on my own return after summer holidays in the UK that my Syrian friends in Damascus would tell me they were exhausted after all the parties given for the visiting Syrians.
There were plenty of well-trained doctors and dentists in Damascus in those days. However, there was a shortage of medicines, certainly a selection of them. So when you received a prescription you usually needed to make an hour’s drive to Chtura across the Lebanese border to buy them. I also made this journey to buy European groceries. It was not easy to find these in Damascus and, if you did so, they were expensive having probably been smuggled into the country from Lebanon. All the food supplies needed by the Syrians themselves were certainly available. When I went back to Damascus on a visit in 2010 my Syrian friends told me they now had supermarkets. I did not have time to see them but suspect that they contained a much wider choice of provisions than I had known in small shops nearly 20 years previously.
When I first went shopping in my local market I was asked if I was Russian: I replied that I was British which prompted an immediate warm and positive response. Diplomatic relations had been broken between the UK and Syria some years before, but now that they had been restored the Syrians genuinely seemed pleased to have us back. Some time after this I was queuing in my car to go through the formalities of crossing the border into Lebanon when suddenly an official came running towards me shouting. Trying to keep calm I wound down my car window as he reached me, but all he said was “When is the British Council coming back to Syria?” The Council was known for the excellent English courses it had given in the past and it did indeed return to resume its extensive English teaching programme.
Living in Syria its history often seemed palpable. It was a particular pleasure to be able to visit so many historic sites dating from antiquity to the Middle Ages and more recent centuries. It was always interesting and enjoyable to have an excuse to go to the Old City in Damascus, still with a small patch of its Assyrian wall dating back to at least the 7th century BC. An original Roman temple, then a Christian cathedral and now the Umayyad Mosque dominated the scene of bustling, narrow streets around it. Wandering west from it past a fine, well preserved medieval khan you came to the Street called Straight leading to the chapel where St. Paul had his sight restored by Ananais.
Content though we were in Damascus it was always refreshing to get out of the city and have an excuse to visit other amazing historical sites. There were three particularly notable sites dating from the Roman period of Syria’s history. Most impressive were the well-preserved colonnades, archways and theatre at Palmyra. There was an even better-preserved theatre at Bosra in the south of the country. Travelling north from Damascus you could visit another fine Roman colonnade at Apamea and the originally Byzantine water wheels at Hama before arriving in Aleppo rich in monuments. The Middle Ages have left outstanding permanent memories in the Crusader castles built near the west coast of Syria. The most famous is Crac des Chevaliers but for me equally impressive was Qalat Saladin. In the early nineties we were free to visit these sites at any time of day or night (we camped once in the moonlight at Palmyra). There were no entry fees to pay and no guided tours. Fortunately “Monuments of Syria” by Ross Burns was published while we were in Syria and it immediately became our companion on all these visits, albeit a heavy one! It is such a pity that, had it not been for the civil war of the past decade, Syria could have developed a very successful tourist industry. Already on our visit in 2010, we learned that the lovely old houses in the Old City of Damascus with their beautiful gardens were being converted into attractive hotels.
I can only conclude this reflection by expressing my deep sadness when considering the tragic changes in Syria as a result of the civil war since those secure and happy years we spent there in the nineties.
By Lady Jane Green, Embrace supporter and volunteer.