SYRIAN ARMENIANS, WHO HAD BEEN INSULATED FROM WAR, FORCED TO FLEE AFTER REBEL OFFENSIVE
Washington Post
April 2 2014
By Loveday Morris, Wednesday, April 2, 6:03 PM
ANJAR, Lebanon — Some fled in their nightclothes, others in their
farming boots straight from the fields. Many thought they’d be able
to return in a few hours, but now fear they may never again.
Until the shells started raining down late last month, the tiny Syrian
village of Kassab and surrounding villages had been largely sheltered
from the three-year civil war that has devastated other parts of the
country. But now it is the focus of a rebel offensive into Syria’s
coastal province of Latakia, and an accompanying social media storm
of disinformation.
A lush, mountainous idyll abutting the Turkish border, Kassab is an
ancestral home of Syria’s minority ethnic Armenians, Christians who
have lived on the land for a millennium. But the attack by hardline
jihadist rebels sparked a mass exodus from the villages.
The picturesque Armenian hillside villages in the north of Latakia
provide a foothold for an offensive into the rest of the province —
a heartland for Syria’s minority Alawites, who are largely supportive
of President Bashar al-Assad.
The area has little other strategic value to the opposition, but the
limited gains there have boosted rebel morale amid a string of defeats
elsewhere, with the leader of the main Syrian opposition body, Ahmad
al-Jarba, making a rare visit into Syria this week to tour the area
and visit fighters.
The Armenian diaspora, including some celebrities, has expressed
outrage, demanding that the United States act to protect Syria’s
minority Armenian community. The State Department has said it is
“deeply troubled” by the developments.
Some government loyalists have jumped on the incident to launch a
propaganda campaign accusing rebels of mass killings and desecrating
churches, sparking fierce rebuttals from opposition activists.
But the people of Kassab, like the 7 million others who have been
displaced by the war, are focusing on trying to rebuild their lives
after being torn from their land. At least 30 families have fled to
neighboring Lebanon, seeking refuge in the Armenian village of Anjar
and in the capital Beirut, and the testimonies of more than a dozen
shed some light on the events surrounding the offensive.
All but about 30 of the area’s roughly 2,500 residents fled within 48
hours of the attack, they said. The fate of those who remained, who
were too old or unwilling to leave, is unknown, with communications
to the area now cut. There was no major loss of life, they say, with
just one known death, that of a local teacher who was hit in her car
by a sniper as she tried to flee.
Still, the mass exodus is particularly emotional, with Armenians
from Kassab forced to leave their homes twice in just over 100 years
because of persecution at the hands of the Turks.
They first fled during the Adana massacre of 1909, when tens of
thousands of Armenians died at the hands of the Ottomans.
Then, in 1915, as many as 5,000 of Kassab’s residents died during
the fracturing empire’s murderous campaign against the Armenians,
which is widely recognized as a genocide.
“Now it’s 2014, and we are being displaced again,” said a 41-year-old
farmer’s wife who arrived in Lebanon a week ago. Like others fleeing
the loyalist area, she spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear
of reprisals if she and her family return.
“But thank God that this time there is no massacre,” she said. “We
believe that, as Armenians, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”
Once again, the Armenians see the hand of their long-standing enemy
behind their displacement, claiming the rebel attack was launched
from Turkish soil. Many of the farms and homes in what was once a
popular tourist spot have sweeping views of the Turkish border.
The offensive, they say, began at about 5 a.m. March 21, with villagers
waking to the sound of heavy machine-gun fire, followed by shelling.
First struck were two Syrian border posts, according to the accounts of
several residents. Manned only by lightly armed Syrian border police,
they said there was little in the way of defenses against the push
by jihadist rebel groups, which included the al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat
al-Nusra and Islamist Ahrar al-Sham.
Not long after, the main border crossing to Turkey fell, residents
said.
Villagers had evacuation plans prepared. In case of an attack,
instructions were for women and children to congregate in the village
of Nabaeen, the furthest from the Turkish border, with a back road
to Latakia.
By 7 a.m., one Nabaeen farmer said about 50 people had gathered at
his house. “People were crying and yelling that they had nothing with
them. Some were in their slippers and pajamas,” he said. “It was a
sad situation.”
Despite the chaos, many grabbed the deeds to their houses — an
instinct, they say, for a people with a history of displacement. Some
of the men stayed behind to see how the situation developed.
“We left all our valuables and had nothing more than the clothes we
were wearing,” said one 40-year-old mother of three. As the shelling
picked up, by 11 a.m. most of the families had left Nabaeen for the
safety of Latakia, 35 miles south, as Syrian army reinforcements made
their way north.
By March 23, rebels had reached the center of Kassab. Villagers
point to Turkey’s shooting down of a Syrian jet attempting to hit
the invading rebels later that day as further evidence of Turkish
support for rebels.
A Turkish diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of
the sensitivity of the subject, said that no rebels are “deliberately”
allowed to use the Turkish border, and if there was shelling into
Kassab from Turkey on March 21, it was due to new rules of engagement,
which allow its armed forces to retaliate when fired at to deter
further attacks.
Turkey also said that the jet it shot down had strayed into its
airspace.
Jihadist fighters who entered Kassab have gone to lengths to stress
that they are not desecrating churches or there to hurt the civilian
population.
The mother of three said that after she arrived in Latakia with her
children, she called home, and a man who identified himself as a
member of Jabhat al-Nusra answered.
“He said come back, why did you leave your home? We have come here
to protect you,” she recalled, though she said he later said she
should convert to Islam before returning. “I pleaded with him, ‘Eat
and drink whatever you like, but please don’t destroy the house.’â~@~I”
But Kassab residents are not convinced, and some fear they will never
be able to feel safe in the area again, even if the Syrian government
succeeds in pushing out the rebels.
One farmer, who sold his car in Latakia to afford the journey to
Lebanon, says his grandmother survived a notorious death march from
the village to the city of Homs during the genocide but still returned
to Kassab.
This time he’s not sure his family will make it back.
“Our roots are there, everything is there,” his wife said, “but
we can’t.”
From: Baghdasarian