Howe Islander braves road to Damascus

Kingston Whig-Standard (Ontario)
July 18, 2006 Tuesday

By: Brock Harrison

A 20-year-old Howe Island resident is on her way back home this
morning after a dramatic escape from the war-ravaged nation of Lebanon.

Carmen Abrajian, along with her 23-year-old brother Mark and his
girlfriend, Tala el-Bakri, made a daring broad-daylight getaway from
the eastern Lebanese village of Anjar yesterday afternoon, crossing
the Syrian border to Damascus, where they were expected to board a
plane headed for Toronto.

"They’ve had quite an adventure," said their stepfather, Stuart
Renfrew, who lives with Carmen and wife Janet Abrajian on Howe
Island. Mark lives in Toronto. "The bombs were dropping way too close
to them. They had to get out."

The trio had been stranded in Lebanon since Israeli bombs crippled
Beirut’s international airport last Thursday.

The Abrajians, along with el-Bakri and a fourth travel companion,
were in Beirut at the time of Israel’s first strikes, visiting their
grandparents in a nursing home.

They immediately fled to their aunt’s house in Anjar, the mostly
Armenian town of about about 2,500 people roughly 60 kilometres east
of the Lebanese capital, but were separated from their other friend.

It appeared as though Anjar would be a safe haven for the trio until
they could get a flight from Syria.

But as Israeli attacks intensified, bombs began dropping on the
outlying areas of Anjar. Roads going from the popular mountain tourist
town had been taken out, including the main highway to Damascus.

They were stuck playing cards in a dark basement, with a dwindling
supply of food, while falling bombs crept closer to their hideout.

"They were good and scared," said Renfrew, who communicated with his
stepchildren through e-mail and occasional phone calls.

Being half-Armenian, the Abrajian kids have visited relatives in
Lebanon nearly every summer. As Renfrew put it, "it was just like
sending the kids to granny’s cottage."

Renfrew and Janet Abrajian, Mark and Carmen’s mother, had exchanged
daily e-mails with the pair prior to the attacks on Beirut, sending
greetings and sharing stories.

"Then we got one from them that said, ‘Turn on the news, this is
getting bad,’ " Renfrew said.

Prices for commodities like milk and eggs first doubled, then tripled
in Anjar after supply routes were cut off by bombs. Renfrew wired
some money to Mark and Carmen, but they were too far away from a bank
machine to use it.

"The relatives were stuck with three extra mouths to feed," he said.

Renfrew registered his stranded stepchildren with the department of
foreign affairs so the government would at least know they were in
Lebanon but he said he never heard anything back.

Phone calls to the department were not returned yesterday.

By early yesterday morning, the news that the federal government
was sending ships from Cyprus to Lebanon’s west coast to evacuate
Canadian citizens had not yet reached the Abrajians and would still
not have guaranteed a safe passage out; Damascus is closer to Anjar
than the Mediterranean coast.

Renfrew said this presented his stepchildren with, essentially,
a do-or-die decision – either stay in Anjar and risk death or make
a break for Damascus.

According to Renfrew, the trio were contemplating making the 30-
kilometre trek to Damascus overnight by foot, since the main road to
the Syrian capital had been destroyed, until they secured the services
of a driver who knew the way through mountain back roads.

He and his wife were "on pins and needles" until they got a brief
phone call from Carmen yesterday afternoon, late evening in Syria,
telling him her troupe had made it to the Damascus airport. They
weren’t available by phone yesterday for comment.

"It hasn’t been easy on us these past few days," Renfrew said.

The violence in Lebanon continues to escalate after Israel began
retaliation attacks last week in response to Hezbollah’s kidnapping
and killing of Israeli soldiers.

The day the Abrajians and el-Bakri made their escape, another 40
people were killed by Israeli strikes.

bharrison@thewhig.com

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress