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.

#SaveKessab, #Save Aleppo, and Kim Kardashian: Syria’s Rashomon Effect

Elyse Semerdjian



A historic Christian Armenian town situated just a mile from the Turkish border in northwest Syria, Kessab is now among the war’s many casualties. On the morning of 21 March, the town was seized by opposition fighters from three Islamic militant groups: Jabhat al-Nusra, Sham al-Islam, and Ansar al-Sham. For Armenians around the world, the event conjured memories of past traumas as one of two remaining Armenian areas that survived the Armenian Genocide of 1915 was depopulated. The last remaining Armenian village in Turkey, Vakıflı, located across the border, is now a safe haven for some of Kessab’s former residents. Three weeks after the capture of Kessab, the event continues to take on a life of its own as various factions in the conflict seek to instrumentalize the tragedy to construct their own versions of reality, a phenomenon that could be called Syria’s Rashomon effect.

Turkey Losing Propaganda War Over Syrian Armenians

Amberin Zaman



“The bearded men came to our home. They spoke Turkish. They rifled through our belongings and asked if we had guns.” This is how Sirpuhi Titizyan, a refugee from Kassab, a mainly Armenian village in northern Syria that was overrun by jihadists fighters on March 21, described her ordeal to Agos, an Istanbul-based Armenian weekly.

The frail octogenarian blamed Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for Kassab’s fall. “Had Erdogan not cleared the path to Kassab, this many evil men would not have come,” Titizyan said. “May Allah blind Erdogan,” she thundered in a separate interview with Aris Nalci, a Turkish-Armenian blogger.

Three Kessab Armenians Freed after Being Held in a Turkish Prison

At a press briefing on March 31, Armenia’s Social Democrat Hunchakian Party Executive Committee deputy chairman Vasken Mesrobian stated that out of 22 Kessab Armenians, who had not been evacuated and subsequently were arrested, transported and detained in a Turkish prison, the three eldest have already been released and will be transported to Latakia.

Leak and You Tube Ban in Turkey; U.S. State Department "Deeply Troubled"

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has filed a complaint against Today's Zaman editor-in-chief Bülent Keneş, deputy editor-in-chief Mehmet Kamış, columnist Emre Uslu, journalist Önder Aytaç, and Former İstanbul Police Department Intelligence Bureau Chief Ali Fuat Yılmazer on Saturday, March 29, 2014, a day before local elections in Turkey.

Erdoğan's lawyers said in a petition they submitted to Ankara Public Prosecutor's Office that they seek travel ban for Uslu, Aytaç, and Yılmazer and claimed that Keneş and Kamış humiliated Erdoğan in their tweets.

Syria Forces in Heavy Counterattack on Rebels in Latakia

Syrian government forces intensified their shelling Wednesday, March 26, 2014 of positions seized by rebels in the coastal province of Latakia, focusing on the Kessab border crossing into Turkey, an army officer said.

The province is the historic heartland of President Bashar al-Assad's clan and his Alawite sect of Shiite Islam, and territory the regime will not easily give up.

Turkish Activists Condemn Ongoing Offenses in Kessab

The attacks against the Armenian-populated Syrian town of Kessab and Turkey’s support to the terrorists carrying out the attacks has angered some Turkish intellectuals. As Turkey’s DemokratHaber.net reports, prominent Turkish publisher and author Ragip Zarakolu and publicist Sait Cetinoglu have voiced their concerns.

An Appeal to All Armenians Throughout the World from the Armenians in Kessab

On Mother's Day, March 21, 2014, our beautiful town was brutally attacked by Al-Qaeda extremists and Al-Nusra front that is linked to Al Qaeda,  with the blessings and full military and logistical support of the Turkish government.

Kessab: Deep Roots amid Fallen Leaves



Lalai Manjikian



It is that autumn season again in Montreal when fallen leaves brighten the city. Nothing burdens me right now, as I feel the earth’s cold moisture spread across my knees, staining my newly washed jeans. Instead, I form abstract clusters of yellow, red, and brown as I collect the leaves on the ground. This act soon becomes the free rearrangement of dampened earth colors on a grass canvas against the brisk November wind.

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.