Hundreds in Rome support Kessab Armenians in front of Turkish Embassy

Yerevan, April 10, Armenpress. Hundreds of people throughout Italy gathered on April 10 to take part in a sit-in in front of the Turkish Embassy in Rome to protest against Turkey’s aggressive policy. Armenpress was informed about this from Rome by Italian-Arabic “Assadakah” centre military correspondent Talal Khrayis. The demonstrators displayed their total support to the Armenian victims of the Turkish aggression who had to abandon their native town Kessab and find shelter in Latakia and Beirut.

“We are here to condemn the military policy of Turkey against the sovereign state of Syria. In all times Turkey has been a martial country. I have to state that on March 21 the town of Kessab was directly attacked, the inhabitants of which are mainly Armenians…We are here also to express our solidarity with the Armenian people”- mentioned one of the sit-in activists Ilaria Candied.

Previously it was reported that the armed incursion began on Friday, March 21, 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 Kessab. 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 700 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 recent years with the city serving as safe-haven for those fleeing from the war-torn cities of Yacubiye, Rakka and Aleppo.