KESSAB/LATAKIA/KAMISHLI, Syria (Kantsasar.com) – On Sunday, November 22, the Divine Liturgy was celebrated in the Soorp Asdvadzadzin Church of Kessab, the Soorp Asdvadzadzin Church of Latakia, and the Soorp Hagop Church of Kamishli. At the services in all three Syrian-Armenian churches, requiem prayers were offered for the three Syrian-Armenian soldiers who died in the Artsakh War: Haroutiun (Harout) Panoyan, Hagop Astarjian, and Movses (Mosig) Seklemian.
After services in Latakia, local Armenian leader Avedis Garboushian spoke, saying “Where is the United Nations, the courts protecting human rights? When will they be moved to end this injustice? It is not enough to publish condemnations, we have heard and seen such proclamations, the time has come to pass from words to action. Today, in this room, on behalf of all of us, we call upon them saying, your silence has become the cause of the continuation of genocides; if you had judged the genocidal Turks in in 1915, today they would not have the boldness to do it again. Therefore, we hold the entire world accountable for its indifferent behavior. The great Armenian poet and victim of the 1915 Genocide, Siamanto, was right when he said ‘Oh human justice, I spit in your face!’”
Pastor of the Latakia church Fr. Vazken Keoshgerian exclaimed: “Our heroes did not die in vain. According to the Bible they fell as seeds, so that a new generation should sprout and flower, [as] new hopes and a new future. They have become single shining stars in the Armenian sky. Today the Armenian people are at the height of Golgotha, but we know that after Golgotha there is Resurrection and the new dawn of resurrection.”
In Kessab, the service was conducted by Fr. Arshag Alajajian and a lengthy eulogy after church was given by Haroutiun Lnteyan. In Kamishli, the service was conducted by Rev. Fr. Besag Berberian and a short eulogy was given after church by Apig Kehyaian, where the relatives of fallen soldier Movses Seklemian were also present.
Syria’s Kantsasar, a news organ of the Aleppo Armenian Diocese, subtitled one of the articles with the fitting words from Yeghishe, the 5th-century chronicler of the Vartanants War, “Death not comprehended is death; death comprehended is immortality.”
