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Armenian Christians Torn In Syria's Civil War

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  • Armenian Christians Torn In Syria's Civil War

    ARMENIAN CHRISTIANS TORN IN SYRIA'S CIVIL WAR

    The Daily Star
    Oct 1 2012
    Lebanon

    By Martin Armstrong, Lauren Williams

    BEIRUT: Armenian Christians in Aleppo are being dragged in to the
    increasingly sectarian civil war in the country, straining the
    leadership's policy of neutrality. Government shelling and fighting
    between the forces loyal to President Bashar Assad and the opposition
    fighters has reached the predominantly Christian neighborhoods of
    Al-Midan, Suleimaniyah and Azizieh in the center of the city.

    On Sept. 11, four Syrian Armenians were killed and 13 wounded when
    the bus they were traveling on from the airport came under fire.

    Initial reports suggested rebels with the Free Syrian Army shot at
    the bus. Free Syrian Army leadership have denied responsibility and
    blame government forces for the attack. It remains unclear who was
    responsible, but the incident has served to highlight growing tensions
    in the community.

    Persistent reports from Armenian Christian residents and media
    activists in Aleppo say some Christian groups are arming in the city.

    Several sources told The Daily Star the Armenian leadership turned
    down a government offer to arm the Armenian Christian community,
    but say some Armenians are accepting weapons from the regime to join
    pro-government militia groups known as the "popular committees."

    "They paid around 15,000 Syrian Pounds ($22) to every guy who wanted
    to join the popular committees," explained activist George, who asked
    that his surname not be used, adding that around 400 men had taken
    up the offer.

    "The regime tells them: These terrorists are backed by Turkey and
    this is your chance for revenge on Turkey.

    "In this way they exploit the Christians' loyalty, but I think it's
    failed."

    The Armenian community in Aleppo, numbering some 80,000 and whose
    roots extend as far back as the first century B.C., has enjoyed broad
    cultural autonomy and benevolent ties with the Alawite regime - a
    relationship often cited as part of the government's policy of courting
    the country's ethnic and religious minorities to counter-balance the
    Sunni majority.

    As they moved into central Aleppo, the majority Sunni Free Syrian
    Army issued repeated assurances that minorities will not be harmed and
    has called on Christians to join their fight against the government.

    However, recent accounts from residents in the city say Islamist
    fighters are increasingly targeting Christians for their perceived
    support of the regime.

    "They demanded the Armenian community give up those who were joining
    the shabbiha," said one man, using a pseudonym of Firas.

    On Sept. 14, the leaders of the three Armenian churches in Aleppo -
    Armenian Catholic, Armenian Orthodox, and Armenian Evangelical - issued
    a joint statement aimed at clarifying the position of the community:

    "As the bloodshed continues unabated in our dear country ... what
    adds to our anguish are the unsuccessful attempts of presenting the
    Syrian Armenians as taking part in the armed battles of the current
    Syrian crisis or trying to actually drag them into such a conflict,"
    the statement said.

    "We reiterate today, that the peaceful co-existence that the Syrian
    Armenians have cultivated throughout the decades continues ... and
    it will definitely stay against all kinds of violence and armed
    collisions."

    Speaking via telephone from Aleppo, spokesman for the Armenian
    Prelacy of Aleppo Jirayr Reyisian told The Daily Star churches as
    well as mosques, schools and residential buildings had been damaged
    by government shelling and in clashes between groups, insisting he
    did not believe Christians were being targeted.

    He outlined the prelacy's work in providing humanitarian aid and
    shelter to all victims of the fighting.

    "Bombs don't differentiate between sects," he said.

    On the question of arms in the community, he said "some armed groups
    are supporting the army and there are some Armenians among them. We
    have nothing to do with that."

    "We are not worried. We fear the situation for the whole country, for
    all the people in Syria. But we are not taking sides in this crisis."

    That sentiment was echoed by members of the Lebanese Armenian
    community, who adopted a policy of neutrality during the Lebanese
    Civil War.

    Hagop Pakradounian, Tashnag party MP for the Metn, notes that as the
    conflict in Syria has escalated traditional positions of loyalty toward
    the Syrian state among the Armenian community have been compromised.

    "Wherever Armenians have been they have supported the country,
    the state, but with the mutual killing in Syria now we have seen the
    abolition of the concept of the Syrian nation as it has descended into
    civil war," says Pakradounian. "The idea of Syria has disappeared ...

    If someone attacks their [an Armenian] family, home or business then
    they are obliged to defend themselves, not for the government nor
    the opposition."

    Reverend Paul Haidostian, President of the Haigazian University in
    Beirut, estimates that approximately 25 percent of Syria's Armenian
    population has been displaced by the conflict. While the majority has
    relocated to areas within Syria less affected by the conflict he says
    around 2,000 have fled to Armenia and a similar number to Lebanon.

    Since the majority stay with relatives in the Bourj Hammoud and
    Ashrafieh areas of Beirut and the town of Anjar in the Bekaa they do
    not register with the UNHCR or ICRC, making precise numbers difficult
    to verify.

    However, Haidostian is quick to point out the official position of
    neutrality adopted by the Armenian community in Aleppo, but he fears
    that the continued escalation of conflict in Aleppo could result in
    the permanent displacement of the Armenian community:

    "I don't think that the Armenian community is any more vulnerable
    than other communities," states Haidostian.

    "What worries us in Aleppo, is what has worried us in Iraq and
    elsewhere, that some displacement trends may be irreversible if the
    conflict becomes more violent. Minorities often pay a higher price
    in terms of quantity and quality of existence."

    At the social club of the Armenian Tashnag party in Bourj Hammoud,
    Ogsen, 56, [an alias] struggled to contain his emotions. He fled
    to Beirut from Al-Midan just over a week ago, along with his mother
    and nephew. His brother, paralyzed from the waist down, remains in
    Syria's second city.

    "We couldn't take him," Ogsen says with a shake of his head, recalling
    his 14-hour journey to Beirut and his fear approaching checkpoints,
    unsure whether they were controlled by Assad forces or the opposition.

    "When a checkpoint was controlled by the army, then I felt relaxed,"
    says Ogsen, "but if it was an opposition checkpoint I was terrified."

    "I love my country, I love my president but I had to leave," Ogsen
    says almost apologetically. "Everyone was leaving. I saw a young
    girl die in front of my house, a soldier shot her through the head
    by a sniper. So many people ...," he tails off, his dark curly hair
    drooping over his brow as he bows his head toward the floor.

    "They call themselves the Army of Freedom but they are terrorists,"
    he says - the buzzword a constant in his referrals to the opposition
    to the Syrian president.

    Amin, 26, from the Suleimaniyah district of Aleppo similarly uses
    the word "terrorist" when referring to the Syrian opposition.

    Amin arrived in Beirut two months ago after the car factory in which
    he worked shut down and he was unable to find work.

    "I left [Aleppo] because I wasn't going to wait and die but now I am
    running out of money. I don't know if I can stay but I don't want to
    go back."

    "Maybe I would return to sell my house but then I would leave. I
    wouldn't live there."

    http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2012/Oct-01/189725-armenian-christians-torn-in-syrias-civil-war.ashx#axzz280W5C161


    From: Baghdasarian
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