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NO 'SAFE HAVEN' FOR SYRIA'S CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY: MANCHESTER LECTURER ANALYSES DILEMMA OF ALEPPO'S REFUGEES
By Mihaela Ivantcheva
Mancunian Matters
http://mancunianmatters.co.uk/content/03084726-no-%E2%80%98safe-haven%E2%80%99-syrias-christian-community-manchester-lecturer-analyses-dilemma-ale
Aug 3 2012
UK
No neighbouring country can offer Syria's Christian refugees a 'safe
haven', a Manchester University lecturer is claiming, as fighting
rages on in the northern city of Aleppo.
Neither Turkey nor Lebanon can offer secure refuge to Aleppo's
Christian population and the prospects of Syria's division between
Sunni and Shi'ite threatens Syrian Christian's freedom, analyses Dr
Emma Loosley, Senior Lecturer at the University of Manchester.
Dr Loosley, an archaeologist and historian, who lived in a monastic
community in Syria for three years, said: "It it is inconceivable
that any neighbouring nation - especially Turkey - can offer a safe
haven for Christian refugees."
She said that most Christians were descended from twentieth-century
refugees from what is now Turkey, fleeing from the Armenian Genocide
of 1915 and its aftermath. According to her, Aleppo has now Syria's
largest Christian population.
"Many of Aleppo's Christians remember their parents and grandparents
recounting stories of what happened. The Syrian Orthodox population
who spoke an Armenian dialect in Edessa and inter-married with their
Armenian neighbours, lost hundreds of thousands in the massacres,"
she said.
"More recent immigrants have fled, almost to the present day, to avoid
the cultural genocide of their people as the Turkish government have
forbidden them to teach their children in their own language, Turoyo,
a modern Syriac dialect, and have done everything they can to obstruct
Christian worship.
"So there is no over-estimating the trauma inflicted by the Ottoman
Empire and early Turkish Republic on the Christians of Syria. It is
misguided to expect Syrian Christians to see Turkey as a place of
refuge from the current civil war."
Dr Loosley's analysis goes on to say that Lebanon remained 'an
unpalatable choice' for Syrian Christians due to anti-Syrian feelings
among many sectors of Lebanese society.
"While the West seeks to draw Turkey ever closer into military
alliances and the EU dangles the carrot of European Union membership
in front of the Turkish government, the periodic insistence of the
French Government in asking for recognition of the Armenian Genocide
is pushed under the carpet by other nations," she said.
Dr Loosley thinks that the passivity of the Christian community is
caused by 'fear and psychological trauma'.
"Some believe that Syria will be ultimately divided into Sunni and
Shi'ite 'spheres of influence'. This is terrifying for Christians,
who believe the resulting Saudi, Iranian and Turkish influences would
end their freedom to worship and full citizenship of Syrian society,"
she added.
Latest news from the embattled city of Aleppo says that intense
explosions have erupted along Syria's border with Turkey as fighting
between rebels and the Assad regime continues to rage.
By Mihaela Ivantcheva
Mancunian Matters
http://mancunianmatters.co.uk/content/03084726-no-%E2%80%98safe-haven%E2%80%99-syrias-christian-community-manchester-lecturer-analyses-dilemma-ale
Aug 3 2012
UK
No neighbouring country can offer Syria's Christian refugees a 'safe
haven', a Manchester University lecturer is claiming, as fighting
rages on in the northern city of Aleppo.
Neither Turkey nor Lebanon can offer secure refuge to Aleppo's
Christian population and the prospects of Syria's division between
Sunni and Shi'ite threatens Syrian Christian's freedom, analyses Dr
Emma Loosley, Senior Lecturer at the University of Manchester.
Dr Loosley, an archaeologist and historian, who lived in a monastic
community in Syria for three years, said: "It it is inconceivable
that any neighbouring nation - especially Turkey - can offer a safe
haven for Christian refugees."
She said that most Christians were descended from twentieth-century
refugees from what is now Turkey, fleeing from the Armenian Genocide
of 1915 and its aftermath. According to her, Aleppo has now Syria's
largest Christian population.
"Many of Aleppo's Christians remember their parents and grandparents
recounting stories of what happened. The Syrian Orthodox population
who spoke an Armenian dialect in Edessa and inter-married with their
Armenian neighbours, lost hundreds of thousands in the massacres,"
she said.
"More recent immigrants have fled, almost to the present day, to avoid
the cultural genocide of their people as the Turkish government have
forbidden them to teach their children in their own language, Turoyo,
a modern Syriac dialect, and have done everything they can to obstruct
Christian worship.
"So there is no over-estimating the trauma inflicted by the Ottoman
Empire and early Turkish Republic on the Christians of Syria. It is
misguided to expect Syrian Christians to see Turkey as a place of
refuge from the current civil war."
Dr Loosley's analysis goes on to say that Lebanon remained 'an
unpalatable choice' for Syrian Christians due to anti-Syrian feelings
among many sectors of Lebanese society.
"While the West seeks to draw Turkey ever closer into military
alliances and the EU dangles the carrot of European Union membership
in front of the Turkish government, the periodic insistence of the
French Government in asking for recognition of the Armenian Genocide
is pushed under the carpet by other nations," she said.
Dr Loosley thinks that the passivity of the Christian community is
caused by 'fear and psychological trauma'.
"Some believe that Syria will be ultimately divided into Sunni and
Shi'ite 'spheres of influence'. This is terrifying for Christians,
who believe the resulting Saudi, Iranian and Turkish influences would
end their freedom to worship and full citizenship of Syrian society,"
she added.
Latest news from the embattled city of Aleppo says that intense
explosions have erupted along Syria's border with Turkey as fighting
between rebels and the Assad regime continues to rage.