Spring in Armenia...

Syria's Christians left in limbo

Christians in Syria find themselves damned if they support the regime of President Bashar Assad, and equally damned if they join the rebellion. With both the regime and Islamists looking to settle scores, the future looks bleak.

By Zvi Bar'el

Ha'aretz -- Sunday - May 12, 2013 

 

 

The Santa Ana Armenian Orthodox church, which was used as a base by Syrian army forces, in the Christian village of Yacobiyeh. Photo by AP

“Liberated Yabrud welcomes you,” proclaims a sign at the entrance to the Syrian town, located some 60 kilometers north of Damascus. With a population of 20,000, Yabrud has indeed been “liberated” from the rule of Assad’s regime. It is one of the dozens of towns the Free Syrian Army has conquered, established a base in and began organizing the civilians’ lives.

For their part, the civilians have set up a council that is responsible for day-to-day management, formed a local militia − whose members do not bear arms but rather bats − to preserve order, while soldiers from the Free Syrian Army guard against Assad’s amy retaking control. Schools have resumed classes and commercial life has also returned, partially at least.

However, last Sunday, when Christian denominations that follow the Eastern calendar celebrated Easter, the Israel Defense Forces allegedly bombed the Syrian Army’s warehouses near a Damascus airport and various sites north and west of it.

“The blasts were heard clearly and the fire was visible from everywhere,” say Yabrud residents, who decided to forgo celebrating the holiday with the traditional midnight mass and made do instead with dinner and watching television, for fear of more bombardments.

Easter celebrations in Damascus were also limited, and holiday events that were set to include performances to which civilians had been invited via websites were canceled. “You can’t celebrate when blood is flowing and Syria is under attack,” Christian civilians told reporters.

Yabrud is a city torn apart. It is home to 4,000 Christians, whose lives remain doubly in danger. Their collaboration with the Free Syrian Army, the enlistment by some of them into its ranks, and their demonstrations against the regime immediately make them an enemy in the eyes of the establishment, which, should it reconquer the town − as has happened elsewhere − will settle accounts with the collaborators. The deeper anxiety, though, is about the Islamist organizations among the rebels that view the Christians as worthy of death, or at least wish to cleanse Syria of their presence.

“The Alawites to the grave, the Christians to Beirut,” is the slogan the Islamists emblazoned on the walls of public buildings, in a town where in the 1990s Christians constituted a quarter of the population. Many of them fled to Lebanon; others made their way to Egypt or European countries. Those still in situ are stuck on the horns of a dangerous dilemma: Adopt the injunction of the Greek Catholic Church or Greek Orthodox Church not to join the ranks of the rebels and preserve neutrality, or succumb to the pressure of Sunni locals and the Free Syrian Army to take an active part in the rebellion.

“The regime is not the one watching over us. My neighbors, those I have lived with for decades, they are my protector,” a resident of the town told a reporter for a Lebanese newspaper. That same individual, who gave his first name as Michel, said he had joined the Free Syrian Army but consequently caused a great dispute among family members. “They are still afraid the regime will return and take revenge on them, or else they remain loyal to it because it protected us,” he explained. But Michel’s family also has practical reasons for supporting the regime. One member of his family works in a Syrian government office and is worried about getting fired because of Michel’s involvement in rebellious activity.

Some of the town’s Christians − those with means − contribute money, food and equipment to the Free Syrian Army, but do not join its ranks; others see the dissident soldiers as a force that might protect them from the Islamists, and are prepared to take part in the public activity it organizes, but many are still hesitating.

Closing the gap

The dilemma and fears of Yabrud’s Christians are typical of the situation Christians face throughout Syria. Last December, an organization of Syrian Christians was formed under the name Syrian Christians for Justice and Freedom. A binding name that indicates where the loyalties of its members lie.

The organization is headed by Michel Kilo, a well-known Christian intellectual, who explained that it was founded “to close the gap between the Christians who continue to support the Syrian regime on the one hand and the Syrian revolution on the other.”

The 73-year-old Kilo is a veteran dissident who was arrested twice, in the 1980s and in the middle of the last decade, for political activity and his involvement in the Syrian movement that called for reforms. He fully understands the enormous difficulty the two million Christians who live in the country find themselves in, having felt safe until now under the protection of the Alawite regime. The rule of the secular Ba’ath Party − which was founded by a Christian, Michel Aflaq − and the fact that the regime itself belongs to a minority, created a sort of brotherhood of minorities against the Sunni majority.

Many Christians were successful in business and thereby created the impression that the entire community is part of an economic elite that enjoys the closeness and protection of the regime. This image was bolstered even more in the last two years, when, for the most part, the Christians stayed away from the protests, distanced themselves from the rebel military activity and thereby aroused the fury of the Sunni majority and became a target for threats by Islamist organizations. Last month, two Greek Orthodox bishops were abducted and have yet to be released. In Aleppo, the Armenian church in the Midan district and the Protestant church in the old city were destroyed, but Christian civilians there prefer to say “these were exceptions” and ascribe the actions to criminals rather than radical organizations.

Christian women and adolescent girls wear head coverings or veils when they are on the streets, and even sound calls against the regime to blend in as devout Sunni Muslims. Many of them fled the country after a string of rape cases.

Christians in the major cities do not have armed militias and they do not have public support, hence their great dependency on the regime’s military. That dependence is also what has put their lives in real danger. More than 300,000 Christians have left Syria since the rebellion began, and the fear is that their fate will be similar to that of the Christians in Iraq, half of whom emigrated, fled or were killed.

The Christian refugees also decline to register with the offices of the refugee welfare agencies in Lebanon so as not to be labeled rebels, in case the Assad regime survives and they wish to return to their homeland. Christians who fled to Egypt or Jordan tell of harassment, fictitious marriage proposals designed to traffic their daughters, and curses and beatings for being Christians.

Another bind

Kilo’s initiative, which was meant to destroy the image of the Christians as supporters of the regime and create a new image of partners in the rebellion, places the Christians in another bind. Kilo considers the Christians who still support the regime as “either shabiha [paid thugs] or misled by the Church,” by which he means the churches’ directive to remain neutral. Kilo is the recipient of much criticism on Christians’ Facebook pages for accusing the “hesitating” Christians of betrayal or stupidity. “Betrayal of whom?” wondered one surfer on a Christian website, “the regime that until now was our sole protector? A regime which, if it falls, all the Christians will be taken out with it by the Salafist thugs or Al-Qaida’s people?”

The upshot is that cracks are forming even in the tight ranks of the Christians. Those who formerly heralded progress, liberalism, freedom of expression and were the ones to spread democratic ideas, now find themselves being forced to support the regime of oppression or else join a rebellion that itself is a threat to them. To their great despair, the Western powers − those that in the distant past used the excuse of protecting the Christian communities to intervene in the policy of Ottoman sultans − are keeping mum in the face of the massacre. Christian blood is still only Syrian blood.

What We Carry

On April 24, everyone in Armenia has the day off of work.  This day is dedicated to remember the 2 million Armenians who were massacred by the Ottoman Empire (now Turkey).  April 24 is the day of remembrance because on that day, in the year of 1915, Armenian intellectuals were hanged in Turkey, marking the first official day of the genocide.  Though this genocide is most commonly referred to as the “Armenian Genocide”, not only Armenians were massacred.  All Christians were targeted including the significant Syrian Orthodox and Greek Orthodox Christians in the region. 

My mother’s family is Syrian Orthodox and our ancestors were brutally massacred because they were Christians.  All four of my great-grandparents were orphaned.  They were taken to Lebanon where orphanages and churches were established to take care of them.   That is how my family came to be Lebanese citizens.  Over the past century, the Syrian Orthodox and Armenian communities pulled themselves up from nothing, from orphanages and refugee camps, to become thriving and successful communities in the countries to which they fled.    

Many Syrian Orthodox and Armenians found a safe haven in Syria.  In Aleppo, there was an especially large and thriving Armenian community.  However, the current war is emptying Syria of its Christians just as they have been forced out of Iraq.  Those who have not been killed are taking refuge with relatives or trying to live off their dwindling savings in Lebanon, Armenia, the United States and other countries where they can find safety. 

Yesterday, I should have gone to Armenia’s Genocide Memorial.  On April 24, everyone buys a flower and masses of people wait their turn to enter and lay a flower on the heaping pile which surrounds a single flame that always burns in remembrance.  However, yesterday I could not force myself to focus my thoughts on our Christian brothers and sisters who were massacred in 1915 because the current war consumes my thoughts and prayers. 

This week, a bishop from my church, Youhanna Ibrahim, was kidnapped by terrorists in Syria.  While all of my friends in Syria are currently either hiding in villages or have fled to other countries, Bishop Youhanna was determined to stay behind and provide as much spiritual and material comfort as he could for the people left behind. Bishop Youhanna is an old friend of my mother and her family and is known and loved by all in our congregation in Villa Park and our churches in Lebanon and Syria. 

Four months ago, two priests were kidnapped, Isaac Mahfood (Greek Orthodox) and Michael Kayyal (Armenian Catholic).  Bishop Youhanna was on his way, along with Bishop Paul Yazigy of the Greek Orthodox Church, to try to rescue the two kidnapped priests.  Rebels had agreed to release the priests if the two Bishops met them personally and handed over the ransom money.  On the way, their car was attacked by rebels.  Their driver, a deacon from the church, was killed and no one has heard anything from or about the two bishops since the kidnapping.

Yesterday, I should have gone to Armenia’s Genocide Memorial.  On April 24, everyone buys a flower.  But yesterday, I could not understand the connection between that beautiful delicate rose and remembering the genocide.  I could not comprehend the sense in it.  All those flowers that we have lain there year after year, those flowers which have already wilted and will soon be gathered by old women before the sun comes up and thrown in the trash. 

Why don’t we carry something heavy?  Or something hard?  Or something more permanent?  Why don’t we wrap our fingers around something that bares a greater resemblance to our stories and our pain and lay that at the flame that burns in memory of our ancestors? 

I can only speak for myself, but I think that to carry something as beautiful as a flower to the memorial of one of history’s ugliest stories is not something that I could do in memory of my ancestors but rather, in hope of my own future.  I can’t carry it for them, I can’t carry it for our Bishop who is captured in Syria but maybe I could carry it for my own children.  In hope that they will be born into a world that still has beautiful things, delicate things, gentle things.  In hope that they will be able to grow up in a world where it is still possible to understand the word “sacred”…in hope that my children will cling to what is beautiful and be able to live out all their days with unwavering faith in a God who loves them.

The stories that I carry in my heart, the stories I tell again and again, those jagged boulders are what I carry for my ancestors, for Bishop Youhanna and the others in captivity, for all those who have suffered in the name of Christ.  But I must admit that this flower, I carry for myself.  This candle, I light for myself. 

And I know God understands that it is only because sometimes I need to hold Him in my hands.  To feel, on earth, some physical manifestation of words that I will only be able to understand fully when I come into His presence.   I know that what I carry in my arms bears no significance compared to the cross that is written in my heart.  It is my greatest sorrow and greatest hope. 

However you choose to remember those who have suffered in the past and those who suffer today, I ask that you take some time to pray that people will one day stop repeating the same evils.  Today I also ask that you say a special prayer for our brothers being held captive in Syria.  Pray that they will be released soon and in good physical condition, pray that they are not being tortured, pray that, even as they are held captive, they feel the peace in having Jesus nearby.  May every evil we suffer in this world make our love and understanding of God more complete. Thank God that no matter what they do to our bodies, they can never remove the cross from our hearts. 

Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is heaven.  Amen.

Statement on the Kidnapping of Christian leaders in Syria. Please pray.

Church leaders call for prayer after kidnapping of Syrian Christian leaders

We join the voices in Syria, the Middle East, and around the world that deplore the abduction of Metropolitan Paul Yazigi of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Aleppo and Mar Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim of the Syriac Orthodox Archdiocese of Aleppo. As their brothers and sisters in Christ, we call for the immediate release of these two bishops.

 

We ask Presbyterians to join in prayer for the bishops and for the Christian community in Syria and the wider Middle East. We pray for a just peace where all Syrians are welcomed, respected, and protected.

 

We recognize the significant roles played by these bishops. Faithful shepherds, they have been working in humanitarian efforts, accompanying the beleaguered Syrian Christian community and encouraging their members to remain in their land. Additionally, these bishops are recognized as pillars in Muslim-Christian dialogue in the region, working for mutual respect, mutual understanding, and solidarity.

 

The abduction of the bishops is but one example of the threats the Christian community faces in Syria. Our partners report the abduction of a number of Christians including other members of the clergy. They note that opposition forces often seize Christian property as they move their troops through the country. Many churches have been destroyed by heavy bombing and mortar attacks. We grieve to see religion being used as a weapon.

 

Presbyterian ties to Syria date to the early 1800s. We remain deeply committed to the people of Syria and the Middle East. During the current crisis, we have supported our sisters and brothers in Christ through prayer, advocacy for a peaceful solution to the crisis, and financial gifts to help care for those who are displaced by the fighting.

 

Through Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, we are at work with our church partner, the National Evangelical  (Presbyterian) Synod of Syria and Lebanon, and our ecumenical partner, ACT (Action by Churches Together) Alliance, to help meet the needs of the millions of Syrians who have been displaced by violence.

 

As followers of Jesus Christ, we live, act, and pray in the hope that peace and justice will prevail. May it be so.

 

 

See statements on this issue by the World Council of Churches, the World Communion of Reformed Churches, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, the Orthodox Church in America, the Arab Group for Muslim – Christian Dialogue and the Forum for Development, Culture and Dialogue.

LAST PICTURE TAKEN OF MOR GREGORIOS YOHANNA IBRAHIM - SYRIAC HELP MET HIM 1 WEEK AGO

An executive team assigned by Syriac Help was sent to Lebanon to meet His Eminence Mor Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim. The Team, included the chairman Ersen Bethersen and Milad Afrem Malki. They crossed the border to Syria together with His Eminence to inspect the humanitarian affairs of the Syriac community and to study the feasibility of a Joint project of safety housing of the Christian destitute people.

This picture was taken in the outskirts of Homs on 17 April 2013, when His Eminence together with our executive volunteers. Despite our executives’ p...lea to His Eminence to stay with them, he bravely and selflessly decided to go back to Aleppo to negotiate the release and the rescue of the two kidnapped members of his Metropolitanate.

The metropolitan went on to Aleppo to meet the kidnappers, and successfully negotiated the release of the 2 kidnapped young men. Now that we have been informed that the metropolitan himself with his brother, bishop of the Greek Orthodox Church have been kidnapped and so far there is no news from them or demand by their captives.

Our discomfort, anguish and anxiety is beyond words. We are constantly on the phones since the news has reached us, and can only pray to God to help and encourage His Eminence and his brother bishop, so they can handle the ordeal.

 We plead to all believers around the world to intensify your prayers to God, and to request esteemed governments to intensive their effort, to secure the safe release of our heroic metropolitans and unite them with their flocks who are at this juncture in desperate need of a good shepherd.






 

URGENT APPEAL FOR PRAYER AND ACTION

Please share and write to your senators!

Metropolitans Paul Yazigy (Greek Orthodox) and Youhanna Ibrahim (Syrian Orthodox) of Aleppo were abducted by Syrian rebels after their driver (a deacon) was killed. The two hierarchs were trying to release two kidnapped priests, and the rebels finally agreed to do so only if the money was handed over by them personally. The kidnapped priests Isaac Mahfood (Greek Orthodox) and Michael Kayyal (Armenian Catholic) were kidnapped four months ago. The support for these terrorists must stop! Our nation has enough blood on its hands! May God have mercy on us all!

A letter from my Syrian friend...

Dear friends and partners,

 

Thanks a million for all you do to support the ministry with the refugees.

 

Last week I visited northern Lebanon with the Rev. Tramper, who was visiting on behalf of the GZB of Holland.  We passed by some of the miserable tents under which the refugees are living. After that, we passed through some buildings where more than one family lives in every apartment. When children saw a camera they would shout, “Do not take pictures!” The misery is beyond what anyone would want to see in any circumstances.

 

Yesterday, I visited the Biccaa valley with two Presbyterian pastors. We wanted to see about the work in an old Presbyterian school that is being turned into apartments to host refugees.  While the work has been in process for weeks now, it will take few more before it will be furnished and ready to receive families who need comfort.

 

The tragedy seems to go on and the horror stories are on every tongue. As I mentioned in a previous letter, the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon (NESSL) has made the decision to go ahead and establish a disaster relief program that can immediately respond to the needs of people.

 

This morning I was told that at a road near one of the hot areas, a service car was stopped and 80 bodies were shoveled into a truck. Unbelievable!!!

 

Please let me tell of a meeting with one of the relief agencies who cooperate with the UN in relief work in Lebanon.  They work with 20-50 thousand refugees.  People must be officially registered in order to receive vouchers to buy food and other daily needs. Many Christians do not register, and thus they do not receive help. These are not rich people at all. They do not want to reveal that they left the country. We can only guess why they don’t register!

 

Personally and on behalf of the NESSL, I appeal to you, dear friends and partners in the service of God, to pray with us and urge those who are making decisions to help bring the people of Syria together to dialogue and plan a future together. There is no other way to end this tragedy.