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TAKING REFUGE: ARMENIAN FAMILY EXILED FOR THIRD TIME IN CENTURY
Al Jazeera America
May 7 2014
Syrian-Armenians find refuge in Lebanon among fellow Armenians who
fled conflicts 100 years ago
May 7, 2014 5:00AM ET
by Ben Gilbert
ANJAR, Lebanon -- On March 21, 32-year-old Syrian-Armenian Savan woke
up to the sound of machine gun fire and explosions. It was 5:30 a.m.
She and her family sought refuge in the first-floor hallway of their
home, where they hoped the lack of windows would protect them from
the bombs falling outside.
At first, she thought the fighting would last only a few minutes;
perhaps it was a short exchange of fire between Syrian rebels and the
Syrian army positioned near the Syria-Turkey border, which lies just
a few hundred yards from her home.
But as the fighting continued for an hour and then two, she realized
her worst fears had come true: Syrian rebels were attacking their
mostly Armenian Christian village of Kassab (population 2,200) from
what seemed to be Turkish territory. And the rebels intended to
take it.
For Armenians like Savan, the fact that the attack happened to an
Armenian village just beyond Turkey's borders awakens old wounds,
animosities and anger. It's the third time her family has been driven
from their home in Kassab in just over 100 years. The Ottomans deported
her great-grandfather in 1909 and again in 1915, when Kassab, with
the rest of Syria, was part of the Ottoman Empire.
"I feel they're trying to do the Armenian genocide again," she said,
referring to the 1915 massacre and deportation of Armenian Christians
-- an event Armenians call genocide but some Turkish historians
dispute. "I feel like Armenians [are] under attack."
By 7 a.m., Savan and her family feared the rebels would cut off the
highway leading out of Kassab, so they fled the village. They ran
outside to their silver Volkswagen Golf, and six people piled into
the compact hatchback.
"I only had enough time to grab my passport and my university degree,"
Savan said.
They picked up her father, 64-year-old Harout, who had been sleeping
at the restaurant he owns.
He didn't want to leave.
"It's like history repeating itself," Harout said later at his sister's
house in Anjar, a Lebanese town founded by Armenian refugees who fled
their villages in 1915.
Smoke rises after what activists said was shelling by forces loyal
to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in the Armenian Christian town
of Kassab in early April. Reuters
Several witnesses to the assault on Kassab said that the rebels
attacked from Turkish territory and that the offensive couldn't have
happened without the Turkish government's consent.
Harout said a senior member of the village received guarantees from
the Turks that Kassab was secure and that no Syrian rebel attacks
would be permitted from Turkish territory.
"Kassab was the quietest place in Syria," said another resident,
44-year-old Rafi, who works as a construction contractor and farmer.
"The Turkish army usually did patrols along the border every three
hours. But the day before the attack, there were no patrols."
Kassab is in a mountainous area, and the Turkish military has the high
ground. Residents say a small contingent of Syrian soldiers was based
there, along with Syrian police who manned the border crossings --
but the better-armed and -positioned rebels overran them.
"The attacks were launched from Turkish territory. I saw them," Rafi
said. "For us, Turkey is the same Turkey as before. They are acting
the same way they did 100 years ago. We've been exiled in 1909,
1915 and now 2014."
The Turkish government denies allegations that it allowed the Syrian
opposition to use its territory or supported the attack on Kassab. A
Turkish Foreign Ministry statement said that those "circles" making
allegations that Turkey assisted in the attack were trying to create
"confrontational propaganda" and to "draw an analogy between the
developments in the Kesab region and the painful incidents of the
past."
The Turkish government also said that Syrian-Armenians residing
in Kassab would be admitted to Turkey and protected, and that
representatives of the Armenian community in Turkey had been notified.
Rafi and other Kassab natives say it is one of the last remaining
Armenian-inhabited towns that date from the medieval kingdom of
Cilicia, which was a semi-autonomous Armenian kingdom along the
Mediterranean coast in what is now southern Turkey in the 12th to
14th centuries.
The collective memories of Cilicia, along with the events of the early
20th century, are experiences that unite the large Armenian diaspora.
Survivors of the deportations and massacres during World War I built
strong Armenian communities that exist to this day in Syria, Egypt,
Iraq, Iran and Lebanon; some of the largest Armenian communities
outside the Republic of Armenia are in the United States and Russia.
In Kassab, the Armenians lived side by side with ethnic Turkmen,
also Syrian citizens, who often worked for the Armenian farmers and
business owners. But when the attack began, Rafi said, some of the
Turkmen picked up weapons and joined the rebels in their attack on
the village. He said he called his apartment, and a former employee
picked up the phone.
"He told me, 'Boss, we're going to spend the night in your place,'
and I said, 'You're welcome to sleep, but please don't destroy the
place,'" he said. "He made fun of me and mocked me to his friends. And
he was my employee!"
Another farmer from Kassab, Simon, said only Turkmen who joined the
rebels were allowed into the village. He said a Turkmen employee
who made it into Kassab helped him try to find out the condition of
his home and property. (He doesn't know the condition of his home,
but his tractor, worth $18,000, is missing.)
For now, a friend is lending Simon, his wife and two sons an apartment
in Anjar. His 11- and 14-year-old sons attend the Armenian Orthodox
school here. He said they'll stay "as long as the situation dictates."
"If today we hear that we can return to Kassab, we will return,"
he said.
But Simon worries about returning to Kassab, now that the Turks
broke their promise not to allow Syrian rebels to operate from their
territory.
"What kind of guarantees can they offer? Even if we return, even if
we clean up the town, can we trust Turks not to repeat this?" he asked.
Residents say three civilians -- none of them Armenian -- were killed
in the attack on Kassab. Compared with the rest of Syria, the town
has been spared much of the violence devastating the country.
But Harout fears that if the Syrian army tries to take back Kassab
by force, the town will be destroyed. If the rebels choose to leave,
they'll help themselves to anything they can carry.
"If the army takes it, they'll destroy the buildings. If the rebels
leave on their own, we'll have only the buildings," he said.
"They're not rebels. They're terrorists," said Savan. "The opposition
in Syria kicked us out of our houses."
A couple visiting family in Anjar for Easter said they fled Kassab
with everyone else. But they fear they have lost more than buildings
or furniture: Their son is a soldier in the Syrian army. They haven't
heard from him since August 2012.
"We can always rebuild our house," said Maral as tears welled up in
her eyes and her niece picked a pink Easter egg from a bowl on the
kitchen counter. "But we cannot get our son back."
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/5/7/syrian-armenianslebanon.html
Al Jazeera America
May 7 2014
Syrian-Armenians find refuge in Lebanon among fellow Armenians who
fled conflicts 100 years ago
May 7, 2014 5:00AM ET
by Ben Gilbert
ANJAR, Lebanon -- On March 21, 32-year-old Syrian-Armenian Savan woke
up to the sound of machine gun fire and explosions. It was 5:30 a.m.
She and her family sought refuge in the first-floor hallway of their
home, where they hoped the lack of windows would protect them from
the bombs falling outside.
At first, she thought the fighting would last only a few minutes;
perhaps it was a short exchange of fire between Syrian rebels and the
Syrian army positioned near the Syria-Turkey border, which lies just
a few hundred yards from her home.
But as the fighting continued for an hour and then two, she realized
her worst fears had come true: Syrian rebels were attacking their
mostly Armenian Christian village of Kassab (population 2,200) from
what seemed to be Turkish territory. And the rebels intended to
take it.
For Armenians like Savan, the fact that the attack happened to an
Armenian village just beyond Turkey's borders awakens old wounds,
animosities and anger. It's the third time her family has been driven
from their home in Kassab in just over 100 years. The Ottomans deported
her great-grandfather in 1909 and again in 1915, when Kassab, with
the rest of Syria, was part of the Ottoman Empire.
"I feel they're trying to do the Armenian genocide again," she said,
referring to the 1915 massacre and deportation of Armenian Christians
-- an event Armenians call genocide but some Turkish historians
dispute. "I feel like Armenians [are] under attack."
By 7 a.m., Savan and her family feared the rebels would cut off the
highway leading out of Kassab, so they fled the village. They ran
outside to their silver Volkswagen Golf, and six people piled into
the compact hatchback.
"I only had enough time to grab my passport and my university degree,"
Savan said.
They picked up her father, 64-year-old Harout, who had been sleeping
at the restaurant he owns.
He didn't want to leave.
"It's like history repeating itself," Harout said later at his sister's
house in Anjar, a Lebanese town founded by Armenian refugees who fled
their villages in 1915.
Smoke rises after what activists said was shelling by forces loyal
to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in the Armenian Christian town
of Kassab in early April. Reuters
Several witnesses to the assault on Kassab said that the rebels
attacked from Turkish territory and that the offensive couldn't have
happened without the Turkish government's consent.
Harout said a senior member of the village received guarantees from
the Turks that Kassab was secure and that no Syrian rebel attacks
would be permitted from Turkish territory.
"Kassab was the quietest place in Syria," said another resident,
44-year-old Rafi, who works as a construction contractor and farmer.
"The Turkish army usually did patrols along the border every three
hours. But the day before the attack, there were no patrols."
Kassab is in a mountainous area, and the Turkish military has the high
ground. Residents say a small contingent of Syrian soldiers was based
there, along with Syrian police who manned the border crossings --
but the better-armed and -positioned rebels overran them.
"The attacks were launched from Turkish territory. I saw them," Rafi
said. "For us, Turkey is the same Turkey as before. They are acting
the same way they did 100 years ago. We've been exiled in 1909,
1915 and now 2014."
The Turkish government denies allegations that it allowed the Syrian
opposition to use its territory or supported the attack on Kassab. A
Turkish Foreign Ministry statement said that those "circles" making
allegations that Turkey assisted in the attack were trying to create
"confrontational propaganda" and to "draw an analogy between the
developments in the Kesab region and the painful incidents of the
past."
The Turkish government also said that Syrian-Armenians residing
in Kassab would be admitted to Turkey and protected, and that
representatives of the Armenian community in Turkey had been notified.
Rafi and other Kassab natives say it is one of the last remaining
Armenian-inhabited towns that date from the medieval kingdom of
Cilicia, which was a semi-autonomous Armenian kingdom along the
Mediterranean coast in what is now southern Turkey in the 12th to
14th centuries.
The collective memories of Cilicia, along with the events of the early
20th century, are experiences that unite the large Armenian diaspora.
Survivors of the deportations and massacres during World War I built
strong Armenian communities that exist to this day in Syria, Egypt,
Iraq, Iran and Lebanon; some of the largest Armenian communities
outside the Republic of Armenia are in the United States and Russia.
In Kassab, the Armenians lived side by side with ethnic Turkmen,
also Syrian citizens, who often worked for the Armenian farmers and
business owners. But when the attack began, Rafi said, some of the
Turkmen picked up weapons and joined the rebels in their attack on
the village. He said he called his apartment, and a former employee
picked up the phone.
"He told me, 'Boss, we're going to spend the night in your place,'
and I said, 'You're welcome to sleep, but please don't destroy the
place,'" he said. "He made fun of me and mocked me to his friends. And
he was my employee!"
Another farmer from Kassab, Simon, said only Turkmen who joined the
rebels were allowed into the village. He said a Turkmen employee
who made it into Kassab helped him try to find out the condition of
his home and property. (He doesn't know the condition of his home,
but his tractor, worth $18,000, is missing.)
For now, a friend is lending Simon, his wife and two sons an apartment
in Anjar. His 11- and 14-year-old sons attend the Armenian Orthodox
school here. He said they'll stay "as long as the situation dictates."
"If today we hear that we can return to Kassab, we will return,"
he said.
But Simon worries about returning to Kassab, now that the Turks
broke their promise not to allow Syrian rebels to operate from their
territory.
"What kind of guarantees can they offer? Even if we return, even if
we clean up the town, can we trust Turks not to repeat this?" he asked.
Residents say three civilians -- none of them Armenian -- were killed
in the attack on Kassab. Compared with the rest of Syria, the town
has been spared much of the violence devastating the country.
But Harout fears that if the Syrian army tries to take back Kassab
by force, the town will be destroyed. If the rebels choose to leave,
they'll help themselves to anything they can carry.
"If the army takes it, they'll destroy the buildings. If the rebels
leave on their own, we'll have only the buildings," he said.
"They're not rebels. They're terrorists," said Savan. "The opposition
in Syria kicked us out of our houses."
A couple visiting family in Anjar for Easter said they fled Kassab
with everyone else. But they fear they have lost more than buildings
or furniture: Their son is a soldier in the Syrian army. They haven't
heard from him since August 2012.
"We can always rebuild our house," said Maral as tears welled up in
her eyes and her niece picked a pink Easter egg from a bowl on the
kitchen counter. "But we cannot get our son back."
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/5/7/syrian-armenianslebanon.html