a seal, richard, colt discussions, adding that there was still many legal questions that needed to be answered in hub . you the solution to some of europe's migration problems is a common european approach based both on humanity and an order that was strongest. there are, they are reporting close up is up. next, i'll be back in the top of the hour with more world news, the, the, the vibrant habitat on the glistening place of loan in the mediterranean sea mazda and just following up to carry him to us exploring modem, lodge styles, to amy and admitted to amy and jenny, this week on the d, w.

a group of syriac orthodox christians returning to their ancestral home in south eastern turkey. we want to revitalize the village, which has been vacant for the past 2 decades often stopped us the story. it was to die. you or live in your yeah, it should. it's beautiful. here we have everything as christians, we don't have the freedom one dreams of. but we're trying to win that freedom of car and start living here again. feet up, living here and so far the, this is the village of east bar rock in south eastern turkey, not far from the border to syria. most of the houses here are deserted or old ruins is just a handful of people live here now. but among them is a woman who has returned relatively recently. a syriac orthodox,

none per day begins at sunrise with morning. prayers them short of the summer or the night he's been stressed out to in a joke. i'm sisterhood to, to do going to bold and i was born in this house on april, 2nd, 1976. and i lived here until the age of 15. from, i'm from felicia. every day after morning prayers, a tune or 2 gone, goes for a walk around the village, which she calls xyz, its original name, and the aromatic language. when she was growing up here, it was still home to 270 christian families. them all for you have off imagine that here was, are pound my father and the other men would dive in here and could hold their breaths long enough to swim underwater to the other side. like an awesome guy,

it was teeming with lives. even here of these and russell dies in the 19 eighties and nineties, this area was the scene of a military conflict between the turkish army and curtis, p. k. k. militias, the christians always in the minority here were costs between the 2 sides. the evans invaded were neither turks nor occurred this as far as we are or may it now, for instance, we since flashed, we were basically being crushed between 2 stony supply and there was no way we could stay here. so we tried to persevere. war until the death threats and so on, and you can gun as in 1985 once such threat was made to her father by curtis neighbors. he decided to fleet with his wife and 10 children to germany, and i never visited the same week. we left for a symbol, and once we had our passports and tickets, we flew to germany. and every single day since 1985 i dreamt of being here in the village on diplomacy, the endorphin germany became

a 2nd. tell him too hard to know. but she never forgot where she came from. and she always held tight to her syriac orthodox space. when she was of age, she decided to become a nun. over 30 years after moving to germany, she returned to her in federal home in 2017. the feeling her father's dying. wish 9 papa. so i told him my father was very ill in 2014. 0 my god, nobody changed nurse. so i watched over him. i mean, i was with him day and night onto and shortly before he died he said to me in deep breath, to speak to my dear his daughter, my wish list for life to return to the village, the village he said to go outside after her father's passing, she used her inheritance to start rebuilding. her family home is ok. so boy, here when i arrived this well, had practically collapsed, is one here. it was all really on the when he when he and it's really it was important to restore the old houses eyes of the others to leave the red. and. ready

these are the original stones, the i was born right here and there was a rocker. my mother hung the rope and there was a baby to rock them to and fro. sho. tuna is a member of the syriac christian minority, also known as ever america syrian called in or syria. the aromatic word for syria. their ancestors are believed to have been one of the very 1st christian communities . over the centuries, the group with its longstanding religious beliefs and own customs in language came under repeated attacks and a predominantly muslim region. most decided to flee their homeland. only

about 2000 christians still live in the area. one percent of the communities numbers a century ago. in the today, there are around 300000 syriac orthodox christians, living outside turkey, primarily in europe in the united states, almost half of the diaspora has found a new home in germany in the town of b to kind dissing in in south western germany, the syriac orthodox community comprises some 500 families, the z mon, whose it was 17. when his family moved to germany from eastern turkey in 1990 the

via hobbin. i think as christian was, we were looking for a new home that was christian. so we were looking in europe, the buckets. yep. we heard there was democracy, freedom them and weren't by i guess and above all peace slide please. and that was here and in your overall top seal, and i get my oil. but zima learned german and after doing an apprenticeship as a hair dresser opened his own salon and met georgette. she too is christian, and had to emigrate it to germany from syria and 2000. the couple now have 2 sons and a daughter every sunday after church service, the family gathers together for lunch. so i cannot say no, probably our children were all born here. where there are other traditions doing vs as we've tried to find a compromise that includes our ancestors, vague meetings, vague. so if in english are him isn't to assimilate. jo bonds we have what's rather

to integrate yet than the intake. i mean, really make an effort on that front of the out. i need just telling me she of what she's at home both here on the dirty line am i know i see it as having 2 homes. i, my one is the home of my parents and the other is the home. i was born in the for the 1st 10 years after leaving turkey. the moment it was that did not dare venture back. but later, whenever it felt safe to do so, he visited the village where he was born and grew up. in some sense, he'd never truly left it behind the dark based on the day when you're there, you feel grounded about it. so by the but every time we leave this homeland, you think man, when will i be back about? oh wow. and there's always the question of why i leave on break. yeah, i wish that search find out go back for good. is what does a teacher hold?

sean really does way on your mind body to get done. can you because of the o z mon. as soon heading off for a vacation in his homeland, he always stops by his parents place to say good bye before setting off. they live in a neighboring apartment block sale a little i mom's deal. let me, i'm off to our village and wanted to see good bye to you both need to know how the head of the is manny. i'm an alias is that we're farmers in eastern turkey. no, they ran a small village store and made drugs out. in 1990, they fled to germany, bearing for their own safety. amid the conflict between the muslim turks and kurtz, via senior finally beaten germany for 32 years to the day,

signed the above on the and my dad has never been back home. the mom has been able to go twice to the milwaukee that so i'm on the wrong english. there's a in don't go back to the homeland without saying good bye 1st. and then other than kidney stone, we need their prayers for us. it is a beautiful and so when we arrived back here, we always go straight to them. that's within turkey. does not recognize the syriac orthodox christians as a religious minority. but the state does give land and churches back to those returning people from the diaspora are now rebuilding their old communities. here near the syrian border there restoring old houses and constructing new ones. most of the christians, however, only spend their summer vacations in their ancestral villages. the

insides too. there are several new and restored homes, standing among the ruins. the largest house in the village belongs to sisterhood to an a 2 gun which she built next to her parents old home. she wants to provide other attorneys with a roof over their heads while their homes are under construction. oh, yeah, i'm here, but we already have beds made up. here. we have some bunk beds. who by the end of the rooms are finished, everything is ready to go. how does this stuff? and here's another room that sleeps for best. and so 10 people can stay the night here. i have $32.00 beds up here in total wine, 5. she's been to and has plans for the house don't. and there she also wants to set up a kind of school and helping women whose families state in the region and who never went to school. she's already acquired 18 laptops and 12 sewing machines for the project. it's moved to

a computer. i think i want to offer computer courses and showing lessons here who sees this 5 because those are jobs you can do from home to my desk and has come. and us been having that training means you at least have a profession, minutes and moving on. tom sisterhood. tuna is a member of a serious orthodox church in germany. in 2011, she launched a foundation which has a special focus on supporting girls and women. it now has around $7000.00 volunteers running schools and other projects in $33.00 countries. in addition to her parents house to and it has also inherited land here a $28.00 hector's and total equivalent of around 20 soccer pitches. the bulldozers she's hired spent weeks clearing the rich soil of rocks and stones via here we're going to have an olive groves with pistachio trees on the biggest

plot of land surrounded by grapevines of mine called him and god willing, we'll have our 1st harvest and some 5 years time talked often, this is my home, who are all of this used to be formed, you a good time. we planted grain here, but there is nobody doing that now despite the fertile soil to vote during the summer months, 2 and a sister also lives in size. norah built a house in the village last year and now helps out of the 2 women planted sumac shrubs. here the plants, dried berries are made into a popular spice about 2 and a had to do a great deal of convincing. before nora was ready to make the move back home. yeah . that's what's happening to my what hotel now has achieved so far and is still doing go is just an extraordinary must have to come to mind the most long. so i'm

long some sounding so my sister little by little, many people are putting fear aside and finding their way back here. beat up someone to come in. once they've harvested enough sumac barriers, they plan to sell the spice and the region. the around 70 kilometers away is the village of nadine parson in turkish. in the summer at least the centuries old christian churches have full congregations again. the dean is the home village of e mail and is that the hurry to make it in time for the service? just after arriving to the area the afterwards, the worshippers gather to share a meal. hello and enjoy your meal and you know how to

do this month. if you see faces that you haven't seen in years. if you come once a year or once a decade, you meet new people, which is larger as tradition dictate the food is being provided by the relatives of a person who recently passed away. there's about 300 people here today about 20 minutes and this is a, this is the son of the deceased. lead me food, an owner of his father. the after 2 hours of chatting with other church goers. z moselle, takes off on a tour around medina. it's only the 2nd time. see mountains, youngest son, my time is visiting the village of his ancestors yourself if i've seen but a lot hotter here too. and there are different things you can do here compared to

germany. must be like drive a tractor or a motorbike installed all to or a car, the foot and the time isn't just here to have fun simone and georgette want their son to learn more about the culture of his ancestors. at a special summer course, more gabrielle is the oldest surviving syriac orthodox monastery in the world. both as e mon and his brothers spent a few days here when they were 14, the should. it was great to be here, he'll be, but seems if i hope he likes it, that it would be interesting for him to spend a few nights here and get an idea of what things used to be like. and the whole land lake was like in a monastery on the high month of the month, open and close. i'm glad i found it. in the late 4th century, the monastery offers courses in the aromatic language and about the culture of the

syrian orthodox community. welcome much. i already has aromatic lessons, twice a week, back in germany, but that's not enough in his father's arts, kind of go to boost lives in the united states. every summer she brings her son here to spend a month at moore, gabriella. sure. that the students are so happy here officially, and they do voluntary work in the monastery. but there's time for other things to leslie pray 3 times a day when there are no ceremony scheduled, the bowed down before god. it's not difficult to close. the monastery can accommodate up to 30 students, religious education and language lessons as well as meals are funded by donations from other syriac orthodox christians. but time isn't yet sure if he wants to return for his next summer vacation.

over in size, a toner has visitors arriving from germany today. friends of her sister, nura from fryeburg, that's not, i mean they're in there which i can read and do. it's about the church. the building is from before the christian era, 1800 b. c. so how many can you see the are in a, a grading? it's likely that this place was used by some worshippers. there used to be windows here, and there is the entrance to the underground city just that's the, i'm exhausted. the kind of makes me there are simply no words to con, taken this expanse. you can look in all directions as far as the i can see this, the oh good by the button. that's good. this is those, these elementary. so you got the one down there that's hours to enter the mountain

where the houses are those houses, the church was closed for a period of 30 years. a toner has since had it restored with the help of other former residents. i'm going to show you where we were all baptized, all 10 brothers and sisters. the baptismal font has been restored. we were all baptized here. one of the children in the village. this discharge was the most wonderful childhood memory for all of us to put one other kingdom on the shooting of the best was all stay and stay, the entire village would gather in the courtyard to eat together. and so young an old i'm to get seated. we'll have a lot to take home with us. we'll be thinking of you. that's nice type of respect is it's completely different compared to germany. also in terms of advancing that religion,

which i now understand why you feel homesick outside. we're grateful for your invitation full frontier. there's a major festival coming up in 6 weeks time. a tune of hopes that the church is us will be full of people again, just like it used to be. marty and the largest city in the area has been a melting pot of cultures and religious faith for thousands of years with the east of turkey now relatively peaceful. again, the tourists have started coming back. they numbered some 4000000 and 2021. despite the cobit 19 pandemic, strong, the city name of this is the oldest syrian quarter, and then we'll go to the curricular church. many of the people on this tour of christian sides of our muslim turks. in 2021, 9 churches and monasteries in martine were added to your nest, goes tentative list of new world cultural heritage sites. it's on this journal.

this is one of the few places where you can hear church bells, london was india and that the treasure that she did my 5th time here, i wanted to show my friends have beautiful it is the community seems close knit and the people do a lot to preserve their culture and large christians, in this area, were known for crafting silver jewelry and producing wine. just a few decades ago, the letter was met with fierce opposition in the region. 1700 and the drinking wine has ascended islam. whereas for christians secrets where people used to have an issue with this and we started some of many even refuse to sell their grapes. so my names later on as it got more popular, those same people started making and selling wind themselves such a lot in this era of reconciliation, that ancient culture is now being marketed in new ways. august 15th is

assumption day. an important holiday for christians here, worshippers gather for a ceremony in the church of saint mary and the village of passed. among them, our sister had to do gun and cmon, who's the. it's a wonderful coincidence. i find someone i played soccer with 31 years ago and title that and he was a right that i was left back. the ceremony is being held down in the courtyard as there isn't enough space in the church for 500 worshippers. the service lasts over 2 hours, which is standard, in aramaic christian tradition. i wasn't

expecting so many people. it's amazing and lovely to get a real experience of home. i liked it. it wasn't like it is in germany. we don't have many monasteries like this there. i'd like to come here more often. after the ceremony comes the traditional feast. assumption de marks the end of a fasting period for syriac orthodox christians. after abstaining from meat and dairy products for 15 days. the next day the mound visits the sides, and medea where his grandfather's house once stood. it was a 2nd home for the moment until he and his family emigrated to germany. since he now owns the land, he could rebuild it. but does he want to tell? i'm going to be honest,

i haven't proceeded dream like that yet. so and how happy should only last year with different dreams of building a new life in europe. i'm the 1st thanks to god this my an oil managed to do all that good side down. yes. so, so i'll get you in the phase and this pieces of what is the most precious thing you can have. and then the reason is there's piece here, maybe that dream will come to life. that sounds good. the noise of it get around. 40 new houses have been built by christian families in medina, over the past decade. the contributions from the diaspora and the turkish states have also paid for a new sewage system, as well as the street lighting and upgraded power lines. the z mon is visiting is and sean and uncle as ease. they were also born in medina,

but unlike the moment they never left the village to shield out of a 150 families and 50 left. 5 of the couples, 10 children, live abroad. aziz and shoshone would love to see them return home permanently. but in the years it should be. these 3 have come here from europe. you could give them the entire village and they still didn't come back to me. my father's rights getting married, so i'm not planning on coming back. and i would like some of that took us a long time to build up a new life abroad. it wasn't easy, i got a hold of the turn, the music we had quite a few difficulties at 1st. but now we've just touch the other stuff. and even like in the back of my children wasn't dilemma. the every time's email and visits his childhood

village, she feels torn. he and his family have a good life in germany. medina, it says past codes, it become a future home for his family. the. ready but we can't just leave behind our children, and i have them when they get married and maybe have kids. i become a grand that visual for life. and then maybe after i retired, i could come here more often and for longer live in the but my children would definitely not come with me on. okay. and i'm not sure my wife would either. well, and it's something we've never really talked about because it's simply not an option. right. nice. but you involve these buys coming to visit. sure. but living here, honestly, it's still too early to say. yeah, they've been. no, it's so flu comes in the

weather. uh, 4 weeks later it's now late september and the most important festival of the year is underway inside the villages, patron saint dena is being honored. the toner, 2 guns, which has come true with members of the diaspora attending in large numbers. um awesome. yeah. okay. uh, i think either all originally from the village, they have come from sweden, the netherlands, germany, and belgium to celebrate the festival packhorse for us to fire. the present here from florida, i've already seen 5 people who i went to school with. when he gets his i'm of the week i decided to reunite with everyone again con around 300 syriac orthodox christians have come home at least for the duration of the festival. the

throws building a house means for you discovering our routes and increasing the place where we can feel at home on the so we feel secure and loved one mind giving me a guy to get logan. i leave it fits. it's also about the description and the traditional values that the fine people might index the . sometimes they want to cry, tears of joy, but i tried to hold myself together. we made saying and prayed together. everything is one community. we're back together again, and that's the most beautiful thing about life in a village community name. it's the way it once was and is now again, this is what i want you to be done. 17 families have plans to build new homes or

restore old ones here in size. a 2 and a 2 guns has been traveling across the world to support your foundations, educational projects. but she's always happiest in her village. her old and new home the sometimes to be shown right. how that you now to the highlight for every week? nothing. not much as to what did you do to i saved the tennis tennis has. she survived our streets thanks to music. he was the nazis favorite conductor. he is martin, the, the genuine 2 musicians under the swastika,

a documentary about this sounds of power, inspiring story about survival of the home and you go get the tennis. i was the only one who lives in nazi germany. watch now on youtube dw documentary, the self advocacy democracy is facing a trust crisis. is the government, the heavy? i don't just don't kid. extreme poverty has dashed hopes of a better life with immigrants being blamed for many problems. you know everything with what does this come to.