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  • Potential air strikes in Syria cause concern for Syrian-Armenians in

    Glendale News Press, CA
    Aug 31 2013

    Potential air strikes in Syria cause concern for Syrian-Armenians in Glendale

    Leaders in local Syrian-Armenian community oppose U.S. military action.

    August 30, 2013|By Brittany Levine and Veronica Rocha |
    By Brittany Levine and Veronica Rocha


    While President Barack Obama announced Friday that any military action
    responding to chemical attacks in Syria would be limited in scope,
    leaders in the Syrian-Armenian community in Glendale said they oppose
    any armed response from the United States.

    `I don't want my country to be that merchant of destruction,' said
    Zaven Khanjian, an Aleppo native and Glendale real estate agent who
    leads the nonprofit Syrian Armenian Relief Fund. `Whatever [the
    military action] is, it will bring death and destruction.'

    As the conflict between rebels and the sitting government led by
    Syrian President Bashar Assad has worsened over the past two years,
    locals' fears for their friends and family in Syria - especially those
    in the large city of Aleppo, which has been one of the hardest hit by
    violence - have ballooned.


    They hear stories almost daily of kidnappings, stray bullets striking
    innocents, panic and economic hardship in historically Armenian
    neighborhoods in Aleppo.

    During a televised announcement Friday, Obama said he has not made a
    final decision, but he assured Americans he is against a long-term
    response.

    `We're not considering any open-ended commitment. We're not
    considering any boots-on-the-ground approach,' he said.

    The president's announcement comes after the U.S. intelligence
    community released a report Friday detailing a chemical weapons
    attack, which they believed was carried out by the Syrian government
    using a nerve agent.

    Despite Obama's assurance, the Armenian community in Syria is
    preparing for an imminent attack and war, said Lena Bozoyan,
    chairwoman of the Armenian Relief Society of Western USA's executive
    board.

    Her organization, which has given financial aid to Syrian-Armenian
    charities during the conflict, believes `the whole Armenian community
    worldwide [is] very wary and concerned of military intervention that
    would only add to the suffering of all people on both sides and would
    not be a solution to the conflict in Syria and could threaten and
    destabilize the whole region.'

    The British Parliament voted on Thursday against taking military
    action in Syria, while French President Francois Hollande supported
    air strikes.

    http://articles.glendalenewspress.com/2013-08-30/news/tn-gnp-potential-air-strikes-in-syria-cause-concern-for-syrianarmenians-in-glendale-20130830_1_aleppo-syrian-armenians-military-action

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