What Do Aramean (Syriac) Christians in Syria Really Want?
The Aramean (Syriac) Christian people in Syria are watching the earth crumble beneath them. Their once safe, traditional and peaceful lives are all but a distant memory, as the 19 month battle for power in Syria reigns unprecedented terror on the Christian community. While the Aramean Christians plead their case to world leaders and others of influence, it appears that new so-called “Christian” groups are being formed and trying to hijack the discourse on Christian rights and beliefs in Syria.
Patriarch commends WCA and Member Federation in Germany for extraordinary accomplishment
Damascus, Syria - On August 16, 2014, His Holiness Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, sent the WCA and its member federation in Germany a letter of appreciation regarding their efforts to ensure humanitarian aid to the Arameans of Syria. It is not the first time the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and All the East expressed his support for the WCA and its Member Federations. Last April, His Holiness blessed the WCA's mission and endeavours (view the statement).
300 DAYS ABDUCTED: NO SIGN OF LIFE YET FROM ARCHBISHOPS IN SYRIA!
Click here to download the Press Release in PDF
On Monday 22 April 2013, today 300 days ago, two prominent Archbishops from the Syriac and Melkite (Greek) Orthodox Churches were abducted between Kafer Dael and Mansura, in one of the most dangerous areas in Syria known as the frontline between the Free Syrian Army and the regular army. Their car was intercepted and the driver, Mr Fatha’ Allah Kabboud, was cold-bloodedly shot dead, either during or shortly after the assault. The World Council of Arameans (Syriacs) (“WCA”) asks the international community for urgent help.
Genocide of religious and ethnic minorities in the Middle East perpetrated by ISIS
Music as the Bridge to Peace
"Christians are peace makers and bridge builders among conflicting parties"
Geneva, 8 May 2014 - Joint Communiqué by Syria's Christian leaders - Click here to download the communiqué in PDF
Christians are peace makers and bridge builders among conflicting parties
We, representatives of Christian Churches in Syria, send with one voice to the civil and spiritual leaders of the world up to their highest level this joint message: Christians speaking with one voice and joining their efforts can do a lot to restore the wounds that are bleeding and exhaust Syria and its people.
Dutch MP asks Representation of Syria's Christians during Peace Talks in Geneva
On 17 January 2014, Dr. Pieter Omtzigt, the Dutch MP and Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, has requested all countries - in writing - to support an equal representation of Syrians by including the Christians during the Syria peace talks which is scheduled to take place in Montreux, Switzerland on Wednesday, 22 January. In his letter, endorsed by the WCA, Mr. Omtzigt describes an historic event which negatively affected the Aramean people of Turkey by referring to the peace conference in Lausanne of 1922 where the native Arameans (Syriacs) were not recognized as an indigenous ethno-religious people and therefore have not been able, until today, to benefit from the protection the treaty offers.
New Massive Assault on Christian villages in Syria
Press Release
On Monday morning, 23 February, ISIS attacked the largely Aramean Christian villages of Tel Hormuz, Tel Shamiram, Tel Riman, Tel Nasra, al-Agibash, Toma Yalda and al-Hauz in the western countryside of the Hasakah province in north-eastern Syria. ISIS massacred a number of Arameans, took hundreds of women and children captive, burned dozens of houses and torched one of Syria’s ancient churches in the village of Tel Hormuz.
Click here to download the Press Release
Following the attack at approximately 4.30 a.m., Aramean Christian and Kurdish Muslim defense forces mobilized themselves to withstand a further ISIS onslaught and to attempt to liberate the fallen villages. In the process, they seized a number of terrorists, which ISIS now demands to exchange with the over 100 Aramean men taken hostage in the villages, threatening to kill them if this demand is not met.
Given the fierce movement of ISIS fighters from their self-proclaimed capital, Raqqah, the Syrian army is helping the Christian and Kurdish villages along the Khabur River, nearby the large village of Tel Tamar. Recently, the fighting flared up in this area as the inhabitants of these Aramean villages have continued to observe ISIS terrorists encroaching further and further onto their lands.
Locals believe that the next step of ISIS is to take down the strategically important village of Tel Tamar, which houses over 10.000 Arameans and is close to Ras al-Ayn. ISIS would thus create a doorway towards the Turkish border that could facilitate the procurement of both weapons and mercenaries through Turkey into Syria. As ISIS moved into the region, residents of the impacted Khabur River area claimed to have seen fighter jets of the US-led anti-ISIS coalition flying over the countryside. Unfortunately, this did not prevent the massive attack on the Aramean Christian population as reports suggest that the terrorists were not attacked at all by the US-led coalition.
In the last decade, similar genocidal attacks against the Aramean people have occurred in Syria and Iraq. They are easy targets in their homeland, where they suffer from killings, rapes, pillaging, kidnappings and expulsions. Most of their ancestral lands have already been emptied. Soon there will be very few Aramean Christians left in Syria and Iraq. Just today, again hundreds of Arameans from neighboring areas of the Khabur area were evacuated by buses to safer places in the region.
Johny Messo, the President of the World Council of Arameans (Syriacs) (“WCA”), expresses his deep concerns about the ongoing situation: “For years we have called upon the UN Member States to speak up against these atrocity crimes, and to prevent new ones from taking place. Today we find ourselves once again speechless considering their deafening silence and indifference towards the Aramean people. We demand from politicians to raise their moral voice, to investigate these ongoing crimes against humanity and to do something, anything, to break this wall of silence.”
It is noteworthy that the Aramean victims of the targeted Syrian Khabur River villages are members of the ‘Nestorian’ Church which, since 1976, has been named the Assyrian Church of the East. After the massacres by the Turks and Kurds in the early decades of the last century, many tens of thousands of Aramean Christians of different churches were forced to escape from their homes in Southeast Turkey to Northeast Syria.
Until the war started, the Christians constituted 10% (2,3 million) of Syria’s national population. Hundreds of thousands of Arameans have already fled their war-torn country. The Aramean people have retained their 3,000-year old Aramaic mother tongue, which is widely known as the language of Jesus, and they are indigenous to Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Lebanon. However, in none of these countries they are officially recognized as a distinct people where they consequently continue to struggle for recognition and survival. Therefore, your voice and support is very much needed.
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Photo: AFP
Federation of Alevi Foundations in Turkey, express support for Conference on Syria's Christians
One day before the start of the conference, titled: "Christians: The Challenge of Speaking with One Voice," the WCA has been receiving many supportive messages from different civil society and religious organisations in and outside of Syria. One of them came from the President of the Federation of Alevi Foundations ("AVF") in Turkey, Mr. Dogan Bermek, who expressed his solidarity and support to the historic conference which is taking place in Geneva today. Follow this link, to view the details of the conference or this link to read the Press Release on the conference (7 May 2014).
Turkey's Alevi community during prayers
Brief aan de Vaste Commissie voor Buitenlandse Zaken betreft de Situatie van Christenen in Syrië
Hengelo, 13 december 2013
ETNISCHE ZUIVERINGEN CHRISTENEN IN SYRIË: OPROEP TOT HULP EN INFORMATIEVERGARING BZ?
Klik hier om de brief te downloaden in PDF
Geachte leden van de Vaste Commissie voor Buitenlandse Zaken,
Namens de World Council of Arameans (Syriacs) (“WCA”) en onze dochterorganisatie de Suryoye Aramese Federatie Nederland (“SAFN”) vragen wij wederom uw dringende aandacht voor de aanhoudende etnische zuiveringen, de sluimerende genocide en de massale exodus van de inheemse christelijke bevolking van Syrië, waar wij hetzelfde ervaren als eerder in Zuidoost-Turkije en Irak.
1. Op 9 juli 2013 was er een Aramese delegatie naar Den Haag afgereisd om het ministerie van Buitenlandse zaken (vertegenwoordigd door dhr. H. Quarles van Ufford, plaatsvervangend directeur Noord-Afrika en Midden-Oosten) in te lichten over de voornoemde punten.
2. Op 17 oktober jl. vond hetzelfde plaats. In samenwerking met Kerk in Actie werd ditmaal de Syrisch-orthodoxe bisschop Z.E. Dionysius Jean Kawak uit Damascus uitgenodigd om de Vaste Commissie (voorgezeten door CDA-Kamerlid dhr. P. Omtzigt) alsmede de Directie Stabiliteit en Humanitaire Hulp (onder leiding van mw. M. Jansen) hierover te informeren. Zie: Syriac Orthodox Bishop from Damascus asks Dutch and German Parliaments, Media and Christian NGOs for Help
3. Tijdens deze ontmoetingen en in de daaropvolgende periode hebben wij, evenals onze zusterorganisatie de Aramese Beweging voor Mensenrechten (ABM), u allen en Z.E. dhr. F. Timmermans (Minister van BZ) afdoende documentatie doen toekomen via onze websites en mailinglijsten over de hachelijke positie van de Aramese christenen in en rondom Syrië.
Edesa Mutlu (SAFN) overhandigt de petitie betreffende de situatie van christenen in Syrië aan de Vaste Commissie voor Buitenlandse Zaken
