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Kesab Christians urge Pope to work for peace, help them go home
May 31, 2014
(Reuters) - Syrian Christians who fled a village near the border with
Turkey after it was captured by Islamist rebels say they refuse to
leave the country and urged Pope Francis to pray for them and help
them return home.
In March, rebels including fighters from the al Qaeda-linked Nusra
Front captured the majority-Armenian village of Kesab in the coastal
province of Latakia, a stronghold of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Thousands of people fled to the city of Latakia and accused hardline
Sunni fighters of targeting Christians and desecrating holy sites.
Rebels denied the accusations.
Christians interviewed by Reuters said they hoped Pope Francis, who
visited Bethlehem on Sunday, the traditional birthplace of Jesus,
would pray for peace in Syria.
"The Pope's visit is a holy one, we wish for him to work for peace and
pray for peace in Syria," Father Miron Owadesyan said.
The Argentinean pope made an urgent appeal for an end to Syria's war
on Saturday at the start of his first trip to the Holy Land as
pontiff.
In the first days of the attack on Kesab, more than 1,500 people
sought refuge in the Armenian Greek Orthodox church of the Virgin Mary
in Latakia city 30 miles (49 km) away.
Most of them have since moved and now only about 100 people are living
in the 1,200-year-old-church, mainly surviving on donations and
support from the government.
Narik Louisian, a priest from Kesab, said he hoped the Pope would use
his influence to help Christians in the Middle East who have felt
threatened by violence and political turmoil.
"(It is) our right as Christians to live in the East, the East is our
land too," he said. "We are an inseparable part of the Holy Land."
Tamar Minoknian, a 40-year-old housewife, said she wanted Pope Francis
to help Syria's displaced Christians return to their villages. "We
want him to help us return to our houses. We do not want aid, we just
want to go back to our homes."
Latakia and neighboring Tartous provinces together form the
Mediterranean heartland of the Alawite faith - the Shi'ite-derived
sect of which Assad is a member.
Many Alawites have remained loyal to the government throughout the
three-year-old conflict which has killed at least 160,000 people.
Syria's Christian community, about 10 percent of the population, is
wary of the rising power of Islamist groups within the rebel movement,
and only a small percentage of Christians have taken up arms.
"I cannot live outside Syria, we were born here and we will die here,"
Nerneen Boinashikian, in her fifties, told Reuters while she was
preparing lunch. "All that we want is to return to our homes. Enough
destruction."
(Writing by Mariam Karouny, editing by Alister Doyle)
http://www.horizonweekly.ca/news/details/39494
May 31, 2014
(Reuters) - Syrian Christians who fled a village near the border with
Turkey after it was captured by Islamist rebels say they refuse to
leave the country and urged Pope Francis to pray for them and help
them return home.
In March, rebels including fighters from the al Qaeda-linked Nusra
Front captured the majority-Armenian village of Kesab in the coastal
province of Latakia, a stronghold of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Thousands of people fled to the city of Latakia and accused hardline
Sunni fighters of targeting Christians and desecrating holy sites.
Rebels denied the accusations.
Christians interviewed by Reuters said they hoped Pope Francis, who
visited Bethlehem on Sunday, the traditional birthplace of Jesus,
would pray for peace in Syria.
"The Pope's visit is a holy one, we wish for him to work for peace and
pray for peace in Syria," Father Miron Owadesyan said.
The Argentinean pope made an urgent appeal for an end to Syria's war
on Saturday at the start of his first trip to the Holy Land as
pontiff.
In the first days of the attack on Kesab, more than 1,500 people
sought refuge in the Armenian Greek Orthodox church of the Virgin Mary
in Latakia city 30 miles (49 km) away.
Most of them have since moved and now only about 100 people are living
in the 1,200-year-old-church, mainly surviving on donations and
support from the government.
Narik Louisian, a priest from Kesab, said he hoped the Pope would use
his influence to help Christians in the Middle East who have felt
threatened by violence and political turmoil.
"(It is) our right as Christians to live in the East, the East is our
land too," he said. "We are an inseparable part of the Holy Land."
Tamar Minoknian, a 40-year-old housewife, said she wanted Pope Francis
to help Syria's displaced Christians return to their villages. "We
want him to help us return to our houses. We do not want aid, we just
want to go back to our homes."
Latakia and neighboring Tartous provinces together form the
Mediterranean heartland of the Alawite faith - the Shi'ite-derived
sect of which Assad is a member.
Many Alawites have remained loyal to the government throughout the
three-year-old conflict which has killed at least 160,000 people.
Syria's Christian community, about 10 percent of the population, is
wary of the rising power of Islamist groups within the rebel movement,
and only a small percentage of Christians have taken up arms.
"I cannot live outside Syria, we were born here and we will die here,"
Nerneen Boinashikian, in her fifties, told Reuters while she was
preparing lunch. "All that we want is to return to our homes. Enough
destruction."
(Writing by Mariam Karouny, editing by Alister Doyle)
http://www.horizonweekly.ca/news/details/39494