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Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso, Italy
April 23 2014
Armenians of Kessab: Hostages of the Civil War
Mikayel Zolyan | Yerevan
24 April 2014
The small Armenian-populated town Kessab in north-western Syria found
itself in the middle of a battle since the end of March. 99 Years
after the Genocide the Plight of Syria's Armenians Stirs Memories of
1915
The small Armenian-populated town Kessab (Kassab) in north-western
Syria found itself in the middle of a battle since the end of March.
As Syrian opposition fighters, allegedly supported by Turkey and
including militant Islamist groups, entered Kessab, several thousand
Armenians living in the town were forced to leave their homes and look
for refuge from the fighting in the nearby Latakia, a major city under
government forces control. Several elder people, unable to move to
Latakia, were transferred to the village Vakif, the only
Armenian-populated village in Turkey today. The town they left has
become a battlefield for fierce fighting between Assad's forces and
the opposition.
A global campaign supported by Armenians worldwide, under the hashtag
#SaveKesab helped to draw attention to the plight of Kessab's
Armenians. US State Department and Russian Foreign Ministry, in a rare
case of agreement, both expressed concern over developments in Kessab.
Unfortunately, the legitimate concern about the Kessab's population
became a subject of media manipulations: unchecked reports, according
to which 80 Armenians had been murdered, flooded online media and
social networks, even though both Kessab's mayor and later Armenian
government sources issued statements refuting these rumours.
As journalist Gegham Vardanyan sums up, reports of civilian deaths,
based either on unchecked information or on outright fraud, were
multiplied by yellow press outlets looking for publicity, and were
further manipulated by various political actors.
While the reports of massacre, fortunately, were proved wrong, the
fighting in Kessab did result in the destruction of a well-established
community, members of which lost their ancestral homes. The plight of
Kessab Armenians can serve as a metaphor for the fate of Syrian
Armenian community in general. Once more than 80 000 strong, this was
one the most thriving Armenian communities in the Middle East. Today
Armenians of Syria are hostages of bitter civil strife. Majority of
Armenians have tried to avoid taking sides and stay away from the
conflict.
As the spiritual leader of the majority of Middle East Armenians, Aram
I, the Catholicos of Cilicia (based in Lebanon) said, "as a community,
we should not associate ourselves with any given regime, political
ideology or person, they are provisional...we remain attached to the
supreme interests of Syria".
However, keeping neutrality is not an easy task. Armenians, as other
minority groups in Syria, have reasons to worry about some rebel
groups, which follow fundamentalist ideology, and these fears are
often exploited by the government camp. In any case, thousands of
Armenians, including many from the largest community in Aleppo, have
become refugees, either relocating within Syria, or leaving the
country for Lebanon, Armenia or the Western.
History Repeating Itself?
There is an additional cause for Armenian worries: the support some
rebel groups, particularly those with Islamist leanings, are receiving
from Turkish government. Against the background of a closed
Turkish-Armenian border and the continuing denialist attitude to the
issue of genocide, Armenians of Syria perceive Turkey as a hostile
power, bent on destroying Armenian communities in its neighborhood.
Kessab, as Swiss-based analyst Vicken Cheterian points out, has
immense symbolic significance for Armenians, because it had been home
to Armenian population for over a thousand years, since the times of
Cilician Armenian kingdom. Many Armenians saw it as the last remaining
bit of historical Western Armenia, in what is today Eastern and
South-Eastern Turkey, home to millions of Armenians before 1915. Given
this background, Armenians all over the world are especially sensitive
to Turkey's role in Syrian civil war in general, and in Kessab events
in particular.
Harout Ekmanian, Armenian journalist from Aleppo who is currently
based in Yerevan, says that the perception of Turkey's role in Syria
could have been different, if the so-called Armenian-Turkish
normalization process had produced any significant outcomes and
Armenia had diplomatic relations with Turkey. However, the
Armenian-Turkish protocols signed in 2009 were never ratified by the
sides. Armenia and Turkey remain at odds over many issues, including
the issue of genocide recognition.
While many Turkish intellectuals are today publicly acknowledging that
the extermination of Armenians constituted genocide, the position of
state has not changed. On April 10 the US Senate Foreign Affairs
Commission adopted a resolution recognizing and condemning the
Armenian genocide, the Turkish government reacted sharply as it had
done for decades. Most probably, Turkey will once again use its links
with to the US executive government to prevent such a resolution from
being passed by the Senate, as it has done in the past. Turkish
position regarding relations with Armenia has also remained unchanged:
closed border, no diplomatic relations, and unilateral support for
Azerbaijan when it comes to Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Against this background, reports that Turkey backs Syrian Islamist
groups have added to the concerns about Syrian Armenians' safety. Some
voices in Armenia have even been calling for sending volunteer
fighters to Syria to help Armenians protect their homes, but president
Serzh Sargsyan stepped in to cool passions down and said that
interfering into the Syrian conflict "would have been the biggest
stupidity" and Armenians should avoid becoming a side of the conflict
in Syria.
Harout Ekmanian says that in this situation the Armenian government
should ask the Syrian government not to use Armenian populated
territories as military bases and try to establish contacts with the
countries supporting Sytian opposition, in order to assure that
Armenian communities are not attacked by the rebel groups. In the
worst case, if none of this works, says Ekmanian, Armenia should
organize transportation to Armenia of all those Armenians who would be
willing to leave Syria.
Armenia: a New Home for Syrian Armenians?
While many Syrian Armenians have moved to Armenia since the beginning
of the war ((about 10 000, according to some estimates), so far there
has been no organized government effort to repatriate the entire
Syrian Armenian community. There are several reasons for this. First
of all, many Syrian Armenians are extremely reluctant to leave Syria,
which they perceive as their homeland, hoping that the fighting will
subside sooner or later.
Syrian Armenians, who trace their origins to historical Western
Armenia, rather than the territories which are part of the Republic of
Armenia today, speak a dialect distinct from Eastern Armenian spoken
in Yerevan, and have other cultural differences from "Hayastantsi"
Armenians (i.e. Armenians living in the Republic of Armenia). While
these differences can be overcome, as previous waves of Diaspora
repatriation have shown, a more significant obstacle is Armenia's
economy.
Since 2008 Armenian economy has been going through hard times, and
even many "Hayastantsi" Armenians are today looking for work abroad,
mostly in Russia. Thus, Armenia has neither job opportunities, nor the
funds for financial aid, which could help to resettle Syrian
Armenians. Government inefficiency and corruption are further
complicating the situation.
The Syrian Armenians who moved to Yerevan have the same bread and
butter issues as the locals, says Ekmanian, but they also suffer from
material and psychological consequences of war. In any case, they are
trying to integrate: some of them found jobs here, some are even using
the savings they managed to bring with them to start a business.
Syrian Armenians who had relocated to Armenia in the past are now
helping the recent newcomers to adjust. Some Syrian Armenians see
Yerevan as a temporary shelter and are planning either to return to
Syria, when things calm down, or move further to the West. But many
see Armenia as their homeland and are not planning to go anywhere.
Vrezh, 23, who works as a cook in a small family restaurant, says
that, whatever happens, he is planning to stay in Armenia. "Of course,
I miss Syria and I am worried about how things will work out there" he
adds, "but our future is here, in Armenia".
http://www.balcanicaucaso.org/eng/Regions-and-countries/Armenia/Armenians-of-Kessab-Hostages-of-the-Civil-War-151005
April 23 2014
Armenians of Kessab: Hostages of the Civil War
Mikayel Zolyan | Yerevan
24 April 2014
The small Armenian-populated town Kessab in north-western Syria found
itself in the middle of a battle since the end of March. 99 Years
after the Genocide the Plight of Syria's Armenians Stirs Memories of
1915
The small Armenian-populated town Kessab (Kassab) in north-western
Syria found itself in the middle of a battle since the end of March.
As Syrian opposition fighters, allegedly supported by Turkey and
including militant Islamist groups, entered Kessab, several thousand
Armenians living in the town were forced to leave their homes and look
for refuge from the fighting in the nearby Latakia, a major city under
government forces control. Several elder people, unable to move to
Latakia, were transferred to the village Vakif, the only
Armenian-populated village in Turkey today. The town they left has
become a battlefield for fierce fighting between Assad's forces and
the opposition.
A global campaign supported by Armenians worldwide, under the hashtag
#SaveKesab helped to draw attention to the plight of Kessab's
Armenians. US State Department and Russian Foreign Ministry, in a rare
case of agreement, both expressed concern over developments in Kessab.
Unfortunately, the legitimate concern about the Kessab's population
became a subject of media manipulations: unchecked reports, according
to which 80 Armenians had been murdered, flooded online media and
social networks, even though both Kessab's mayor and later Armenian
government sources issued statements refuting these rumours.
As journalist Gegham Vardanyan sums up, reports of civilian deaths,
based either on unchecked information or on outright fraud, were
multiplied by yellow press outlets looking for publicity, and were
further manipulated by various political actors.
While the reports of massacre, fortunately, were proved wrong, the
fighting in Kessab did result in the destruction of a well-established
community, members of which lost their ancestral homes. The plight of
Kessab Armenians can serve as a metaphor for the fate of Syrian
Armenian community in general. Once more than 80 000 strong, this was
one the most thriving Armenian communities in the Middle East. Today
Armenians of Syria are hostages of bitter civil strife. Majority of
Armenians have tried to avoid taking sides and stay away from the
conflict.
As the spiritual leader of the majority of Middle East Armenians, Aram
I, the Catholicos of Cilicia (based in Lebanon) said, "as a community,
we should not associate ourselves with any given regime, political
ideology or person, they are provisional...we remain attached to the
supreme interests of Syria".
However, keeping neutrality is not an easy task. Armenians, as other
minority groups in Syria, have reasons to worry about some rebel
groups, which follow fundamentalist ideology, and these fears are
often exploited by the government camp. In any case, thousands of
Armenians, including many from the largest community in Aleppo, have
become refugees, either relocating within Syria, or leaving the
country for Lebanon, Armenia or the Western.
History Repeating Itself?
There is an additional cause for Armenian worries: the support some
rebel groups, particularly those with Islamist leanings, are receiving
from Turkish government. Against the background of a closed
Turkish-Armenian border and the continuing denialist attitude to the
issue of genocide, Armenians of Syria perceive Turkey as a hostile
power, bent on destroying Armenian communities in its neighborhood.
Kessab, as Swiss-based analyst Vicken Cheterian points out, has
immense symbolic significance for Armenians, because it had been home
to Armenian population for over a thousand years, since the times of
Cilician Armenian kingdom. Many Armenians saw it as the last remaining
bit of historical Western Armenia, in what is today Eastern and
South-Eastern Turkey, home to millions of Armenians before 1915. Given
this background, Armenians all over the world are especially sensitive
to Turkey's role in Syrian civil war in general, and in Kessab events
in particular.
Harout Ekmanian, Armenian journalist from Aleppo who is currently
based in Yerevan, says that the perception of Turkey's role in Syria
could have been different, if the so-called Armenian-Turkish
normalization process had produced any significant outcomes and
Armenia had diplomatic relations with Turkey. However, the
Armenian-Turkish protocols signed in 2009 were never ratified by the
sides. Armenia and Turkey remain at odds over many issues, including
the issue of genocide recognition.
While many Turkish intellectuals are today publicly acknowledging that
the extermination of Armenians constituted genocide, the position of
state has not changed. On April 10 the US Senate Foreign Affairs
Commission adopted a resolution recognizing and condemning the
Armenian genocide, the Turkish government reacted sharply as it had
done for decades. Most probably, Turkey will once again use its links
with to the US executive government to prevent such a resolution from
being passed by the Senate, as it has done in the past. Turkish
position regarding relations with Armenia has also remained unchanged:
closed border, no diplomatic relations, and unilateral support for
Azerbaijan when it comes to Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Against this background, reports that Turkey backs Syrian Islamist
groups have added to the concerns about Syrian Armenians' safety. Some
voices in Armenia have even been calling for sending volunteer
fighters to Syria to help Armenians protect their homes, but president
Serzh Sargsyan stepped in to cool passions down and said that
interfering into the Syrian conflict "would have been the biggest
stupidity" and Armenians should avoid becoming a side of the conflict
in Syria.
Harout Ekmanian says that in this situation the Armenian government
should ask the Syrian government not to use Armenian populated
territories as military bases and try to establish contacts with the
countries supporting Sytian opposition, in order to assure that
Armenian communities are not attacked by the rebel groups. In the
worst case, if none of this works, says Ekmanian, Armenia should
organize transportation to Armenia of all those Armenians who would be
willing to leave Syria.
Armenia: a New Home for Syrian Armenians?
While many Syrian Armenians have moved to Armenia since the beginning
of the war ((about 10 000, according to some estimates), so far there
has been no organized government effort to repatriate the entire
Syrian Armenian community. There are several reasons for this. First
of all, many Syrian Armenians are extremely reluctant to leave Syria,
which they perceive as their homeland, hoping that the fighting will
subside sooner or later.
Syrian Armenians, who trace their origins to historical Western
Armenia, rather than the territories which are part of the Republic of
Armenia today, speak a dialect distinct from Eastern Armenian spoken
in Yerevan, and have other cultural differences from "Hayastantsi"
Armenians (i.e. Armenians living in the Republic of Armenia). While
these differences can be overcome, as previous waves of Diaspora
repatriation have shown, a more significant obstacle is Armenia's
economy.
Since 2008 Armenian economy has been going through hard times, and
even many "Hayastantsi" Armenians are today looking for work abroad,
mostly in Russia. Thus, Armenia has neither job opportunities, nor the
funds for financial aid, which could help to resettle Syrian
Armenians. Government inefficiency and corruption are further
complicating the situation.
The Syrian Armenians who moved to Yerevan have the same bread and
butter issues as the locals, says Ekmanian, but they also suffer from
material and psychological consequences of war. In any case, they are
trying to integrate: some of them found jobs here, some are even using
the savings they managed to bring with them to start a business.
Syrian Armenians who had relocated to Armenia in the past are now
helping the recent newcomers to adjust. Some Syrian Armenians see
Yerevan as a temporary shelter and are planning either to return to
Syria, when things calm down, or move further to the West. But many
see Armenia as their homeland and are not planning to go anywhere.
Vrezh, 23, who works as a cook in a small family restaurant, says
that, whatever happens, he is planning to stay in Armenia. "Of course,
I miss Syria and I am worried about how things will work out there" he
adds, "but our future is here, in Armenia".
http://www.balcanicaucaso.org/eng/Regions-and-countries/Armenia/Armenians-of-Kessab-Hostages-of-the-Civil-War-151005