Cholakyan: Kessab events negatively affected Armenian community of Aleppo

Armenia should adopt a serious action plan and try – with the help of superpowers - to halt Turkey’s actions in Syria, the scholar and ethnographer from Syria Hakob Cholakyan told reporters today.

In his words, from the very beginning Turkey sent a huge number of terrorists to Syria. “At that time the security of Aleppo’s Armenian community was endangered. The districts where Armenian businessmen used to live were mostly damaged. They all either moved to Latakia or emigrated to Lebanon, Armenia and other countries,” the scholar noted.

According to him, today the armed groups have focused their attention on three districts of Aleppo – Nor Gyugh, Villaner and Suleimaniyeh which are still populated by Armenians.

“A lot of Armenians suffered in the last three years. Schools, churches and institutions have been destroyed. A tense situation has emerged following the Kessab events. Armenian residents abandoned their homes in 11 villages and the central district of Kessab. About 2000 Armenians from other regions of Syria lived there during the war, but they also had to move to the south, to safer regions,” he said.

“The situation is becoming increasingly dangerous. Yet the outside world does not want to intervene. Strikes on Aleppo’s Armenian community have intensified since the Kessab events. The number of killed and wounded people has reached a catastrophic scale. Large Armenian districts, all the national institutions in Nor Gyugh district, including the Armenian Catholic Church, St. Grigor Lusavorich Church, other spiritual and cultural centers, have been destroyed. It is a tragic situation. Many Armenian families have housing and food problems. Our silence is the most dangerous thing at the moment,” the ethnographer said.

He stressed that the Syrian Armenian community, with his heart in Aleppo, is currently in danger. In his words, Aleppo’s Armenian community – one of the largest in the Diaspora – used to provide the whole Diaspora with educational and spiritual food. “All this is now turning into ashes. It is a terrible phenomenon,” the scholar noted.

In conclusion, he said that the Syrian Armenians continue to believe that one fine day Syria will be reborn. They hope that the Syrian army will reverse the situation, but the number of casualties is increasing day by day.