Why Syrian Armenians Are Avoiding Turkey

Sibil Hurtas

In large part because of the Syrian civil war that began in 2011, today there are 3,585,738 Syrians in Turkey, according to official numbers.

As a result of the war, Kurds and Turkmens sought refuge in neighboring countries such as Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. All Syrian ethnic groups flowed into Turkey save for Syrian Armenians. This attracted the attention of journalist Serdar Korucu, who has been doing research into refugee communities along the border. Korucu told Al-Monitor last week that when he saw there were practically no Armenians among the refugees, he told himself, “This can’t just be because of the low ratio of Armenians to the overall Syrian population. There has to be another reason.”

Influential Middle Eastern Intellectual Simon Simonian's Legacy Described in New Volume

Aram Arkun

 

Simon Simonian was a prolific author, editor, publisher and teacher who played an influential role in Armenian diasporan life. An initial attempt at presenting his legacy in English has been made by Levon Sharoyan of Aleppo, in Simon Simonian: The Last Scion of the Mountaineers (On the Occasion of the 30^th Anniversary of His Death). First published in serialized form in the Armenian-language periodicals Kantzasar, Aztag and Harach, and then as a volume in Armenia, this short work was translated into English by Dr. Vahe H. Apelian and published in 2017 by Hratch Kalsahakian with the sponsorship of the Simon Simonian Fund.

Archbishop Shahan Sarkissian: "We are not against Muslims"

Mélinée Le Priol
Translated by Vartan Matiossian 
 

In a visit to France, the prelate of the Armenian Apostolic Church of Aleppo offers a message of reconciliation for a "renewed" Syria.

- What represents the Armenian community in Syria, particularly in Aleppo?
His Eminence Shahan Sarkissian: The presence of Armenians in Syria goes back to the thirteenth century. During the genocide perpetrated by the Turks in 1915, Syria was their final destination, and many survivors remained there afterwards. Before the explosion of the Syrian crisis in 2011, there were 80,000 Armenians in Syria, of which 45,000 in Aleppo. This town is considered the capital of Syrian Armenians. Today, 30,000 Armenians are said to remain in Syria, with half of them in Aleppo. 

Aleppo's Armenian Church of Forty Martyrs: Serious Damage

Reports from news agencies and the Armenian press surfaced in the morning of April 29, claiming that the Armenian church of Forty Martyrs, dating back to the fifteenth century and located in the old quarter of Jdeydeh, Aleppo, had been destroyed in the afternoon of April 26, 2015 by a terrorist attack. However, reports coming from Aleppo on April 29 indicated that the structure of the church was stable, but in a worrisome state due to continuous shelling over the past few days in the neighborhood. The door of the church has been damaged and the courtyard of the "Aghbalian" hall of the Armenian Prelacy has collapsed. The actual building that was destroyed was the Maronite print shop, located behind the church complex.

"We Don’t Run": An Interview with Archbishop Shahan Sarkisian, Prelate of Aleppo

Nanore Barsoumian

 

In late October, Archbishop Shahan Sarkisian, the prelate of Aleppo, granted an interview to the Armenian Weekly. The Archbishop was in Boston to meet with community organizations and to personally thank the Armenian Relief Society (ARS) for its efforts in providing assistance to the Syrian-Armenian community. During the hour-long interview—conducted in Armenian—Archbishop Sarkisian gave an overview of the Syrian crisis, and spoke about the challenges facing the community today. He was direct in criticizing the worldwide Armenian community for failing to respond to the crisis in a united and comprehensive manner. He said that there is a difference between being concerned and interested—and argued that what he was witnessing was interest and not concern. To be concerned, he added, means to take on responsibility, and that has been missing in the relief efforts.

Archbishop Sarkisian emphasized the importance of keeping Armenian schools in Syria open for students—a cause he considers vital to the survival of the community. “Armenian schools are the light of our eyes,” he said, and they need the support of the diaspora. He also spoke about communal organization, relations with neighboring communities, and the dangers before them.

An Aleppo Auto King, Now Selling Street Food in Yerevan

Karen Leigh

Yerevan, Armenia - He still has the same cell phone, an early smartphone purchased in Aleppo before Syria’s three-year-long conflict turned the life of this formerly well-off businessman upside down. On it are photos of a life now long gone – a happy extended family of Syrian-Armenians posing in its well-appointed home, unaware of what was to come.

In Aleppo, Sako, aged 60, owned an auto-repair business that employed 15 workers. He made a substantial amount of money, he says – enough to buy four apartments in Aleppo and two cars, and eat out regularly at the city’s pricier spots. Then the war hit his business, forcing him to flee with his wife to Yerevan, the Armenian capital, where years earlier he had sent one of his sons to study to be a pharmacist.

Remembering Simon Simonian

Vahe H. Apelian

 

Simon Simonian was one of the towering intellects and literary figures of the Armenian Diaspora's post-Genocide century. He was an educator, publisher, editor, author, and an activist.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of his birth. Simonian was born on March 24, 1914 in Aintab. His Sassoun-born father's name was Ove (Օվէ). His mother's name was Menoush (Մենուշ). She hailed from Aintab. Sassoun was once an exclusively Armenian-inhabited highland while Aintab (now Gaziantep) had a large Armenian population. Simonian was their eldest child.

The "Liberation" of Aleppo: Nor Kyugh Declared Disaster Zone

The continued rocket fire by rebel forces in the direction of the mostly-Armenian-populated Nor Kyugh neighborhood of Aleppo has forced officials to declare the area a disaster zone, and threatens the survival of the city’s Armenian community.

The Aleppo News Agency reported that incessant rocket fire from rebel forces, a significant number of which are reportedly Turks or radical Islamists, continued in Nor Kyugh, endangering civilians and causing massive destruction.

German-Armenian Historian Warns That Important Genocide Archival Material Is Being Destroyed in Aleppo

Sako Arian

 

German historian Elke Hartmann’s mother is Armenian. Elke has studied history and Middle Eastern/Islamic Studies in Berlin specializing in modern Ottoman history. Her MA thesis examined the German military mission to the Ottoman Empire during the reign of Abdulhamid II, while her PhD. dissertation analyzes conscription in the late Ottoman Empire in the context of modern state and nation building. In 2010, with her husband, historian Vahé Tachjian, she established the Houshamadyan website.

From April to July, she will be a visiting professor at the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, Germany teaching the subject of “Christian Minorities in the Ottoman Empire.”

Syrian Armenians Worried About Conflict Escalation

Naira Bulghadarian

 

Thousands of ethnic Armenians remaining in Syria braced themselves for a further escalation of the bloody conflict in their country on Wednesday, August 28, 2013 amid growing talk of U.S.-led military strikes against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Speaking to RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) by phone, several Syrian Armenians trapped in Aleppo said they are already preparing to use the basements of their homes as shelters if the United States and other Western powers act on their threats of military action.
The West blames the Syrian government for the August 21 chemical weapons attack near Damascus that left scores of people dead. The government has denied those allegations, receiving support from Russia and China.

Aleppo on the Verge of Famine

Translated by Vartan Matiossian

 

In its edition of July 9, the newspaper "Marmara" of Istanbul has published the following anonymous report from a reliable source of Aleppo. According to it, the situation is extremely serious and the inhabitants of Aleppo have reached the verge of famine and are struggling between death and life.

Ethereal Aleppo

Antranig Dzarougian

Translated by Jennifer Manoukian

 



Translator's Note: The following passages are taken from Antranig Dzarougian’s 1980 memoir, Ethereal Aleppo ՚(«Երազային Հալէպը»). One of the foremost writers and editors in the Armenian Diaspora, Dzarougian lived and worked in the Armenian communities of Syria and Lebanon. Born in 1913 in the Ottoman town of Gurin (modern Gürün), Dzarougian was rescued during the massacres and brought to Aleppo, where he was raised in an Armenian orphanage. He is best known for a memoir about that period in his life, People without a Childhood («Մանկութիւն չունեցող մարդիկ»),(*) as well as for his long poem, Letter to Yerevan («Թուղթ առ Երեւան»), and for the various pieces of prose and poetry published in Nayiri, the Aleppo-based, and later Beirut-based, literary journal that he founded and edited.

Syrian Armenians are not only neutral, but also peaceful

Clashes between government and opposition forces in Aleppo have reached the Armenian neighborhoods. The situation is changing dramatically. Misinformation about the Armenian community of Aleppo is spreading in the international and Armenian media. CivilNet contacted the spokesman of the Armenian Prelacy of Aleppo, Jirayr Reyisian, to obtain more accurate information about the situation.

Teotig: The First Historian of Armenian Printing

Vartan Matiossian

The name Teotig meant little to the English reader until the recent publication of volume II of Rita Soulahian Kuyumdjian’s Trilogy – April 24, 1915, which includes Teotig’s biography and Soulahian Kuyumdjian’s translation of Monument to April 11, Teotig’s compilation of biographies of intellectuals who were victims of the Genocide.

Syria's Community Spokesperson Discusses Crisis



There is no threat that the Armenian community in Syria will be displaced or vacated, the spokesperson for the Armenian Prelacy of Aleppo, Jirair Reyisian, said in an exclusive interview to Yerkir.am on Monday, July 30, 2012.

As news outlets report on the increasing tensions and bombings in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and home to the largest concentration of Armenians in the country, the community has taken measures to help, strenghten and protect itself.

About the Situation of Armenians in Syria

The website "Azad Hye" recently interviewed Arax Pashayan, an expert in Arabic studies from Yerevan, who gave her views about the current developments in Syria and the situation of the local Armenian community. Incidentally, the editor of "Armeniaca" paid a ten-day visit to Aleppo from June 11-21, 2011 and saw no problems both on the Beirut-Aleppo road, back and forth, and in Aleppo itself, a bustling city with a very active nightlife and a vibrant Armenian community. We offer the English version of that interview as posted by "Azad Hye" on June 20, 2011, with minor editing.