Ayşe’s interview with "Mounir"
Ayşe Şanlı was a graduate student in Cultural Studies at Sabancı University when she conducted an oral history interview with "Mounir", a second-generation Palestinian refugee from Syria. The interview reveals how Mounir’s life was shaped by migration and displacement even before he was born.
Ayşe says: “I had known Mounir only for a few months when we conducted the oral history interview. I still remember how anxious I was on the day of the interview since I barely had experience in conducting interviews. The most important lesson that I learned from this interview is that there is no ‘perfect’ interview. I later had the chance to get to know Mounir better with our everyday conversations. The gaps in the interview, hence, were naturally filled over time.”
With the creation of the Israeli state in 1948, Mounir’s extended family had to move from Palestine to Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. When the revolution in 2011 evolved into a state of civil war, most of his family members had to leave Syria. Mounir now lives in Istanbul.
From the interview:
“So, it’s like this… I still have three siblings in Syria, one is in Canada, three in France—of course, everybody is in different places, it is not so close. So… This is my family right now, and you know, the sons and the daughters of my brothers and sisters also migrated. And yeah, you know, it’s like this, everyone in a different place—but we used to live in, like, one square kilometer... Really, all of us! Suddenly it’s like, you know, exploded in everywhere…”
In this project, the interviewee preferred to remain anonymous.