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Time in Yerevan: 11:07,   29 March 2024

Armenian Churchmen transfer 100.000 U.S. dollars in support to Kessab-Armenians

Armenian Churchmen transfer 100.000 U.S. dollars in support to Kessab-Armenians

YEREVAN, APRIL 15, ARMENPRESS. The Social Fund of the Armenian Church on April 15 transferred 100 thousand U.S. dollars to the bank account of the Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia to provide support for the Kessab-Armenians. The fund was established in September of 2013 by the Bishops Synod of the Armenian Church.

The Head of the information system of the Holy See Priest Vahram Melikian made a post about this in his page of Facebook.

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 Kessab, 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.

Some 670 Armenian families, the majority of the population of Kessab, 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 Kessab, 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, Kessab 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.








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