DISSECTING KESSAB: WHAT IS (AND ISN’T) HAPPENING IN THE HISTORICAL ARMENIAN TOWN
ianyan Magazine
April 2 2014
Posted by Liana Aghajanian
The heartbreaking news came quickly – the ethnic Armenian town of
Kessab in Syria, one of immense historic significance to Armenians
had been taken over by hardline Islamists as residents were forced
to flee. Rebels advanced to Bashar Al Assad’s hometown province, but
there was more disturbing news – the Turkish air force shot down a
regime war plane trying to bombard the rebel advancement by al Nusra
Front, al Qaeda’s offshoot in Syria, reported the Wall Street Journal.
The civil war that had plagued the Middle Eastern country for three
years had finally caught up to the border. Since it began, over 140,000
civilians have lost their lives, 4 million refugees have emptied the
country now enveloped by rubble and death.
The mayors of various villages in the area told CivilNet that the
city had been destroyed and was now “gone.”
But the tragedy of Kessab has also fallen to another tragedy of sorts –
one of the digital world, where misinformation, unverified sources and
fake photos have been used to create hysteria and have unfortunately
gone viral, under the hashtag “SaveKessab.”
Eager to participate and help spread the word, the worldwide Armenian
Diaspora has employed the hashtag, furiously tweeting, changing their
FB profile photos and urging others to sign petitions to help stop
“history repeating itself,” referencing the 1.5 million Armenians who
perished in the Ottoman-era slaughter known as the Armenian Genocide.
Kim Kardashian, Cher and even random celebrities like Blink 182â~@²s
Travis Barker got involved in the “SaveKessab” movement, too, which
elevated the hashtag to their large worldwide audiences.
But in the process, the hashtag became a tool for spreading
misinformation, as Armenia-based journalist Gegham Vardanyan summarized
in his post on the topic, both in English and Armenian:
Those disseminating this type of false information are often ordinary
users who simply want to use social media to show their patriotism
or to help resolve the Kessab Armenians’ problem however way they can.
The problem is that information from Kessab, as such, is very scarce.
There is practically no first-hand information. And when there’s no
information, it’s quite easy to replace it with misinformation.
Here is a primer on what is happening in Kessab, why it’s so important
and how to separate fact from fiction.
An important note: Clarifying these facts does not undermine the story:
The Syrian Civil War has reached an important, historical Armenian
populated city. Kessab has been left in ruins. The entire population
has had to flee as refugees in their own country. But along the way,
issues have arisen that need to be addressed. Journalism is based
in facts and verified information from first-hand sources. There
is a reason why news stations independently verify reports, and
fact-checkers are employed at magazines. Things need to check out,
and check out again before being disseminated to the public. Not
doing so is irresponsible, harmful and frankly, not journalism.
Clarification makes stories stronger. Here is an attempt to do
just that:
What is Kessab?
Kessab is an Armenian populated town that sits near the border
of Turkey, in the province of Latakia. There are several Armenian
churches in the city, and according to various reports about 2,000
residents live in the town. In the 19th century, Kessab’s population
numbered around 6,000 with more than 20 schools.
Kessab was made famous by Franz Werfel’s novel, “The Forty Days of
Musa Dagh,” based on true events surrounding World War I, the Armenian
Genocide and the Armenians’ resistance efforts against deportation.
A report on meeting Millennium Development goals sponsored by the
Canadian International Development Agency mentions an innovative soap
factory in Kessab, with products made using local laurel oil. The
factory provided income for 20 families, “with a further 150 benefiting
from the market for the berries they collect and process.”
Diasporan descendants often visit the town, many of whom had relatives
still living there. One diasporan writes eloquently about going to
Kessab to celebrate her grandmother’s 100th birthday.
Why is it so important?
Kessab was the last surviving city in the historical Armenian kingdom
of Cilicia, which was formed during the Middle Ages by Armenian
refugees who were fleeing the Seljuk invasion of Armenia. It extended
from what is now southeastern modern day Turkey to Cyprus and Syria.
According to Kessabtsiner.com, “The region of Antioch was emptied
of its Armenian, Greek and Syriac inhabitants, due to intense
persecution. In an attempt to avoid persecution, the Armenians of
the flat lands of Antioch took refuge in more mountainous regions,
such as Kessab and Mousa Dag.”
In “The Armenians: From Kings and Priests to Merchants and Commissars,”
Razmik Panossian highlights the importance of Kessab:
Even the Armenian born generation felt very strongly about Kessab-
without ever seeing it. There was much pride in the (most uneventful)
history of the village. It was a strange type of longing for a
diasporan community – albeit a very old one – as a ‘homeland,’ while
living in the real ‘fatherland.’ The important dimensions of this
regional identity is how it is connected to nationalism.
The ancient Armenian town of Kessab in Syria/ Creative Commons
What is happening in Kessab?
On Saturday, March 22, the Syrian war advanced to Kessab, and the
town was thrown under siege. One of the village mayors of Kessab told
CivilNet in a telephone conversation that “rockets from the Turkish
border were launched at the village and that the leaders made a
decision to evacuate the Armenian population to avoid human losses.”
The residents were evacuated to Latakia, with no time to take
anything with them. They are being sheltered and fed as Kessab has
been overrun by rebels and they cannot return. They also cite the
city being destroyed. They report no casualties, although Armenian
member of parliament Tevan Poghosyan, who visited the residents on a
personal trip reports that there were initially 20 people who remained
unaccounted for, with seven who have been recovered.
The U.S. State Department announced that it was “deeply troubled”
by the violence in Kessab, but as the Armenian National Committee of
America points out, “stopped short of criticizing Turkey’s role.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that Armenian-Syrians are blaming
Turkey for the advances in Kessab as “Ankara has long turned a blind
eye to rebels crossing their borers and weapons flow.”
Why are Armenians so upset about it?
In the last 100 years, this is the third time that the Armenian
community has been forced to flee their homes in Kessab. In 1909,
Turkish armed forces entered and pillaged the city. Almost 200
deaths were reported. In 1915, during the Ottoman-era slaughter of
1.5 million Armenians known as the Armenian Genocide, the entire
population of Kessab was deported, thousands were killed and only a
fraction survived to make their way back to the historical city again.
The events that have recently taken place have rattled the Armenian
Diaspora, who has long fought for recognition of a genocide which
Turkey denies. It has opened unhealed wounds and brought memories back
of dark and defining times in Armenian history, which is made all the
more shocking and emotional with reports of Turkish involvement. What
is happening in Syria cannot be categorically referred to as
“genocide,” but because of the emotional toll and trauma, what is
happening now is easily being associated with the events of 1915.
The Union of Armenian Evangelical Churches in the Near East has
distributed a letter which describes the residents of Kessab as being
“caught between two fighting forces,” though it also stresses that
the land is being held by rebels “backed by Turkey and helped by its
military forces.”
Since the start of the Syrian war, minorities like Armenians have been
caught in the crossfires. Over 6,000 Syrian-Armenian have escaped along
with the millions of ethnic Syrians that have fled out of the country,
many of them forced into an unexpected repatriation back to Armenia.
The Wall Street Journal reports that many Syrian-Armenians support
President Bashar al Assad’s forces – an alliance which is a “safer
bet to protect their interests” because Assad’s Alawite roots also
make him a religious minority.
What kind of misinformation has spread through social media about
the Kessab Crisis?
â~@¢ Reports of Civilian Casualties:
Armenian diaspora newspaper Asbarez was the first to report 80 deaths
in the scramble out of Kessab, but that information has to date,
not been confirmed. CivilNet cites no civilian deaths, although
mentions there are missing persons. TIME quotes a rebel videographer
who narrated a video tour of the city’s churches:
“Islam, he declared proudly, teaches respect for all religions,
including Christianity. “The jihadist brothers do not harm anyone.
This is our religion and this is our Islam.”
The BBC has the only first-hand published interview with a
Syrian-Armenian farmer who is actually a resident of Kessab. He
relayed in a radio interview that trucks carrying armed militants
began coming from the Turkish side and attacking Syrian government
police posts. “We heard lots of explosions near the villages close
to the Turkish border.” He mentions no civilian deaths but does say
about 50 elderly people stayed behind and when he tried to contact
neighbors, the phones were answered by people who did not speak local
Arabic. Epress has the transcript if you can’t listen to the audio.
Tevan Poghosyan, an Armenian Member of Parliament who visited Latakia
last week on a personal trip reports no civilian casualties after
speaking to the mayor and residents.
â~@¢ The Spread of False Photos
This graphic image was widely distributed but is not related to news
events out of Kessab. According to the Daily Mail it is the Islamic
State in Iraq and the Levant shooting members of Ghurabaa al-Sham
brigade, a moderate Islamist group in the head in 2013.
Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant shooting members of Ghurabaa
al-Sham brigade, a moderate Islamist group in the head in 2013.
1. A Save Kessab Facebook page disseminated photos of Christian church
in ruins on their page. “Hate Crimes, and the world is silent,” they
wrote, insinuating that the desecration took place in Kessab. The
photos actually turned out to be from St. Mary’s Greek Catholic Church
in Yabrud, Syria.
2. This article from a “former Muslim Brotherhood Member Now Peace
Activist” references the “brutal massacre” in Kessab and was using
a gruesome image of armed gunmen standing over the severed heads of
several men in a grassy field. The image was actually from a 2012
video, showing armed Taliban militants standing over the heads of
Pakistani ‘soldiers.’
3. This layered image was widely spread on Twitter and Instagram. The
graphic photo of the woman with a crucifix down her throat is a still
shot from the horror film “Inner Depravity,” the child behind held
up is an image of Fatima Meghlaj, 2, decapitated when a bomb fell on
her house in Idlib in Sept. 2012. The other image of a decapitated
man is from Syria and completely unrelated to Kessab.
â~@¢ The Misuse of the Word “Genocide” and more.
Here is the textbook definition of what genocide means: the deliberate
and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or
cultural group.
The country of Syria is caught in a bloody, ongoing war that has
unfortunately advanced to an Armenian stronghold. Tragically, Kessab
has been caught in the middle of it, too. This is not a systematic
attempt to wipe out Armenians. This is the byproduct of a war that
has killed over 140,000 victims.
Furthermore, as Sako Arian on Hetq, Armenia’s investigative journalism
outlet, points out, Turkey’s involvement in aiding rebels is not new:
The fact that Turkey is assisting the rebels in Syria isn’t a recent
development. The Turkish Air Force has not only shot down Syrian planes
but has installed Patriot type missile systems on its southern border.
These are the facts.
What is sad is that we Armenians have again fallen in the old trap
of enemy hating creating by Turkey itself. Statements and posts of
pain, sorrow and lament appear everywhere. In the midst of all these
emotional outbursts, no one is thinking of real exit strategies.
So what do we take away from all of this? The facts are that something
very terrible happened in Kessab – but something very terrible has
been happening in Syria for years, and everyone – regardless of ethnic
background or religion- is a victim. For an Armenian diaspora spread
across the world partly due to the first what is widely acknowledged
as the first modern genocide, this stirs deep, painful memories. This
is especially compounded by Turkey’s continuous, almost 100 year
denial of this pain and the historical significance Kessab holds
for Armenians. However, pointing out facts and separating them from
fiction is not just important, it is crucial. It is also very difficult
during a time when getting information out of a particular country
is near impossible. But highly emotionally charged hysteria prompted
by incorrect news and photos is harmful. Before you post something,
double check to make sure where it’s coming from. Before you share
a photo, ask yourself what the origin of it might be. It’s pretty
simple: Google Images allows you to backtrack the source of a photo
by uploading it using the little camera icon. Use it. Think like a
journalist, not a bystander, and question everything.
http://www.ianyanmag.com/2014/04/02/dissecting-kessab-what-is-and-isnt-happening-in-the-historical-armenian-town/