'Bad News is Good News' – probably you have heard these words, if you have ever known at least one journalist. This phrase possibly best describes a journalist’s everyday life and for sure, leaves its trace. Mahmud – My Syrian Interpreter is a real story witnessed by the author himself while working in conflict zones as a journalist. Most of the characters of the story are based on real people. The story unfolds in the city of Kilis, located on the Turkey-Syrian border. A Georgian journalist, who happens to be there to cover the conflict and Syrian refugees issues, accidently comes across a Syrian refugee Mahmud Dobagh, who offers to be his translator. Mahmud moved to Turkey with his five-year old son after his wife’s tragic death in one of the explosions in the Syrian city Aleppo. Mahmud – My Syrian Interpreter is a text mainly build on dialogues between the author and Mahmud, and focuses on perils that the narrator, cameramen and the translator had to face during their work in conflict zones. The story reveals why 'bad news' may be 'good news'. what the journalists go through and what dilemmas they face before bringing the information to you. On the other hand the people, who later became the characters of this story, open up about their personal stories, tragedies, their loss of beloved ones and their survival in terror of war and at last but not least they try to describe what it means to be a refugee. Along with the Syrian conflict, the book reflects the developments in other conflict zones such as the post-Mubarak period in Cairo, the events in the Tahrir Square, the Revolution in Kyrgyzstan in 2010 and the tragedy of the city of Osh as well as stories of Georgian soldiers during the operation 'Iraqi Freedom'. Mahmud – My Syrian Interpreter is a first person narrative by a young Georgian journalist. Despite of all dramatic and tragic essence of the stories, the text is imbued with humor and irony – self-irony, first of all, openly expressing young narrator’s fears and phobias, suspicions and passion. The author's uncompromising attitude to events unfolding arround him spotlights the intrinsic absurdity of the events. Thus, this is a collection of real stories on the borderline between fact and fiction.

 

EXTRACT
Translated into English by Eirik Kerstan Halvorson

Syria, an Aleppo suburb, June 16, 2012

“My dad is better!” Adel, a 5-year-old Syrian.
“No, my dad brought me 3 loaves of bread yesterday!”, an unknown Syrian child.
“Now he’s coming with my mom and you’ll see how much bread he brings!”, said Adel.

Syria, Center of Aleppo, June 16, 2012

“There was another bombing that has destroyed a number of entire buildings in the center. At this time it is unknown whether the attack was the result of Assad’s supporters or of the rebels. 17 people have perished: three women, including Shadia, one child, and the remaining were adult men.”

Syria, an Aleppo suburb, June 16, 2012

“Adel, come up to the house, your parents are running late, Allah knows when they’ll come, they’ve probably been unable to find anything”, says Adel’s grandmother.


Tbilisi, Georgia, August 28, 2013

- Obama said the use of chemical weapons will not go unpunished. Get ready, you’re going to Syria. I think they’ll still start it. Yet you were saying that you had at least achieved what was yours…

- No, no… Not in Damascus, look for the closest point somewhere in Turkey at the border…


Tbilisi, Georgia, August 29, 2013

“So, to Istanbul and then to Gaziantep?”
“Yeah, and then from there by car.”
“How long is the trip?”
“I don’t know exactly, it depends where we go - to some region of the province. We probably won’t be able to film anything tonight, the main thing is to find someplace to spend the night.”
“What the hell must we film, there’s a war in Syria, not in Turkey, right?”
“What do I know, there are some refugee camps, perhaps we might cross the border… Then we’ll see, we’ll do something…” (See PDF)



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