Young Syrian Armenians in Yerevan: Assad has fallen, what next?

The flag of the new Syrian regime files over Aleppo. (Source: AFP)

By Christopher Crowson

It has been over a month since Bashar al-Assad’s regime fell in Syria. What can young Syrian Armenians, currently based in Yerevan, tell us about the events which took place in the country in which they grew up?

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an Islamist rebel group, which began as an Al-Qaeda offshoot, toppled the Assad dynasty’s 50-year dictatorship in a 12-day lightning offensive. The group, which has been labelled by the UN, US and EU as a terrorist organisation, now at the head of the new Syrian government, is a cause for concern for Syria’s Christian Armenian minority.

Syria’s Armenian community has been present in the territory which now constitutes modern day Syria for millennia. However, the mainstay of the Armenian population in Syria is comprised of the descendants of those who survived the Armenian Genocide. Reaching a number as high as 100,000 before civil war erupted in 2011, the Armenian community of Syria has dwindled to as low as 20,000 people and seems as though it will continue to decline due the recent events in the country.

Among those who have made the move to their historic homeland are Tavit and Hasmig, who have asked to change their names for security purposes. Both came to Yerevan through the Birthright Armenia program and are volunteering in different organizations. Tavit is working in academic research while Hasmig is gaining experience in translation and artistic restoration.

Tavit was living in Aleppo when the HTS-led alliance swept into the city in late November, the first city to succumb to the rebel offensive. This made him among the first Syrian citizens to understand the gravity of the situation which befell them.

“When they arrived, it was an absolute shock, of course, we were in a panic, especially Christians, but [HTS militants] started telling us ‘Don’t be scared, we’re not here to hurt you, we’re not going to do anything, we’re here to free you,’” Tavit told CivilNet.

He already had plans to arrive in Armenia to participate in the Birthright program on January 11. With the government’s collapse and unsure what the future held for him, he made efforts to get out sooner but found it impossible due to siege-like conditions in Aleppo for over a week.

“We were surrounded, we couldn’t get out of Aleppo, there was no way out… we were stuck for almost 15 days in Aleppo. No one could get out, no one could come,” he recalls.

Unable to take any flights out of Syria, the young man resorted to travelling to Beirut in order to make his way to the safety of Yerevan.

“They said there’s going to be a plane from Damascus to Yerevan on January 11 which didn’t happen. So, I took a car to Damascus, from Damascus to Lebanon, from Lebanon to Yerevan.”

Hasmig, who arrived in Armenia on October 18 and whose parents and grandmother are still in Syria, was also in utter shock when the rebels took Aleppo from the Assad regime’s seemingly tight grip.

“When the news broke out that they’re going into Aleppo now… initially I thought it would last two days and then go back to normal… I’m still in shock; I still can’t believe that it actually happened,” she says.

A mix of uncertainty and fear looms over the volunteers regarding the future of Syria, now under the control of a group whose ideology has roots in radical Islam and jihadism. Naturally, they do not know what to make of the country’s new government, headed by Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa, who is also known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Julani.

The de-facto leader of Syria, who until December 20 had a $10 million bounty on his head, reigned the Idlib province with an Islamist iron grip for several years prior to the toppling of Assad. His takeover of the capital leaves the Armenian community wondering whether a similar style of rule will be imposed throughout the new Syria.

Hasmig, who converses regularly with her dad in Damascus, told CivilNet that, “It’s very uncertain now… we still don’t know what’s going to happen. So, we don’t know if [the new government] is good or if it’s bad.”

“We were sceptical at first [and] still are… we’re scared as hell about the situation” said Tavit.

Another factor that is fanning the flames of fear on Syria’s shrunken Armenian community is the expansion of Turkish influence in the country. In the short period of time following the collapse of the Assad regime, Tavit told us “you go to the market, you see Turkish products more than the local products.”

Hasmig, who is keeping up to date with the situation through frequent contact with her family claims that she saw videos online in which “there was a Turkish flag on the citadel of Aleppo”.

Despite declaring HTS’s predecessor, Jahbat al-Nusra, as a terrorist organisation, Turkey is known to have close links with al-Sharaa’s organisation. According to Armenian Mirror-Spectator, the Turks were the first to open their foreign embassy in Damascus and two Turkish senior officials, the chief of the Turkish Intelligence Service İbrahim Kalın, and the Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, have already made visits to the Syrian capital to meet with the leaders of the new government.

Such developments are indeed a point of concern for the Syrian Armenian community, who was driven into the country a little over a century ago due to the genocide.

Furthermore, although al-Sharaa has promised to continue to uphold the rights of minorities in the new Syria, and even held a meeting on December 31 with the heads of Christian churches, there have, nonetheless, been incidents that cast doubt on the place of Christians in Syrian society post-Assad.

Tavit, hesitant about his community’s safety under the reign of the new government, told CivilNet that, “We’re seeing things and hearing different things. You hear that they’re not going to do anything to Christians, at the same time you see on the news, things are being done to Christians, in Christian areas, churches, crosses on the road.”

Hasmig, sharing Tavit’s reluctant attitude towards the safety of Armenians in the new Syria, gave several examples of how their place in Syrian society may be compromised following the flight of Assad. “My friend’s mom was out shopping and someone told her to put a hijab on… there was a small Christmas tree in front of my house and there was a video of someone breaking the tree down… And [I’ve heard that there were] people in cars with speakers saying ‘Women, please cover up!’ This would never happen back [in the days of Assad.]”

Both stated that the government has assured minority groups that these incidents are merely individual acts and that the perpetrators have nothing to do with the government. But Tavit is hesitant to accept such claims. Hasmig told CivilNet that her contacts in Syria have told her that ‘normal life’ has not resumed in the country since December 8. Her friends and parents tell her that, in fact, conditions have deteriorated.

“When I spoke with my friend, she told me that she had a birthday party. She said I’m doing it at noon or 1pm because we can’t go out after six because it’s so scary. They’re not going out after dark.”

Tavit, who continued living in Syria for over a month after the rebels toppled the Assad dictatorship, says that, “defining normal life in Syria, I can say 70% is normal… Everyone is working but to say the safety we felt before the revolution is absolutely gone. We don’t feel safe right now because there’s no actual government, we don’t have policemen in the streets, we don’t even have traffic police… So, you can say that it got back to normal without the safety and without the official government facilities”.

Faced with an unpredictable future, our Syrian Armenian pair interestingly gave diverging answers when asked about whether they would return to their native land or not.

Tavit, who arrived this month, said “I do feel safe going back to Aleppo because at the end of the day, it’s my home, no matter how dangerous it gets, I don’t feel like I can’t go to Aleppo. I am going back, maybe in April or May.”

However, he was adamant about the fact that if Islamist laws are imposed on the Christian community in Syria, his family would leave without hesitation.

“If they even slightly get in the way of how we dress or how we practise our religion or anything, we would not stay for one minute. Not even think about it. We would just leave everything and move out.”

Hasmig, who although agreed with the idea that it would be possible to return to Syria, expressed her desire to permanently immigrate to Armenia. “If I want to go [back to Syria], I can go, I don’t think anything will happen to me. But personally, I don’t want to go back, I came with the intention of staying. I have been trying to get out of there for years.”

She also told CivilNet that her family is currently in the process of moving to Armenia and that they intended to do so even before December 8, 2024.

  • Refusing to greet a female embassador by shaking of hands is a SERIOUS implication that Syria is going to be oppressive towards women.
    I strongly suggest leaving and possibly return some day…. Besides,eventually extremism turns it’s eye to “who’s next”. that dose not agree with us.

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