YEREVAN, APRIL 7, ARMENPRESS At the course of the PACE spring session Deputy of the Prosperous Armenia Party of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia Naira Zohrabyan spoke about the tragedy in Kessab and demanded to send a PACE observation mission to Kessab. Armenpress reports that in her speech the Armenian Deputy called the events in the Armenian-populated city of the Syrian Kessab as human tragedy.

 “The facts are undeniable that the terrorist attack on Kessab was carried out by the terrorist groups which crossed the Turkish area. In the result of those barbaric actions the Armenian population of Kessab was displaced. The terrorists desecrated the Armenian churches, destroyed and looted the houses of the Armenians.  The Armenians of Kessab left the city to avoid the consecutive genocide. There are shot cadres where it is clearly shown how the terrorists freely pass to Syria, area of Kessab from the border of Turkey and there are soldiers of the Turkish Army among those terrorists. Therefore, the allegedly unaware statement by the Turkish officials is the consecutive manifestation of Turkism, nothing more. The statement made by the head of one of the Turkish research centers was not occasional on that having an Armenian community in Syria means always to keep Armenia’s hand extended to Turkey and the Middle East,” Naira Zohrabyan stated.

According to the Armenian Weekly, the armed incursion began on Friday, March 21, 2014 with rebels associated with Al-Qaeda’s al-Nusra Front, Sham al-Islam and Ansar al-Sham crossing the Turkish border and attacking the Armenian civilian population of Kesab. The attackers immediately seized two guard posts overlooking Kesab, including a strategic hill known as Observatory 45 and later took over the border crossing point with Turkey. Snipers targeted the civilian population and launched mortar attacks on the town and the surrounding villages. According to eyewitness accounts, the attackers crossed the Turkish border with Syria openly passing through Turkish military barracks. According to Turkish media reports, the attackers carried their injured back to Turkey for treatment in the town of Yayladagi.

More than 700 Armenian families, the majority of the population of Kesab, were evacuated by the local Armenian community leadership to safer areas in neighboring Basit and Latakia. Ten to fifteen families with relations too elderly to move were either unable to leave or chose to stay in their homes. On Saturday, March 22, Syrian troops launched a counteroffensive in an attempt to regain the border crossing point, eye-witnesses and state media reported. However, on Sunday, March 23, the extremist groups once again entered the town of Kesab, took the remaining Armenian families hostage, desecrated the town’s three Armenian churches, pillaging local residences and occupying the town and surrounding villages. Located in the northwestern corner of Syria, near the border with Turkey, Kesab had, until very recently evaded major battles in the Syrian conflict. The local Armenian population had increased in recently years with the city serving as safe-haven for those fleeing from the war-torn cities of Yacubiye, Rakka and Aleppo.