Business 2 Community
March 29 2014

Twitter Rallies for Syrian Christian Town With #SaveKessab Campaign

Social Buzz
By Duncan Riley, Published March 29, 2014

A small Christian town in Syria that has been targeted by Al-Qaeda
affiliated foreign fighters has finally gained international attention
resulting from a Twitter hashtag campaign calling on people to help
#SaveKessab.

Kessab is located close to Syria’s northern border with Turkey, and is
primarily inhabited by Armenian Christians. Prior to the beginning of
the Syrian Civil War, the town was a popular regional tourist resort
during Summer.

The town was overrun by Al-Qaeda aligned forces on March 21st, with
eyewitness reports stating that civilians have been forced out of the
town as the insurgents looted and destroyed local property, including
Churches.

Reports on social media suggest that residents who did not flee in the
face of the attack on the town were rounded up and executed, however
we are unable to confirm this with a reliable source.

Armenian community members in the United States are calling for
Government assistance, stating that “the United States has a unique
responsibility to protect the citizens of Kessab especially since a
large proportion of them have American families desperately seeking to
provide protection and refuge for them.”

Their request for assistance includes the US publicly condemning the
invasion of the town, a withdrawal of forces, humanitarian assistance
and help for American Armenians in finding missing relatives.

Along with the confirmed Al-Qaeda linked forces, Armenian community
groups are also laying the blame for the attack on the Government of
Turkey, a US ally and NATO member. Accusations include that Turkey
assisted the attack and provided arms to the insurgents.

At the time of writing #SaveKessab tweets were hitting Twitter at the
rate of around 20 tweets per minute.

!BSF2H

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress