The authorities in Yerevan are able to ensure orderly evacuation of Armenians from Syria, where the situation is going from bad to worse, said Wednesday Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan Minister.
In an interview with the Armenian service of RFE / RL (Azatutyun.am), responsible for the relations of Armenia with the Diaspora said that no country in the world, including Armenia, will organize evacuations in of State. “Because it amounts to provide guidance to enemies on your intentions and that can facilitate their work if they want to attack you,” she said. “Both politically and in terms of security must not say such a thing.”
Hakobian recently returned from Lebanon where she met local Armenian religious leaders and discussed the situation in Syria, a country that housed up to 80,000 Armenians, before the outbreak of the conflict in 2011, most of them descendants of survivors of the 1915 genocide.
The Armenian community of Syria would have seen its workforce fall by more than half over the past four years, with some 13,000 Syrian Armenian nationals who have found refuge in Armenia. Thousands of Armenians remaining in Aleppo city ravaged by war and an estimated 320,000 the number of people who were killed during the four years of conflict.
According to Hakobyan, “it is useless to talk about preservation of a large community in a country devastated.” She added that ethnic Armenians remaining in Syria today are for “most people who try to protect Armenian historical and cultural values.” “It is clear from our conversations that we must send signals to our compatriots to leave the country in various ways, because the danger is very high,” said the Armenian minister.
However, many Syrian Armenians apparently find it extremely difficult to get out of the country. Based in Aleppo, Zarmik Poghikian said by telephone Armenian service of RFE / RL (Azatutyun.am) it was not enough to know the way out of Syria, still had to have enough money to get there. According to him, Aleppo had not had water for ten days, its supply, eventually having been restored there two days about the electricity supply is rationed only one hour per day . Bomb explosions are a regular event in the city, he added.
Mikael Karapetian, another Armenian Syrian who moved to Yerevan with his family four years ago, said that Armenian citizens of Syria are now in a dilemma: on the one hand, they are not sure to start a new life in Armenia, due to social and economic problems of the country, on the other they realize they put their lives in danger by remaining in Syria.
However, Hranush Hakobian stressed that Syrian Armenians will not find anywhere else in the world they will find aid in Armenia. She stressed that the authorities in Yerevan are doing everything they can to help the Armenians who remain in the war zone and those who have emigrated to Armenia.
Ara © armenews.com