100 victims, 6 hostages, 1700 destroyed apartments and national structures: Survival of Armenian community of Syria

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 24, ARMENPRESS: Despite numerous social and economic difficulties caused by the war, the Armenian community of Syria, continues living and working. The new academic year has begun in September and brought the community children to school. Armenpress presents an interview with editor-in-chief of “Gandzasar” weekly of Aleppo Zarmik Poghikyan on issues of the Armenians of Syria.

-What are the issues of the Armenian community of Syria? What kind of difficulties have they encountered during this period?

- As part of Syrian people, the Armenian community has suffered the effects of anxiety over these three years. Being a minority, we endured much more damages – in form of destruction of national structures, in psychological sense, a large number of people left Syria, we had many losses. Syrian-Armenians tried to survive with all this. Our main task now is coming out of this war with minimal losses, because we do not favor any political force, have no connection with the war. From the very beginning the Armenian community of Syria tried to back all the efforts directing the country to democracy.

-Are there any official data on the number of the killed people and material losses?

-There are official numbers: we have had 100 victims up today, 106 kidnapped. We have 1700 damaged apartments and national structures. The community number has reduced in 50%, the part of them have immigrated to Armenia – about 12 thousand people, the other part – to Lebanon, some of them have left for the countries of Western Europe. Our wish is that Syrian-Armenians settle in the homeland, as they can at least preserve their national identity there.

-Can we say that the population in Syria is 30 thousand?

-With a small reservation – yes, because there are no exact numbers. In addition to external migration, internal displacement also took place. The majority emigrated from Aleppo, as it is the most dangerous place and people live there in difficult conditions.

-What would you say about the cultural life of the Armenian community of Syria?

-Our national authorities and religious leaders do everything possible to keep our schools working. The academic year 2014-2015 has begun and we hope that we will accomplish with minimal harm and will not register losses.