It’s a bookshop that’s the first of its kind. Istanbul’s first Arabic cafe and library, Pages, is a home away from home for many young Syrian refugees.

Turkey has the largest refugee population in the world. The vast majority of the country’s 3 million refugees have fled from conflict in Syria to find a new home, but now find themselves in limbo. Astoundingly, 40% of Syrian school-age refugees are not in school, approximately 380,000 children without an ongoing education. This is despite a 50% surge in enrolment in the last 6 months.

Read More: 400,000 Syrian Refugee Children in Turkey Aren’t in School After War

But children can read for free at Pages. To take the books away, it costs the equivalent of just £4.80 a month to rent as many titles as they want.

With music, workshops, and literature in numerous languages, including Arabic, the bookshop grants young Syrians refuge from their normal lives.

Samer al-Kadri, the founder who built the bookshop with his own hands, works 7 days a week without profit. In an interview with the Guardian, he emphasised the significance of the next generation.

“We are not able to change, but we can help the next generation change for the better,” he said. “My message to the world is don’t judge Syrians as one bloc. You wouldn’t want us to judge an entire society as one. Look and observe well, and determine the reality for yourself.”

Over 400,000 people have died after five years of war in Syria. But Kadri is determined to drive home the idea that Syrians should not be defined as a community of victims.

Read More: Wounded Syrian Boy Is Brutal Reminder of the Refugee Crisis

“I’m tired of this view that Syrians are (Isis), are murderers, or are just starving,” Kadri said. “There are a lot of victims and people who are starving, who have lost everything. But there’s also another side that people don’t want to see. We want people to write about something different.”

Kadri was once the victim of conflict himself. According to the Guardian report, he escaped his war-torn hometown, Hama, in 1982, and fled to Damascus with his family as a child. He eventually graduated with a fine arts degree to become a graphic designer, and published children’s books for a living.  As the revolution sparked in 2011, he was accused of sympathising with terrorists after speaking out against the regime abroad, and was finally forced to move to Turkey.

Read More: Why Children Are the Hardest Hit in Conflicts

Beyond Pages, Kadri wants to support more Arab writers to publish their first work, and open another bookstore to cater for the burgeoning refugee populace in Berlin, Germany. 

When Kadri first arrived in Istanbul, it was near impossible to find a book in Arabic. Now, he has founded a bookshop that’s become a cultural centrepiece in a booming Syrian community; a place where refugees can escape, exhale, and enjoy time in a place that resembles a normal life. In an unfamiliar city, books can be a second home.

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Syrian Refugee Children Read For Free At Istanbul’s First Arabic Bookstore

By James Hitchings-Hales