Armenia says ‘no opportunity’ to evacuate Syrian–Armenians

Armenia has said that no opportunity currently exists to evacuate around 10,000 Armenians in war-torn Syria. 

The statement was issued by Armenia’s Embassy in Damascus, which said that the Foreign Ministry was closely following the situation and that all options would be considered in case evacuation became possible.

On the same day, the Armenian High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs, Zareh Sinanyan, told Armenpress that up to 10,000 Syrian–Armenians reside in areas controlled by rebel groups following last week’s surprise attack that resulted in their capture of Aleppo and other areas formerly under regime control.

Sinanyan said that his office maintains contact with the Armenian community in Syria despite poor connections.

The Armenian Embassy also noted that the Armenia’s Consul General in Aleppo, Ara Avetisyan, is carrying out his work in Damascus, saying that he has been unable to return to Aleppo. The embassy said that Avetisyan went to Damascus the day before the attack on the city.

Karen Harutyunyan, the editor-in-chief of CivilNet, wrote that Avetisyan’s absence from Aleppo ‘raises serious questions’ that the Foreign Ministry and the embassy’s justifications were ‘incomprehensible and unacceptable’.

‘But now is the time for Yerevan to take responsibility for the safety of Aleppo’s Armenians and, if necessary, facilitate their evacuation to Armenia,’ wrote Harutyunyan, adding that Aleppo Armenians ‘once again are left to rely on their community structures and leaders’.

On Saturday, Armenia’s Defence Ministry ‘temporarily’ suspended a humanitarian mission in Aleppo, citing the ‘significant deteriorating’ of the operational situation in Syria.

Armenia’s mission in Aleppo was deployed in February 2019, consisting of 83 deminers, medics, and security personnel. The ministry cited Aleppo’s Armenian community among the driving factors behind the mission.

According to the Armenian government, prior to the start of the Syrian war in 2011, up to 100,000 Armenians lived in Syria, with 60,000 living in Aleppo. As of 2019, Armenia granted asylum to 22,000 ethnic Armenians from Syria. 

According to the Office of the High Commissioner for Diaspora, since the beginning of the war in Syria,  a number of Armenian public buildings, factories, shops, cultural centres, schools, cemeteries, churches, and monuments have been partially or completely looted, destroyed, or demolished in Syria.