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  • ISTANBUL: Attack on Syrian town of Kessab might cause headache for T

    Today's Zaman, Turkey
    April 6 2014


    Attack on Syrian town of Kessab might cause headache for Turkey


    6 April 2014, Sunday /LAMÄ°YA ADÄ°LGIZI, Ä°STANBUL

    The attack by Syrian opposition forces on the ethnic Armenian town of
    Kessab in northern Syria could pose new problems for Ankara, amid the
    upcoming anniversary of the 1915 mass killings -- which Armenians
    describe as a genocide -- marked on April 24.

    Kessab is located on the Mediterranean coast of northern Syria, close
    to the border with Turkey. Having been populated by Armenians for
    centuries, Kessab is a town with a Christian population in a country
    with a majority Islamic population. As the Syrian civil war continues,
    some areas of the country have been taken over by extremist and
    Islamist militants.

    Fighters from Syrian opposition groups -- including the
    al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front, designated as a terrorist group by the
    US -- seized control of Kessab on March 16. Most of the Armenian
    residents of the town, administratively a part of Syria's province of
    Latakia, had fled before the attack began. Kessab, previously home to
    over 2,000 ethnic Armenians, was reportedly left almost empty as
    locals moved either to the nearby city of Latakia or fled Syria
    entirely.

    The forced flight from Kessab has special significance for Armenians
    because the town has long been an important regional Armenian hub to
    which many ethnic Armenians in the wider region fled following ethnic
    upheavals. Many Armenians have also drawn parallels with the forced
    expulsions which took place in 1915.

    The attack on Kessab -- which was known as a bastion of support for
    the Assad regime -- and the flight of its residents has caused
    international outrage. Armenia has accused Turkey of providing support
    to the extremists. In response, the Turkish government has reiterated
    that it only gives humanitarian aid, rather than military support,
    which some sources claim.

    Organizations representing the Armenian diaspora in the US have
    claimed that Ankara is providing support to the Syrian extremists who
    perpetrated that attack on Kessab. The Armenian National Committee of
    America (ANCA) issued a statement on March 28 urging the US government
    to take immediate action to end the `vicious onslaught on the
    historically Armenian town of Kessab, Syria, which was overrun by
    al-Qaeda affiliated terrorists in an attack launched from Turkey on
    March 21.' The Syrian government, as well as several Armenian
    websites, has claimed that the rebels entered Syria from Turkey.

    The Armenian government called on the UN to protect Kessab and accused
    Turkey of allowing extremists to use its soil to assault the town. The
    Russian government has also called on the UN Security Council to
    discuss the Kessab incident. Commenting on the attack, Taraf columnist
    and Armenian activist Hayko BaÄ?dat said in an interview with Sunday's
    Zaman that what is happening to Armenians in Syria should not be
    surprising. He also claimed that long before the Kessab incident,
    Turkey's Armenian community had asked the Turkish government to
    protect Syrian Armenians, who are mostly survivors of the Anatolian
    residents who were forced from the Ottoman Empire in 1915.

    Syria has for decades been home to ethnic Armenians who were forced to
    flee Turkey during the tragic events in 1915. Armenians consider the
    events to constitute a genocide, while Turkey maintains that there was
    no systematic campaign to kill Armenians and that many Turks also died
    during the chaotic disintegration of the Ottoman Empire.

    According to BaÄ?dat, the request by Turkey's Armenian community was at
    first warmly accepted by Ankara, which thought it would be good
    publicity, advertising positive treatment to ethnic Armenians, in the
    run-up to next year's centennial of the 1915 events. However, BaÄ?dat
    claims that the Turkish government then ignored the community's
    request, passing it to the office of President Abdullah Gül, which
    suggested that help be sent via the Red Cross and the Ä°stanbul-based
    Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople.

    `The Turkish government brushed off the issue. This was a chance to
    welcome Syrian Armenians to Turkey and to help them find shelter and
    receive an education with the logistical help of Turkish Armenians,'
    BaÄ?dat said. `There is no need to send them to Turkish refugee camps,'
    he added.

    Since the beginning of the clashes around Kessab, Ankara has issued
    official statements welcoming Armenians from Kessab. During a visit to
    Brussels, Foreign Minister Ahmet DavutoÄ?lu reiterated on Monday that
    Turkey's doors are `wide open' to Syrian Armenians and dismissed
    accusations that Turkey is deliberately helping an al-Qaeda-linked
    group that is killing Armenians.

    `This is not the case,' said DavutoÄ?lu, adding that Turkey would help
    anyone fleeing the Syrian war and will welcome the Armenians without
    any discrimination, just as it has been helping hundreds of thousands
    of other Syrians fleeing Syria.

    `If, as Turkey claims, it does not have a sectarian policy but is
    dealing with the Syria issue from a humanitarian perspective, then it
    should do something to save Syrian Armenians who were victims of the
    genocide,' BaÄ?dat said. He also mentioned that Armenians are deeply
    concerned that the acceptance of Armenian refugees might be used by
    the Turkish government to propagandize claims that the Turkish
    government has accommodated Armenians from Syria -- proving that they
    have never had problems with Armenians in their history.

    http://www.todayszaman.com/news-343813-attack-on-syrian-town-of-kessab-might-cause-headache-for-turkey.html

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