A wrong name he had given up on the advice of his uncle when he applied for as a 16-year-old asylum in the Netherlands, Hovsep Khachhatryan and his family were expensive to be dearly years later. In 2016, the family, which lived happily for years at De Hulst in Boxmeer, was set out to Armenia for that reason.
Where the family lived in a quiet residential area in Boxmeer, they now live in the large, busy Armenian capital Yerevan on a wide boulevard. About three kilometers outside the center. Their flat is a bit off the road, separated from it by a playground annex exercise garden, where older men try to keep their body flexible.
Omroep Land van Cuijk The family looked for it to hear how they have been doing since.
“Just drumming the children out of bed to say hello.”
HOVSEP, now 41 years old, is already enthusiastically waving from the balcony on the second floor. The children are tumbled out of bed to say hello. Only oldest daughter Eva (15) still speaks some Dutch. Son Suren (13) no longer, but English works fine. With the small descendant Elina, born in Armenia just two months after the deportation, it is mainly to exchange facial expressions.
‘Mama’ Warduhi – often called ‘Roos’ in the Netherlands because that is what her name means – keeps in the background.
“The children wanted to go home, to Boxmeer.”
The apartment is a bit dark to Dutch standards, but spacious. A large television is the eye -catcher in the living room. But in the beginning it was all very different, says Hovsep.
“The five of us came to sit here at 42 square meters. It was hard in the beginning. Certainly for the children. They wanted to go home, so Boxmeer. My wife and I worked hard to make them feel at home here, certainly because it was also largely unknown for us when we arrived. In the end it is easy to keep them in the family. Talking and explaining why everything went that way. “
“There is little certainty here.”
It hits a string at Hovsep. The tears come when he talks about how difficult it all has been. “I had to work hard, from the morning to night, every day of the week. It is only since a year that I can be free on Sundays. There is little certainty here.”
That is why he started in Armenia for himself as a welder, the profession he learned in the Netherlands. However, support from the Netherlands has also helped the family to build a new life. “We have received financial support from the Netherlands, from Boxmeer. That is still the case. We are very grateful for that, just like all the support we received in our last months in Boxmeer. I will never forget that.
“Honesty does not always pay.”
HOOVSEP looks back to his time in the Netherlands with love and any sense of lack. But not with regret. “I was 16 years old when I came to the Netherlands. At that time I had no idea what the consequences of giving up a wrong name. I wanted to correct that wrong. That honesty does not always pose, I am an example of that. But I don’t regret it.”
Hovsep’s tears, however, betray that it hurts him. “You know,” he explains. “The people who have had to make the decision about us, although there were really people who did ugly, are also people who just did their job. I don’t blame the Netherlands for being deported.”
“I have everything a person should have.”
In the meantime, the family has everything well on the ride. That plays a role in that sentiment. “I would dare to say that we were fine with us. We were able to buy the apartment next to us and break out, so we now live more spacious. I have everything that a person should have: a dear woman, a beautiful family, a spacious house. Only if I can live in the same house and work at the same company, do I want to go back to Boxmeer. But the children still want to go back.”
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