Hike to an ancient church in the mountains of northern Armenia

The destruction of St. Mary’s Syriac Orthodox Church and Al-Wahda School in Dair Al-Zor, SYRIA

LETTER FROM THE SYRIAN-ORTHODOX ARCHBISHOP MOR EUSTATHIUS MATTA ROHAM

The destruction of St. Mary’s Syriac Orthodox Church and Al-Wahda School in Dair Al-Zor, SYRIA

It is a very sad day for me to see how much destruction occurred to our St. Mary’s Church, its Al-Wahda Private School and its neighborhood in Dair Al-Zor.
... Syria is facing a savage war against civilization. I feel that our beloved country is going through its own “III World War”. All parties of conflict are losing day after day. If the rebels think they will win at the end, I believe they will win a ruined country. Likewise, if the regime itself thinks of winning the war, I assume it will win a destroyed country, thousands of orphans and widows, and enmity. However, the most loosing group among citizens is the poor.

The question which people address to all those who are fighting each other is: who is going to reconstruct what we have built after many years of hard work!?

His Eminence Mor Eustathius Matta Roham
Metropolitan of Jazirah & Euphrates
Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch and All East

A letter from a friend in the Presbyterian church of Syria

Dear friends and partners in the ministry of Christ,

 I write on behalf of the Synod of Syria and Lebanon praising God for your part in our ministry; especially during these trying times in our part of the world.

 Yesterday, during a very cold tour of the Christian Valley, I visited a young woman and her mother in their one room home, which they have been using as a living room, dining room and bedroom. After a few exchanges the young woman said:

 “We came from Homs in February of 2012. We lived quite comfortably there, as I held a good job with a bank. Thinking it would only be for a short time, we left our home with only a few things. Ten days later my brother went home to check on the house and bring back some much needed clothing. He found that the rebels had taken the house! He asked if it was possible to take some clothes for his family and the rebels allowed him to open the closets. They were filled with guns, boxes of bullets and other weapons. All of our things had been piled in one room as the rest of the house had been transformed into a rebel operation center. My brother left saying nothing.”

 I asked what the church has done to help. She said, “The church has given us food, basic necessities, and twice some financial assistance to pay the rent. This room costs us 15,000 Syrian pounds a month (equal 150-200 US dollars)! My mother sold her gold bracelets to pay the rent and now we are living month to month!”

Then mother and daughter both began to cry. “We are dead while living. Where we used to be, where we are now… what will become of us? What future must we expect?”

 Then, with a heavy heart, I went to visit two other women from the Homs church and did not succeed as all of their shutters were closed and there was no electricity to ring the doorbell.

 As time wears on, more and more people are growing concerned over their dwindling resources. Walking these streets, one hears neighbors complaining about the high cost of food, the unpredictable availability of electricity and the longing for those everyday necessities that are now seen as luxuries. Many Syrians, like my 87 year old mother, were only able to purchase one hundred liters of fuel since the beginning of winter; enough to heat only one room through the cold season. People pray that the next shipment of fuel will not be blown up by rebel groups on its way to their town.

It is indeed a tragic situation on every level, but keep in mind that the Christian Valley has not seen much fighting.  In fact, many Syrians have sought refuge there after being driven out of their home towns. However, though this region has been spared from the bloodiest battles of the civil war, there is one question that weighs heavily on everyone’s mind; how long will Christians be allowed to stay in Syria?

The Church has always known itself as God's arm outstretched to help the needy, strengthen the weak, and stand by the oppressed. Thus, the Synod of Syria and Lebanon has always had two permanent committees to respond to the poor and the sick; the committee on medical and social services and the committee on education and tuition assistance. In response to the devastating effects of the civil war, the Synod established its third committee in 2012. This committee works to assist displaced Syrians in Syria and Lebanon.

 In my previous report I listed several Presbyterian churches that have suffered from loss and destruction. Those churches are in Homs, Aleppo, Ghassanieh, and Edlib. I also gave statistics of families and individuals requesting immediate help for basic living expenses such as food, clothing, and rental assistance. The Synod has done its utmost to provide for these families, and their numbers are growing…

 It is important to mention that though the Synod is concerned with their plight, we are trying to avoid emptying Syria of its Christians. We will, therefore, continue to provide assistance to those displaced by war and do whatever possible to help them stay within their own country. Pastors and session members of every Syrian Presbyterian church are working as relief agents; visiting families in their homes, coordinating efforts with other churches, and consistently communicating developments to the Synod. Despite our concerns and efforts, we believe that while it would be most tragic for Syria to lose all of its Christians, no one has the right to ask these families to stay under perpetual threat of violence and persecution.

 So we appeal to all our partners in the ministry of Christ to pray with us for peace and justice and for God's mercy and forgiveness for all.

 Once again, dear friends and partners, thank you for your prayers and support.

 To God be the glory.

 Mary Mikhael

On behalf of the Synod of Syria and Lebanon

Has Assad Regained Upper Hand?

By: Sami Kleib Translated from As-Safir (Lebanon).

The second anniversary of the Syrian crisis is less than two months away. The first time that US President Barack Obama called for the departure of his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad was on Aug. 18, 2011. That was one and a half years ago. Even earlier, on May 28, 2011, French President Nicolas Sarkozy demanded Assad’s departure. So have the Turks and the Arabs on many occasions. But the Syrian president remains.

About This Article

Summary : Contrary to Western expectations, the Syrian regime is not about to fall, with several factors indicating that the balance of power may have shifted in the regime’s favor, writes Sami Kleib. Publisher: As-Safir (Lebanon) Original Title: A Political Report on the Global Cold War in Syria and its Impact on Lebanon. Damascus is Not Worried: The Political and Military Winds Have Changed Direction Author: Sami Kleib First Published: January 21, 2013 Posted on: January 23 2013 Translated by: Rani Geha Categories : Syria

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov recently said that “Assad’s departure is impossible.” Ali Akbar Velayati, the international affairs advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader, said that “Assad is a red line.” Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem later came out and denied what Vice President Farouq al-Sharaa had said. Moallem asserted that those who insist on Assad’s departure are prolonging the war in Syria.

From that, one can conclude that the Russia-Iran-Syria axis has survived and may even achieve security and political gains. The question is now, why did this happen? The reasons may soon be seen in Lebanon's electoral law. In Moscow, Tehran, Syria and Lebanon, many believe that what's happened in Syria represents a global cold war. In Damascus, one of the two sides will come out victorious — unless there is a major political settlement.

Those who visited Assad recently were surprised by how unworried he seemed. From his palace — which, contrary to rumor, he has never left — the president discussed the current situation as if the balance of power has turned. He said that his government will continue to solidify its presence even as the war drags on. He said that the battle is no longer between the government and the opposition, but rather between the state and “terrorists,” and that the fighting will continue until the latter is eliminated.

The president expressed full confidence in his regime and his army. He never doubted the commitment of his Russian ally at the international level or of his Iranian ally in the region. He cracked jokes even as the war is raging. He said in a reassuring tone, “I have said from the outset that the strategic alliance with the Russians does not change at every turn. Many thought that I was exaggerating.” That alliance began in early 2007, and it has strengthened and become the bulwark against any attempt to harass Syria from both inside and outside of the UN Security Council.

Assad is not worried about the spread of the armed opposition in Syria. His analysis shows that his army can win many future battles. Syria’s geography has allowed the opposition media to portray the regime’s security structure as if it has nearly collapsed. Syrian demography does not allow the army to remain in the areas where it won a battle. Instead, the army kills a lot of gunmen, and then pulls back. Other gunmen move in to take their place. But Assad is confident that “the friendly environment [for the rebels] is about to radically change.” Many citizens have helped the army locate militant hideouts, and hundreds of gunmen have recently been killed with citizens’ help.

In the past few weeks, Assad’s optimism in front of his visitors was corroborated by several international and regional factors, notably:

• There is genuine U.S. concern about Jabhat al-Nusra and other jihadists, which harms the “Western-approved” opposition. In addition, there is awareness that the Syrian army, which has suffered few defections in two years, is no longer likely to disintegrate. The same applies to the Syrian diplomatic corps, which has surprised Robert Ford, the former US ambassador to Damascus. He tried very hard to make a breakthrough in the Syrian political and security establishment. Starting in the second month of the Syrian crisis, he tried to persuade Alawite officers and political figures to defect. A few days ago, he bitterly said to one of his guests, “I do not know how Assad would leave. He may never leave. He does not want to leave.” The same thing is being said in Western circles, including at the French Foreign Ministry.
  
  The jihadist movements are no joke. “The magic has turned on the magician,” said a senior Syrian official. The Americans, and some Europeans, have been surprised by the effect of allowing European jihadists to enter Syria. From the Sinai to Iraq, Syria, Jordan and northern Lebanon, jihadism and al-Qaeda are growing in the Levant. As a result, the West is turning a blind eye to Syrian army operations against jihadists. The more jihadists the Syrian army kills, the lower the burden on the West.
• The French involvement in Mali, the kidnapping of Westerners in Algeria and the failure to free the French hostage in Somalia have awakened the Western countries from their slumber. There has been extensive contacts in the past few days between Paris, Washington, London and some Arab states in the hopes of speeding up measures against the jihadist tide. The French say that some Arab countries are responsible for promoting al-Qaeda-style jihadism. There have been accusations against those who armed al-Qaeda in Libya. In the next few days, an important book will be published in Paris exposing the Qatari role in a number of Arab countries and discussing Qatari influence on France and other countries. The book is being signed by Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot, two prominent journalists and experts on the region. After France’s diplomatic and security blunder in West Africa, it is unlikely that France will get directly involved in the Syrian crisis for at least several months.
• The Arab position has changed. Jordan’s King Abdullah II explicitly said to at least two people — Abdel Bari Atwan of pan-Arab daily al-Quds al-Arabi and Nahed Hattar, the Jordanian writer expected to soon have a leftist political role in his country — that Assad will stay in place and that the balance of power is changing. Jordanian intelligence said something similar to Lebanese and Syrian intelligence. Behind-the-scenes contacts between Syria and Saudi Arabia have changed the relationship between them. Nothing major has come of these efforts, but they are a good start. The talks are not with the official Saudi authorities, but many inside the Saudi government hold a different opinion about interfering in Syria. Damascus is mostly resentful of Qatar, although Moallem often talks about Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Algerian, Iraqi, Lebanese and Egyptian officials have relayed genuine Syrian frustration about Qatar’s insistence on arming the opposition.
• An American-Russian understanding on many points regarding the Syrian crisis has caused a fundamental shift in the policy of the Obama administration. This understanding is primarily based on the Geneva Accord. There has to be a settlement between the Syrian regime and the opposition. Damascus is ready to reactivate Lakhdar Brahimi’s mission, but on its own terms. Moscow will never accept that Assad be pressured into leaving power. In recent weeks, Lavrov explicitly said to his European counterparts that Assad is still very popular in Syria and that that makes him eligible to run, and possibly succeed, in the upcoming elections. The Iranians have candidly told the Russians that forcing Assad to leave power is out of the question. Ali Akbar Velayati, who is very close to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, said that “Assad is a red line.” Those who visit Tehran hear a lot of resentful language against Qatar and its role, and there is a lot of blame on Turkey, too.
• The Turkish role is declining despite Turkey's continued statements against Assad. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan realizes the magnitude of the impasse. In Paris, there are rumors that Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu may be relieved of his post. It seems that the Syrian regime has greatly improved its relationship with the Kurds. Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighters are now standing against any Turkish move. Syrian security officials are very satisfied with the PKK. There is even talk of surprises at the border soon. A NATO official confirms that the Patriot missile batteries deployed in Turkey are not offensive but defensive. Ankara is now worried about its own security after Erdogan was the key advocate for Assad's removal. Was the assassination of three Kurdish activists in Paris a coincidence?
• Those visiting Syria have heard about possible changes in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Some say that Saudi Arabia, which, along with the UAE and Kuwait, has waged a relentless media war on the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Tunisia, is now preparing for the post-King Abdullah era. Washington is overseeing the process of replacing the older generation of Saudi leaders with the younger generation. The Washington Post had an extensive story on the subject. The king’s health hasn't helped either. There are rumors that Doha is also preparing for the next stage amid talk that the emir is in poor health.

Those who visit Damascus will hear a lot of opinions on all of those issues, but for the time being the regime's most important objective remains its military option. The regime’s priority is to eradicate jihadists and al-Qaeda. Nobody hears much about the “moderate” opposition anymore. In the opinion of the Syrian leadership, the moderate opposition has lost a lot of support inside Syria. “They left open the stage to fighters who know nothing about reform, freedom or democracy. And they did not take the proper stances at the proper time,” say many in the Syrian government.

Despite that, a political solution is still possible. Assad’s visitors say that every time he talks about reform he refers to his latest speech. He said that he presented an integrated plan during his speech at the opera house. He talked about the constitution, a referendum and elections. These are fundamental points he agreed upon with the Russians. Moscow was pleased with his speech. President Vladimir Putin’s administration defended the speech from Western and Arab attacks. The Russian government went further and said that Assad’s speech was the most the Syrian government can offer, and that it is now the opposition’s turn to present its vision for a solution.

Even more significant, the prospects of the ground battle are changing. There are new factors and military strategies. The army has learned from its mistakes. The army has gained more control over security breaches caused by corruption. Popular committees, which have been intensively training for two months, have been formed. An information and eavesdropping network has been installed (with great help from the Russians, which has surpassed all Western aid to the armed opposition). Self-protection measures in minority areas have been taken. It is said that the popular committees’ accomplishments have exceeded the army’s expectations.

All the above was accompanied by economic measures by Russia, Iran, Iraq and other countries. It is rumored that a reconstruction deal including the oil industry has been struck with the Russians. That did not end the economic crisis, but the situation would have been much worse if these measures were not taken. The economy is a major concern, but Assad seems confident of the next steps. In the areas where things have settled, such as Homs, the citizens’ conditions have improved. There is hope that things will settle in Aleppo and that the city will avoid new battles. The situation of the refugees and displaced persons have made some people re-establish contacts with the regime.

How can we build on the political progress made thus far?

With the continued tightening of the security situation on the ground, the opposition will start a series of meetings abroad. There is hope regarding the plans of the coordination committee headed by Haytham Manna in Geneva. Manna has stood firmly against militarizing the revolution and foreign intervention. He has met with more than 32 foreign ministers. Many would like to meet him these days, especially those from the Gulf. Manna will soon preside over a meeting in Geneva (the same meeting that was supposed to be held in St. Aegedo, Italy). It is said that the meeting will be more productive than the previous one. Officials from the Syrian regime may participate (possibly from the Syrian parliament) as well as figures close to the Muslim Brotherhood. The meeting may be held under the auspices of the Russians and the Europeans, with Iranian support, in addition to being backed by some Gulf states that oppose a significant role for the Muslim Brotherhood. It is expected that political steps between the regime and the opposition will follow. Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt are involved. Turkey will be forced to follow.

Moscow is using such meetings to tell Washington that there is only one way to stop the war in Syria: by applying the Geneva Agreement, transferring power to a government that includes all side, and preparing for elections — and that Assad cannot be prevented from participating in the elections.

The choices are clear. Either that settlement is accepted and the war stops, and that includes stopping support for insurgents, or the war will go on. Nothing on the horizon points to the possibility that the balance of power may change unless the rebels succeed in killing Assad with Western assistance. This is why Moscow and Tehran said that Assad is a red line. It seems that for them, his presence guarantees the regime’s survival.

In the recent Egyptian-Saudi meetings, as well as during private communications among Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, the conviction is growing that there is no solution except a political solution that involves all parties, including Assad.

What about Lebanon?

Some Syrian officials like to remind us that international agreements, especially those with France, brought President Michel Suleiman to power, and that his positions are not surprising. Like Prime Minister Najib Mikati, he originally thought that the Syrian regime could fall. Syrian officials say that the Lebanese always make the mistake of believing the West's predictions for regional changes. For Damascus, Mikati is still better than Suleiman, but there are big questions. The Syrians are neither angry nor happy with Lebanese officials, but rather very disappointed, especially because they allowed arms smuggling and criticized the Syrian ambassador. “The Syrian crisis allowed us to discover who our true friends are,” said a Syrian official. We will never forget that lesson.

The Syrian officials also like to note that the visit by the head of the Struggle Front parliamentary bloc Walid Jumblatt to Russia indicated that he wants the major powers to change their policies. The Syrians say that Jumblatt understands that the Syrian crisis is not going the way he wants. They point out Lebanese divisions over the election law with a smile, and note the deadlines that former Prime Minister Saad Hariri had set for his return to Lebanon and was unable to meet. They are confident that his return will be the result of a Syrian understanding with Saudi Arabia, but this will not happen soon. One Syrian official said that Syrian election laws are undoubtedly much more advanced than the Lebanese 1960 election law. They say that “Damascus will not forget who stood by its side and will not forget who contributed to the bloodshed.” Can that be translated into reality? There are reports that Lebanese figures who oppose Assad have tried to contact him in the past two months.

All the above goes against what a senior Lebanese security official said: that the Syrian regime will fall in two months, just as Obama, Sarkozy and Erdogan had once predicted.

So once again, it appears that the interests of powerful countries is put above the peoples’ suffering, especially if they are Arabs. As we wait for a settlement, the war will go on.

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/politics/2013/01/syrian-regime-regains-upper-hand.html#ixzz2JWqIjp4R

In Armenia, Art in the Shadow of Ararat

By RACHEL B. DOYLE from the New York Times

THE show was about to begin at a Soviet-era playhouse with olive-green seats, antique Caucasian rugs and a tiled ceiling, in Yerevan, the Armenian capital. I was with a man almost 50 years my senior who, while giving me a tour of an experimental art center in a former disco that morning, had asked if I would join him at the State Theater of the Young Spectator that night.

 

Invitations like this are not uncommon in this country of 3.3 million, where tourists are still treated as guests to be invited home for coffee and sweets, or, as in this case, to be taken out to an avant-garde pantomime performance.
       

As the play began, it quickly became clear that this was nothing like the pantomimes put on for children in the West. This was a thrilling interpretive dance performance about a third-century martyr, St. Ardalion, his death suggested by the ribbon looped around his wrists and ankles. Ardalion had been hired to perform in a play that mocked Christianity, but he was inspired to convert onstage, and died for it instead.

      

The play aptly summed up Armenia, which is considered to be the first nation to adopt Christianity as its state religion, in A.D. 301, and which has persevered through the centuries despite being conquered by the Romans, the Persians, the Arabs, the Mongols, the Turks and, of course, the Soviets. It is a country that has not forgotten the Armenian genocide of the early 20th century, and whose national symbol, Mount Ararat, where many Christians believe Noah’s Ark landed, is now on the other side of the closed Turkish border.

       

Yet the play was also very much a product of contemporary Yerevan, where ancient traditions are juxtaposed with a vibrant arts scene and where a newly renovated airport is not far from several stunning cathedrals that date back more than a thousand years.

      

The creative energy is palpable: The city is filled with colorful stencils of famous writers spray-painted on buildings. A souvenir shop I wandered into had an abstract-painting gallery, Dalan Gallery, hidden away on the second floor, as well as five yellow and green parrots.

      

The Armenian Center for Contemporary Experimental Art took over a cavernous Soviet-era dance club after the country gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, and it now hosts about a dozen multimedia art exhibitions and festivals every year.

      

The first thing I noticed about Yerevan, speeding from the airport in a taxi at dawn, was that it was by no means a grayish post-Communist city. Buildings combine classic Soviet architecture with the striking pink and orange volcanic tuff rock native to the country. “Russians call it the pink city,” said Mane Tonoyan, a tour guide.

       

No personal connections had drawn me to this mountainous country. Brushes with the Armenian communities in Beirut and Istanbul had piqued my curiosity, but it was an urge to go somewhere that still felt like a secret, to explore a place most travelers knew little or nothing about, that led to my visit.

      

Indeed, despite offering a multitude of impressive historic sites, including a much older version of Stonehenge, called Karahunj, Armenia is barely on the radar of tourists, who visit neighboring Turkey in droves. That means that the services and accommodations set up for visitors can be rudimentary, though sometimes that just adds to its charm. On one tour I went on, the van driver suddenly stopped to chat and buy fresh eggs from a woman on the side of the road. After another excursion, a family of four invited me in to their apartment and plied me with strong coffee and traditional grape and walnut candy.

      

Armenia’s old monasteries and churches are perhaps its greatest cultural treasures and account for a number of Unesco World Heritage sites. One of the most intriguing monasteries is Geghard, a complex of churches and tombs carved into rocky cliffs 25 miles east of Yerevan, long known for housing the spear said to have pierced Christ on the cross. (The spear is now in a cathedral museum at Echmiadzin, west of Yerevan.)

      

I visited Geghard on my second day in the country. As I wound my way under the arches of the 800-year-old church’s candlelit stone chambers, I heard chanting growing louder and louder. Soon, I came upon a crowd gathered in an inner sanctum, and saw a monk in a black hood and a golden cape singing in a rich baritone, his voice echoing off the rock walls.

      

I must have looked a bit puzzled because just then a teenager in a lavender dress held her smartphone out to me. Using an Armenian-to-English dictionary, she had typed in the word for “baptism.” As a young boy clad in white stepped forward, I edged out of the red-curtained room so as not to intrude.

Outside in the square three musicians were playing the duduk, a traditional woodwind instrument made from the wood of an apricot tree; children were wandering about wearing crowns of flowers; sellers hawked white doves, to be set free after visitors made their wishes. On a platform off to the side, men in boots gutted a hanging lamb, its bright red blood spilling onto a stone; a woman in a head scarf told me they would give the meat to poor villagers. Save for the black-robed student monks texting on mobile phones nearby, the whole scene could have been a tableau from a thousand years ago.

 

That evening I watched a Franco-Russian violinist named Fédor Roudine, the grand prix winner of the Aram Khachaturian International Competition, performing concertos in an elegant 1930s concert hall. My ticket cost just 2,000 dram (or $5 at 400 dram to the dollar). When Mr. Roudine finished, two cannons on either side of the stage shot out bursts of glitter in red, blue and orange, the colors of the Armenian flag.       

Like Mr. Khachaturian, the composer who was once denounced as “antipopular” and sent back to Armenia for “re-education,” the country’s artists often had to deal with government repression. The Soviets banned Sergei Parajanov, the legendary Armenian director, from making movies for 15 years after his critically acclaimed film, “The Color of Pomegranates,” was released in 1968.
      

To fill the void, Mr. Parajanov began to make collage art. Hundreds of his unique assemblages are collected in the Museum of Sergei Parajanov, an oddball standout of Yerevan’s rich house museum scene. One room is devoted to works Mr. Parajanov created during his nearly five years in prison, like bottle-cap carvings that look like old coins.

      

Despite the danger, Armenian intellectuals continued to test boundaries. During an era when “unofficial art” — anything besides Socialist Realism — was anathema to the Kremlin, and exhibitions of it were being bulldozed in Moscow, the authorities somehow allowed a modern art museum to open in Yerevan in 1972. “Even some artists didn’t believe it would open,” said Nune Avetisian, director of the Modern Art Museum of Yerevan.

      

The city’s Modern Art Museum was the first state institution of its kind in the Soviet Union. It is still hard to fathom how it was permitted to display works like Hakob Hakobyan’s “In a City,” a 1979 painting that shows a crowd of headless men raising handless arms in a Soviet-style square.

      

Perhaps the freedom the authorities allowed the museum was simply the result of the city’s geography: “It was so small and very far from the center in Moscow,” Ms. Avetisian said.

      

On my last day in town I traveled south to the Khor Virap monastery, passing deep gorges and endlessly rolling hills that seemed to touch the clouds, red-roofed houses and purple wildflowers sprouting from cracks in jagged volcanic rock walls. The snow-capped peak of Mount Ararat was always in the distance.

      

As I entered Khor Virap, where the main draw is a deep dungeon where Gregory the Illuminator, Armenia’s patron saint, was imprisoned in the third century, a young man brandished a large rooster at me, smiling mischievously. I had been keen to go to a country that still felt undiscovered, and while the rooster-seller might have guessed that the redheaded woman with a camera was not really in the market for a blood sacrifice, I appreciated the gesture.

Armenians Fleeing Anew as Syria Erupts in Battle

By Alia Malek
YEREVAN, Armenia — At the newly opened Cilician School in this former Soviet republic, the textbooks are in Arabic, photocopied from a single set flown out of war-torn Syria. The curriculum is Syrian, the flag on the principal’s desk is Syrian, and the teachers and students are all Syrians.

 

 

They are also ethnic Armenians, driven by Syria’s civil war to a notional motherland most barely know.       

“Those who are coming here clearly want to go back,” said the school’s principal, Noura Pilibosyan, who came from Aleppo, Syria, in the summer. “Armenian is our language, but our culture is Syrian. It is hard to come here.”

Their ancestors fled the Ottoman genocide in what is now Turkey nearly a century ago and flourished in Syria, reviving one of the many minority groups that have long coexisted there.

Now, the flight of Syrian Armenians — one of many lesser-noticed ripple effects that could reshape countries well beyond Syria’s neighbors — is raising questions about the future of Syria’s diversity. And it is forcing Armenia, which depends on its strong diaspora communities to augment its otherwise scant geopolitical heft, to make delicate calculations about whether to encourage their exodus or slow it.

For now, Armenia is hedging its bets. It is sending aid to Armenians in Syria, helping them stay and survive. But it is also helping them come to Armenia, temporarily or permanently, by fast-tracking visas, residency permits and citizenship.

“Our policy is to help them the way they tell us to help them,” said Vigen Sargsyan, the chief of staff to Armenia’s president, Serzh Sargsyan.

About 6,000 Syrians have sought refuge in Armenia as fighting engulfs Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, where an estimated 80,000 of Syria’s 120,000 Armenians live. More arrive each week even as a few trickle back, unable to afford Yerevan or stay away from houses and businesses they left behind unguarded in Syria.

Ethnic Armenians are a fraction of an accelerating flood of fleeing Syrians expected to reach 700,000 by year’s end, mainly in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. But since the Armenians, unlike other Syrians, can easily acquire an alternative nationality, Syria could see one of its vibrant communities permanently diminished.

Syrian Armenians are known for their gold and silver craftsmanship and exquisite cuisine. They are also a critical component of Syria’s connection to Russia and the West, serving an intermediary role through their relations with the global Armenian diaspora.

Aleppo represents the last vestiges of Western Armenia, which was historically divided from what is now modern-day Armenia by Mount Ararat, a separation that through the centuries gave rise to different languages and cultures.

While Syrian Armenians have remained officially neutral in Syria’s civil war, as Christians many are wary of the rebels’ Islamist strains, and as Armenians suspicious of the rebels’ Turkish support.

The Cilician School, with 250 students, reflects the ambivalence of Syrian Armenians here: many want to return to their existence in the diaspora, even as they are welcomed in their historical homeland.

“Armenia always said, ‘Come to your home.’ They always asked us to come back,” said a man who identified himself only as Harout and was visiting a new Syrian Armenian club here in Yerevan, the capital. “Honestly, I love Armenia, but I wouldn’t leave Syria. I am praying just to go back.”

For Armenia, the Syrians’ arrival reignites a debate over how to manage its relationship with Armenians in the diaspora: encourage them to immigrate or keep them where they are, from the United States to the Middle East, generous with remittances and committed to lobbying abroad for Armenia’s interests.

Advocates of resettlement contend that Syria’s loss could ultimately be Armenia’s gain. Not only do they want to protect fellow Armenians, they want Syrian Armenians — often skilled, wealthy, educated and entrepreneurial — to help the struggling post-Soviet economy, stem high emigration and bring new ideas.

“Such diversity only enriches a nation,” said Vahe Yacoubian, a lawyer based in California who invests in Armenia and has advised the government.

So the government is easing relocation. Syrians in Armenia can use Syrian drivers’ licenses, obtain free medical care and pay local tuition at universities. Governmental and private groups help Syrian Armenians find jobs and transfer businesses to Armenia.

A vociferous minority has seized on fears of violence in Syria — and memories of the Ottoman genocide — to push for a larger nationalist goal, the return of all Armenians to the country.

“This is our land — not L.A., not New York, not Syria,” said Vartan Marashlyan, Armenia’s former deputy diaspora minister and the executive director of Repat Armenia, an organization founded in August to “actively champion” what it calls the “repatriation” of Armenians from around the world.

Syrian Armenians who yearn for Syria “want to be in the Aleppo of one year ago,” a setting whose peaceful coexistence may not return, he said. Referring to estimates of genocide deaths, he added, “We lost 1.5 million people to this mentality that it will all work out.”

But homesick Syrian Armenians find resettling hard to contemplate. They point out that nationalists like Mr. Marashlyan came to Armenia by choice, not fleeing violence.

“They want to put the label ‘repat’ on me,” said Harout Ekmanian, a Syrian Armenian journalist from Aleppo. “I am a Syrian in exile.”

Few Syrian Armenians have heeded past calls to immigrate, even after Armenia’s independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. They considered themselves Syrian, speaking Arabic and Western Armenian, not the Eastern Armenian spoken in Armenia.

Still, many contributed money and support to the fledgling state, especially during a territorial war with Azerbaijan that ended in 1994 and still simmers.

Armenia, too, needs its influential Middle East diaspora to navigate regional tensions, said Salpi Ghazarian, the director of the Civilitas Foundation in Yerevan and a former Foreign Ministry official. She said ethnic Armenians in Arab countries and Iran had helped keep the dispute between Armenia, a largely Christian country, and Azerbaijan, which is mainly Muslim, from gaining traction as a pan-Muslim issue, urging their governments not to take sides.

Tehran’s Armenian community also promotes crucial trade with neighboring Iran, she said. Armenia is landlocked, and its borders with Azerbaijan, and its ally Turkey, are closed, making Iran a lifeline. “If those communities disappear, those human relations disappear,” Ms. Ghazarian said. “Then we are left without good friends.”

Armenia has kept neutral on Syria’s uprising and has worked hard to aid people inside Syria. In recent months, three cargo planes carrying food and donations from Armenians flew from Yerevan to Aleppo, after intense negotiations with both Syria, which has severely limited external aid, and Turkey, which normally bans Armenian cargo from its airspace.

The aid was distributed in Armenian neighborhoods, but without regard to sect or ethnicity.

“We consider Syria our neighbor,” said Vahan Hovhannisyan, a Parliament member who oversaw the effort. Armenians are “grateful to Syria,” he said, because after the genocide, “Syria gave them back life.”

The government recognizes that Syria is the only home several generations of Syrian Armenians know. It approved the Cilician School’s Syrian curriculum and Western Armenian instruction. An Armenian political party covers costs; tuition is free.

“They feel like Syria is their home,” said Amalia Qocharyan, an Armenian education official. “But the reality is they have two homelands, Syria and Armenia.”

At the school, a class of seventh graders was asked who missed Syria. They answered in unison, in Arabic.

“Ana,” they said. “Me.”

Asked about life in Yerevan, they were quieter. They said they missed houses and friends; one said he could not be happy seeing pictures of fighting in Aleppo.

“In Aleppo, I used to see the Armenian flag, and I wanted to go,” said Vana, 11. “Here, when I see the Syrian flag, I just want to go home.”

Why are Armenian orphanages filled with children who have one or two living parents? A brief history of Armenia...

The Republic of Armenia is a mountainous country bordered by western Asia, between the Black and the Caspian seas. It borders with Iran to the south-east, Azerbaijan to the east, Turkey to the south-west and west, and Georgia to the north. Around three million people live in Armenia, with the capital city of Yerevan being home to about one million inhabitants.

The Armenians have a long ancient history like the other civilizations that originated in this region.  It is a history with many kings and queens, battles over territory and religion, changing powers and a very rich culure of art, literature, dance and music. 

Currently, Armenians are probably most known in world politics for their efforts to get Turkey to recognize the genocide.  In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the Young Turks, under the Ottoman Empire, massacred the Armenians and other Christian people (Syriacs and Greek Orthodox) living in what is now southern Turkey.  From 1915-1923, nearly 2 million Christians were killed and over 500,000 became refugees in neighboring countries.  Turkey has yet to admit that the genocide even occurred and Turkish children will not even find these events in their history books.  The border between Turkey and Armenia is completely closed which hurts Armenia economically. 

The small country that is now Armenia is only a tiny fraction of the old Armenian empire.  After the genocide, little Armenia was under Russian control and then a part of the Soviet Union.

With the break of the Soviet Union, Armenia became an officially recognized independent nation in 1991. The years that followed independence from the Soviet Union were difficult: Armenia faced economic instability and took part in violent confrontations with Azerbaijan. A ceasefire was reached in 1994 but by that time around 30,000 people had been killed and one million displaced.  In addition, Armenia experienced a devastating earthquake in its northern region in 1988 which killed around 25,000 people and made half a million homeless.

Armenia’s complex diplomatic relations with its neighbors Turkey and Azerbaijan had a negative impact on the country’s economic development, and therefore on the lives of ordinary Armenians. Reports from international organizations state that: 28 per cent of the population lives with less than two US dollars a day and 23 per cent of the inhabitants are undernourished. The unemployment rate stands at seven per cent.

Prior to 1991 Armenia’s economy was primarily industry-based. After independence, the agricultural share of the economy increased, employing nearly half of the population. The service industry has become increasingly important; 15 per cent of the population works in this sector.

People in rural areas are disadvantaged due to poor infrastructure and less employment opportunities. Improved water and sanitation is not always available in rural areas and the quality of health care in rural areas remains poor. Children living in rural areas are nearly twice as likely to die under the age of five, than those in urban areas. As a result of migration to urban areas or abroad, some rural areas are facing depopulation.

Armenia suffered from a decline in its population after 1990 due to the emigration of people in search of a higher standard of living. Cash remittances sent back home from Armenians working abroad have always been an important part of Armenia’s gross domestic product.

Children under the age of 14 account for nearly a third of the population of Armenia; four per cent are involved in child labor.  Family life has changed due to the recent social, economic and political changes. Many parents, especially fathers, have emigrated in search of employment.

Health and education continue to be under-funded. The government has made the improvement of education a priority. Regarding health: mothers and children, particularly in rural areas, have difficulties accessing high quality health care.

Families are not given the support they need to be able to stay together. As a result, the majority of children who are taken into care are the so-called “social orphans” who have one or two living parents. They are often taken into institutions due to poverty, or issues related to it. Most continue to be placed in orphanages, some of which have existed since the Soviet era. Children growing up in these settings are often stigmatized and their future development is therefore limited. Alternative care settings are particularly limited for disabled children.

Christmas programs for children

Last week I went to a few different schools and centers where my organization (AMAA) made Christmas programs for the children.  I already posted some pictures from the orphanage for the handicapped children.  In the next days we went to a school for children with mental and physical handicaps and to a rehabilitation center and temporary home for children who come from dangerous living situations.  The children stay in this home (the only one of its kind in Armenia) while the center's staff try to work with the families to solve the problems and hopefully be able to safely place the child back in his or her home.  Each program included games, Christmas songs, theater, a cartoon film about the Biblical Christmas story, dancing and gifts for the children at the end.  The gifts included hats, scarves, books and sweets.  The kids were joyful and excited as you can see in the following pictures.  Those who know me well know that I love children, maybe more than the average person, and while it is extremely difficult for me to visit place after place and find children who have been abandoned or are living in very poor conditions, it is a blessing that for the first time, I am also in a position where I can do something small to help.

 

Syrian Christians fear bleak future after Assad

By Barbara Surk

BEIRUT (AP) — With Christmas just days away, 40-year-old Mira begged her parents to flee their hometown of Aleppo, which has become a major battleground in Syria's civil war.

 

Her parents refused to join her in Lebanon, but they are taking one simple precaution inside their besieged city. For the first time, Mira says, her parents will not put up a Christmas tree this year for fear their religion might make them a target.

 

"They want to stay to guard the property so nobody takes it," said Mira, who spoke to The Associated Press in Lebanon on condition that only her first name be published, out of concern for her family.

"They cannot celebrate Christmas properly. It's not safe. They are in a Christian area, but they don't feel secure to put a tree, even inside their apartment," Mira said.

 

Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Syria's population of more than 22 million, say they are particularly vulnerable to the violence that has been sweeping the country since March 2011. They are fearful that Syria will become another Iraq, with Christians caught in the crossfire between rival Islamic groups.

 

Hundreds of thousands of Christians fled Iraq after their community and others were targeted by militants in the chaotic years after dictator Saddam Hussein was ousted in 2003.

 

During the Syria conflict, Christians have largely stuck by President Bashar Assad, in large part because they fear the rising power of Muslim hard-liners and groups with al-Qaida-style ideologies within the uprising against his rule. Many Christians worry they will be marginalized or even targeted if the country's Sunni Muslim majority, which forms the majority of the opposition, takes over.

The rebel leadership has sought to portray itself as inclusive, promising no reprisals if Assad falls. But some actions by fighters on the ground have been less reassuring

.

This week, the commander of one rebel brigade threatened to storm two predominantly Christian towns in central Syria — Mahrada and Sqailbiyeh — saying regime forces were using the towns to attack nearby areas.

 

The commander, Rashid Abul-Fidaa, of the Ansar Brigade in Hama province demanded the towns' residents "evict Assad's gangs" or be attacked.

 

Christians and other minorities have generally supported Assad's regime in the past because it promoted a secular ideology that was seen as giving minorities a degree of protection.

 

The regime and ruling elite are dominated by the Alawite sect, itself a minority offshoot of Shiite Islam to which Assad belongs, but it has brought Christians and other minorities — as well as Sunni Muslims — into senior positions.

 

Christians have flourished under the Assad regime, which came to power four decades ago under Assad's father, Hafez. The regime divided economic privileges among minorities and certain Sunni families in exchange for giving up political power.

 

The threat of Islamic extremism resonates deeply in Syria, a country with many ethnic and religious minorities, and the regime has used their worries to try to keep their support. Assad has warned repeatedly that the country's turmoil will throw Syria into chaos, religious extremism and sectarian divisions.

 

Still, Christian activists have also figured prominently among the opposition to Assad, advocating an end to autocratic rule in the country. Christians were among the numerous political opponents that the regime jailed alongside Muslims over the years.

 

Aya, a Christian artist who has been campaigning against the regime for years, predicted prison won't be enough in the eyes of the rebels to balance the perception of Christian support for Assad. She fears score-settling if the regime falls.

 

"Many Christians think that this regime is good for us," said Aya, a 51-year-old from Aleppo who fled to Beirut in October. "They think that if they keep quiet, Assad will stay, and protect us. But this is an illusion."

 

When the government deployed fighter jets to Aleppo to drive back rebel advances in the northern city, they did not spare Christians in the city, Aya said.

 

"We all got hit, but it's too late now for Christians to change their minds about this regime," Aya said. "I am afraid that now we will pay the price for being silent about this terrible regime all these years."

Even for those who support the rebels, the nature of the opposition has caused ripples of apprehension. As the fight to overthrow Assad drags on, the rebels' ranks are becoming dominated by Islamists, raising concerns that the country's potential new rulers will marginalize them or establish an Islamic state.

 

Al-Qaida-inspired groups have become the most organized fighting units, increasingly leading battles for parts of Aleppo or assaults on military installations outside the city.

"Most (Christians) want to return (to Syria), but they want to wait until the fighting is over and see who will be ruling Syria after the war," Mira said.

 

Aleppo's schools are closed. Food and electricity are scarce. Most stores have been shut for months. Even though some areas of the city — including the predominantly Christian district along Faisal Street — are still controlled by government forces, the streets are unsafe, she said.

 

Aya lamented that it's nearly impossible to imagine the country going back to what it was. In the weeks before she fled for good, she said, the violence overwhelmed her.

 

"There was so much shooting, such terrible bombings, and I could not take it," she said. "In two weeks I slept for 10 hours, I did not eat and I cried all the time, because my city was turning into ruins, and I saw it with my own eyes."