The Azer children. Photo courtesy of Alison Azer
Dersim?s front tooth was so wiggly that his mom, Alison Azer, doubted it would be there by the time her six-year-old got back. It was August 5, 2015, and Dersim, along with his sisters, Sharvahn, 11, and Rojevahn, 9, and his younger brother, Meitan, 3, were headed from their home in Courtenay, BC, to France and Germany on a court-approved two-week trip with their father, Alison?s ex-husband, Saren Azer. The kids took some goofy pictures?a close-up of Dersim?s teeth, Rojevahn doing her best muscle-man impression?and recorded messages for their mom, telling her how much they loved her and that they?d miss her while they were gone. Then she hugged and kissed them all several times over and watched them drive away. In the coming months, she would replay those messages over and over, holding on to the memories of that warm day last summer?because that?s all she has. That was the last time she saw her kids.
Alison?s life has become an unimaginable nightmare. Saren is on the run with her kids, having first hid them in a remote village in northern Iraq and now in his hometown in Iran. Listed on INTERPOL?s wanted list, he is an international fugitive. Alison has travelled to Iraq twice, pled her case in person to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and amassed an army of supporters, including author Amanda Lindhout, who had been held captive in Somalia, and journalist Mohamed Fahmy, who was incarcerated in Egypt. There is an ongoing RCMP in...