Armenians in Syria
Yacubiyah, which was a mixed Armenian-Catholic town, saw its Armenian population fleeing for fear of violence while the Catholics stayed behind according to local residents.
Armenian merchants and pilgrims started to visit the earliest Christian centres of the region of Syria including Antioch, Edessa, Nisibis and Jerusalem.
Thousands of Armenians were carried into slavery by the Arab invaders to serve in other regions of the Umayyad Caliphate including their capital Damascus in the Muslim-controlled Syria.
They have gradually developed their own schools and churches to become a well-organized community during the 15th century with the establishment of the Armenian Diocese of Beroea in Aleppo.
Thus, large numbers of Armenians from Arapgir, Sasun, Hromgla, Zeitun, Marash and New Julfa arrived in Aleppo during the 17th century.
Under the Ottomans, Syrians and many other ethnic groups lived in a religious and culturally pluralist society, with each community exercising a degree of local autonomy: Under the Ottomans, the area known today as Syria hadn't been a single entity but rather a collection of "wilayats," or provinces, that at times included areas of modern-day Lebanon and Israel.
In modern-day Syria before the civil war, cities were divided into culturally distinct quarters: one where you would find the Armenians, another populated by Assyrians.
I especially remember the Kurdish markets, where vendors would come dressed in their bright colors to sell fruits and vegetables from the countryside.
The Ottomans enforced a policy of pluralism, intended to appease different nations and quell the rise of nationalist movements, in which Jews, Christians and Muslims were all empowered to assert their own identities and therefore had no need to vie for power.
Each religious community, known as a "millet," had a representative in Istanbul and was allowed to organize its own affairs, including its people's education, social services and charities and even some of the legal standards by which they lived.
The main killing fields of Armenians were located in the Syrian desert surrounding Deir ez-Zor (Euphrates Valley).
The villages of Kessab, Yakubiyah, Ghnemiyeh and Aramo had Armenian majorities prior to the civil war, and are located near the contested border region of Hatay Province.
[10] Kessab was attacked and looted in an ambush by Syrian Rebels who were given passage through Hatay province by Turkey, (although they deny this claim) and Yacubiyah had their Armenian population expelled by Al Nusra.
In 2015, the local St. Rita Catholic Armenian church was also destroyed, according to unconfirmed reports at that time, by rebel fighters.
[24] Since the establishment of the Autonomous Administration of Northeast Syria, the AANES has made efforts to restore and even help cultivate the Armenian community that resides in Rojava, mainly in Qamishli, Al-Hasakah, Deir ez Zor and Ras al-Ayn.
Other notable community structures in Aleppo include: Original Armenians of Syria, known as al-arman al-qidam (lit.
After 301 AD, when Christianity became the official state religion of Armenia and its population, Aleppo became an important centre for the Armenian pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem.
On the other hand, another Armenian military General officer from Ayntab; Aram Karamanoukian had become the artillery commander of the Syrian Army during the same period.
The Armenian-Syrian members of Parliament were (in chronological order) Mihran Puzantian, Fathalla Asioun, Nicolas Djandjigian, Movses Der Kalousdian (later on also MP in the Lebanese Parliament), Hratch Papazian, Henri Hendieh (Balabanian), Hrant Sulahian, Bedros Milletbashian, Ardashes Boghigian, Nazaret Yacoubian, Movses Salatian, Dikran Tcheradjian, Fred Arslanian, Abdallah Fattal, Louis Hendieh, Krikor Eblighatian, Aram Karamanougian, Roupen Dirarian, Levon Ghazal, Simon Ibrahim Librarian and Sunbul Sunbulian (until 2012).
[33] The current Cabinet of Syria has one Armenian member after Nazira Farah Sarkis has been named as State Minister for Environment Affairs in June 2012.
Yearbooks include Souriahye Daretsuyts (1924–1926), Datev (1925–1930), Souriagan Albom (1927–1929), Daron (1949), Hye Darekirk (1956) and Keghart (since 1975).
It is noteworthy that the first ever Arabic language newspaper was published by the Aleppine Armenian journalist Rizqallah Asdvadzadur Hassoun in 1855 in Constantinople.
During the first half of the 1940s and 1950s, many Armenian players had represented the Syrian football on the national level including Ardavazt Marutian and Kevork Gerboyan.
Sari Papazian and Vatche Nalbandian from Aleppo are current members of the Syria men's national basketball team.
Salloum Haddad from the Armenian village of Yacoubiyah is a famous contemporary actor in Syrian and Arab drama.
Ruba al-Jamal (died in 2005) was a prominent classical Arabic songs performer born as Dzovinar Garabedian.
Many other Syrian-Armenian singers and musicians became renowned artists among Armenians around the world like George Tutunjian, Karnig Sarkissian, Paul Baghdadlian, Setrag Ovigian, Arsen Grigoryan (Mro), Karno and Raffi Ohanian.
Many others have achieved international fame including Aram Tigran, Haig Yazdjian, Avraam Russo, Wadi' Mrad, Talar Dekrmanjian and Lena Chamamyan.
[43] It was designed by Sarkis Balmanoukian and was officially inaugurated in 1990 with the presence of the Armenian Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia.
Since then, the relations between the two countries are developing especially after the creation of a joint economical committee between the two governments and the establishment of co-operation between the commercial chambers of Aleppo and Armenia since 2008.
