Café Reopens in Aleppo’s Armenian Quarter

Army troops dropped barrel bombs and launched airstrikes across the front line on rebel groups, who fired rockets back in return.

Midan was caught in the middle.

The neighborhood remained in government hands but was regularly pummeled by missiles from the neighboring opposition-held district of Bustan al-Basha.

“I still remember the day that about 40 rockets hit this very spot,” Menassian recalled.

“Midan was almost deserted. Many families left,” she said, including her daughter, who fled to the Armenian capital Yerevan where her son-in-law worked as a jeweler.

Menassian’s family home was also destroyed in the fighting, which halted in December, when Syria’s army announced it was in full control of the city.

Now, Menassian’s husband is reopening his tire shop in Midan, and their daughter and son-in-law are moving back to Syria, too.

But so far, just a handful of families and businesses have returned to the neighborhood, although residents see the cafe’s reopening as a positive sign.

“It’s the return of the beautiful days,” said Haroutioun Kahvedjian, a 57-year-old dentist.

Although his family fled to neighboring Lebanon, he decided to stay in Aleppo and continued to frequent the society.

During some of the city’s bloodiest days, he even treated wounded people inside the Armenian community center’s halls. Now he is hoping his family will return.

“I sent a picture of the cafe to my daughter to encourage her to come back,” he said with teary eyes. “The cafe is the symbol of our resistance in Aleppo.”

Other historic districts of the city are seeing a revival, too.

The celebrated citadel, a jewel of medieval architecture, was heavily damaged by a massive blast in July 2015 and remains a military position.

But a small coffeehouse that has spent decades at the foot of the fortress reopened last week for the first time since 2012.

“When I used to see the pictures of the citadel on television, I had tears in my eyes,” owner Bashir Azmouz said, standing opposite buildings in ruins.

“Today, my joy is indescribable,” he told AFP.

Children frolicked nearby in the Saadallah al-Jabiri Square, once a favorite gathering place for families but now another victim of Syria’s violence. Its historic fountains once gushed streams of water, but they are all dry now. Electricity was restored to the area where the square is located just a week ago, drawing residents back again.

“No one dared step into the square during the war,” said Mohammad Daouk, 37, who was visiting with his family.

“This place was a symbol. All Aleppines used to come here.”