Born in one of the world's most ancient cities with a rich cosmopolitan history, Nevart and Silva are celebrating their first Christmas with their family in their new home after fleeing Aleppo, in Syria. or signup to continue reading The twin Armenian-Syrian sisters, now in multicultural western Sydney, have put up a Christmas tree and decorations to celebrate their first feast with Nevart's son since they were separated 13 years ago. They landed in Australia as refugees in December 2023 but after a few months of staying with family and looking for a suitable home in a tight rental market, they are finally able to gather under one roof for Christmas.
It is a far cry from living under constant bombardment in Syria during a decade-long civil war that claimed more than 500,000 lives and displaced more than 10 million people including the sisters. "It's happiness for me to be reunited with my only son after 13 years," Nevart told AAP. "Every time we talked to him it was after a bomb had gone off here and there.
"We left our home in Aleppo not knowing if we'd ever go back there again. It was terrifying ..
. we didn't know if a missile would fall on us." The regime of long-time autocrat Bashar al-Assad fell in December in a lightning offensive by Turkish-backed Islamist rebels.
The sisters fled Aleppo and sought refuge in neighbouring Lebanon in 2017 - part of the exodus of 1.5 million Syrians who moved there following the outbreak of the war. Like most of their compatriots, they co.
