HRANT MARKARYAN: “SYRIAN ARMENIAN COMMUNITY DOESN’T PARTICIPATE IN CLASHES AND REMAINS NEUTRAL”
14:33 . 30/08
ARF-D Bureau Representative Hrant Markaryan said the information
that the Syrian Armenians have taken arms and are protecting their
districts and houses together with the Syrian army, is exaggerated. He
said this in his talk to Azatutyun Radio Station.
“I think the information is exaggerated. The reality is that
with limited possibilities they are trying to keep the Armenian
institutions, their houses away from district hooligans, criminal
elements, to secure their flats and houses against them. But they
don’t participate in the conflict,” Markaryan said.
According to him, the Syrian Armenians are the citizens of that
country, they may have different positions, they can support either
the authority or the opposition, but the community as a whole remains
neutral in all this”in the sense that it cannot accept the war,
the fight as a way out of the situation and it, separately, must not
attempt to become a target for one of the sides”.
He said, it is regretful, that Armenians also die in the war actions,
but one must pay attention to the fact that in Syria, fortunately,
there is no anti-Armenian movement or anti-Armenian act.
As to the information about threats voiced by the Syrian opposition
in address of the Syrian Armenian community, Hrant Markaryan expressed
an opinion “that was a group of the opposition and the opposition as a
whole denied that information and said it has no connection with them.”
From: A. Papazian