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Evoking A Century-Old Flight: Some Fear History Is Repeating Itself

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  • Evoking A Century-Old Flight: Some Fear History Is Repeating Itself

    EVOKING A CENTURY-OLD FLIGHT: SOME FEAR HISTORY IS REPEATING ITSELF AS ARMENIANS FLEE SYRIA

    Los Angeles Times
    March 1, 2015 Sunday
    Home Edition

    ON THE GROUND IN YEREVAN, ARMENIA WITH GLEN JOHNSON

    by Glen Johnson

    Snare drums rustle and trumpets blare. Chocolates from a famed
    confectioner in Syria are handed out among the crowd. The hall falls
    silent. A minute of remembrance is observed for the more than 200,000
    killed during almost four years of civil war in Syria.

    Hundreds of ethnic Armenians from Syria, among the thousands who've
    fled here to escape the fighting, gathered recently in downtown
    Yerevan. They came together to celebrate the 60th anniversary of
    the Armenian Central High School in Aleppo, Syria, a cornerstone of
    Armenian identity in a city now devastated by war.

    "Armenian schools keep Armenian identity alive," said a woman who
    fled Aleppo as rebels rolled into the city in July 2012, and who,
    like others interviewed, did not want to be identified for security
    reasons. "My parents went there, I went there, the school is like..."

    "A treasure for Armenians," another young woman chimed in.

    The attendees had left their homes and businesses, schools and
    farmlands, fleeing to Armenia's capital as Syria descended into chaos.

    Many are descendants of people who had gone to Syria to escape the
    Armenian genocide of 1915 to 1918 under the Ottoman Empire, which
    became the modern republic of Turkey. The Turkish government disputes
    that a genocide took place.

    The current exodus is one of the most significant movements of ethnic
    Armenians since then.

    "We are the descendants of those who survived the genocide," said
    Lena Halajian, who heads the Center for the Coordination of Syrian
    Armenians' Issues, a nongovernmental group here helping refugees
    adapt. "I fear history is repeating itself."

    Participants at the celebration here read Armenian poetry as a
    video of the Aleppo school -- showing a modest library and students,
    their hands stretched upward, fingers twitching as a teacher asked
    a question -- flashed on a screen. A quartet including well-known
    Aleppo violinist Hovhannes Moubayed plays Dance of the Rose Maidens,
    by Aram Khachaturian, the late Soviet Armenian composer.

    The violinist, 44, fled Aleppo more than two years ago, and, like
    others, he said he had embarked on a new life after leaving most of
    his belongings behind.

    "Now I try to work as a music teacher," said Moubayed, who directed a
    state music school in Aleppo. "I've started [in Armenia] at the very
    bottom. But step by step, maybe I can survive."

    Some refugees had been targeted by militants.

    "They handcuffed and blindfolded me once they knew I was Armenian,"
    said a Syrian Armenian who gave his name as Krikor. "Then they whipped
    and burned me."

    Gnarled scars stretch up his forearms now, and he shuffles uneasily.

    In summer 2013, Krikor said, fighters with Al Qaeda-linked Al Nusra
    Front abducted him from a shuttle bus in northwestern Syria's Idlib
    province. He escaped hours later and made his way to a government
    checkpoint, and safety. The experience convinced him it was time
    to leave.

    Other Syrian Armenians have been kidnapped for their perceived wealth.

    Still others have been killed in the crossfire or for sectarian
    reasons. Syrian Armenians, part of the country's 10% Christian
    minority, have been targeted by militant Sunni Muslims, who have
    become the dominant part of the opposition.

    Most Syrian Armenians speak Arabic and Armenian, a fact that has
    helped speed their assimilation in Yerevan.

    Armenian schools play an integral role in preserving cultural roots
    among the massive Armenian diaspora. The Armenian General Benevolent
    Union, a nonprofit group promoting Armenian identity globally,
    provides funds for the Aleppo school. The high school remains open,
    but the population has plummeted.

    "The problem is that it can be dangerous for students to travel there,"
    said Hagop Mikayelian, 71, a former administrator at the school who
    was kidnapped by a rebel group and held for ransom in 2013.

    In September, Islamic State militants reportedly bombed an iconic
    Armenian church and museum in the eastern Syrian city of Dair Alzour
    that memorializes victims of the Turks. Lost were rare documents
    detailing the mass killings, say community members, who also note that
    bones of some of those who perished were laid in the foundations of
    the now-destroyed monument.

    "The memorial was living proof of what happened to Armenians,"
    Halajian said. "They want to erase our history."

    As Armenians worldwide prepare for centennial memorials in April,
    Turkish backing for Syrian insurgents is further fueling Armenian
    outrage. The government has supported sundry rebel factions, including
    radical Islamists, as it aggressively pursues its goal of ousting
    Syrian President Bashar Assad.

    And last March, extremist fighters poured into the Syrian Armenian
    town of Kassab from across the border in Turkey.

    Most of the town's population fled south to territory still under
    control of the Syrian government. Kassab is celebrated among Armenians
    as a refuge for those who fled Turkey a century ago.

    At the school anniversary gathering, a choir sings Armenian hymns as
    ceremonies come to a close.

    Generations of graduates flood the stage, embracing while a
    photographer clicks away.

    --

    Special correspondent Johnson was recently in Yerevan. Times staff
    writer Patrick J. McDonnell in Beirut contributed to this report.

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