Bad news from Aleppo Dear Folks, Yesterday, my wife Pam tried phoning our friend who is a Christian minister in Aleppo and was surprised to be able to get through. (We know him and his family well because we lived next door to them for four months in early 2010 while we were studying Arabic. After that we visited our friend twice a month for the next 18 months because he hosted at his church the international English-speaking congregation which Pam and I looked after. We have been in weekly contact with him since we had to leave Syria in August 2011, six months into the Civil War.) The reason for writing is to publicise a fact that is not being covered by the Australian or foreign media. The Battle of Aleppo has been waged for two years. Yesterday our friend told us that it had intensified over the last 10 days to the point where his neighbourhood in the government-held part of Aleppo is completely cut off and supplies are so short that people are fighting over bread. Electricity is unavailable and there is no running water. On Maundy Thursday our friend felt that the Battle of Aleppo would end with the Christian Quarter being overrun by Islamists. They are now resigned to being killed. He chose not to advertise Holy Week services because he was concerned for peoples’ safety. However on Good Friday 100 people braved the rockets and mortars to come to church. He told them is was too dangerous to come to church. Their reply was “Pastor, we would rather die walking to church or worshipping in church than die sitting in our homes.” Things have been bad before during the Battle of Aleppo but now it is appalling. Among the Opposition forces the Islamists have the upper hand. Turkey, a NATO member, is allowing, even shepherding them, them over the border and Saudi Arabia, a strong ally of the USA, is helping finance them. The underlying reality is that Syria is a proxy battleground for a struggle between Shiite Iran and Sunnite Saudi Arabia for dominance in the Muslim world. This coming Wednesday, 24th April, marks the 99th Anniversary of what the Armenians call “The Great Catastrophe” and we call the Armenian Genocide and the Turkish government calls collateral damage. Last month Kessab, a Christian Armenian town on the Syria-Turkey border an hour’s drive northwest of Aleppo, was overrun by Islamists who expelled the whole population and sacked it. This was done with the collaboration of the Turkish military. Now the Christians in Aleppo are increasingly coming to terms with the probability they will be annihilated. Aleppo is the most historically significant city for Christians in the Middle East because it is the seat of five Patriarchs of Antioch: the Syriac Orthodox Church and Syriac Catholic Church, the Greek Orthodox Church, Greek Catholic Church (Melkite), and Maronite Church. The Patriarchs of Antioch maintain they have a stronger case for being founded by the Apostle Peter than the Bishops of Rome. The ancient Patriarchate of Antioch has been for all history the mother church for Arabic and Aramaic speaking Christians. The idea of the Christians of Aleppo being annihilated is both unthinkable and probable. At this stage we can only pray and let others publicise the situation, Yours sorrowfully, Andrew Lake Vicar of St Augustine’s Anglican Church Mentone (former priest-in-charge of the English-speaking congregations of All Saints Anglican Church Damascus and Aleppo, Syria.)
Posted on: Fri, 25 Apr 2014 21:02:42 +0000
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