By Panos Titizian
The revolutionary winds of the “Arab Spring” which began in Tunisia and continued in Algeria, Yemen, Libya and Egypt for 17 months have now turned Syria’s capital, Damascus, and its large cities of Aleppo and Kamishli, into scenes of bloody battles. Over 80 percent of the Syrian Armenians live in these three cities.
Bloody and destructive struggles in any Arab country due to political, religious or ethnic reasons can only cause sorrow for the Armenian people. The Armenian people is not only forever grateful to the Arab countries for opening widely their doors and hearts on the morrow of the Genocide to the children of the exiled Armenian people, accepting them and providing them with the possibility of earning their livelihood through work — and especially the humane and noble behavior of the hospitable people of Syria. It is also profoundly in commiseration with them as a result of the terrible crisis which they are now experiencing.
Our hope and desire is that a positive solution is found as soon as possible to this crisis, which is of a destructive nature for all parties, and the guns and bombs fall silent. By carrying out an acceptable solution for all sides, peace and calm will reign once more throughout Syria’s territory.
At the same time, we are aware that hopes and desires without real, practical steps remain solely wishes and dreams, especially in our case, if we Armenians do not help by all possible means and do not take tangible initial steps to extend financial, physical, spiritual and moral aid to our Syrian-Armenian brothers and sisters.
In this vein, the communiqué of the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) several days ago in the Armenian press is very encouraging and comforting. Among other things, it said: