Armenian District in Aleppo Comes Under Attack, Scores Killed and Injured

Heavy shelling in the predominantly Armenian neighborhood of Soulemaniye in Aleppo on Friday, April 10 has left more than a dozen people dead with scores injured. Four buildings in the neighborhood have been completely destroyed. Rescue efforts have been hampered, leading to fears that the number of casualties will rise.

The mainly Christian neighborhood was targeted just ahead of Orthodox Easter celebrations. Missiles continued to fall on the neighborhood on Saturday evening, although with less intensity. Soulemaniye was under the control of Syrian state forces. According to the state-run television station Al Ekhbariya, the attack was carried out by armed radical Islamic groups who, for a long time, have been in control of nearby neighborhoods.

The Simon Vratsian Center in Soulemaniye sustained serious damage in the shelling. Almost two years ago, the Armenian Diocese, including a number of Armenian youth and cultural organizations had moved to the center as it was considered to be relatively safer. The Karen Jeppe Armenian College had also been using the center to conduct classes for students as the College was located in a more dangerous section of Aleppo.

According to CivilNet’s sources in Aleppo, many of the Armenian residents of Soulemaniye have been taken to other locations. During the Civil War in Syria, this neighborhood was considered to be a relatively safe haven, being far from the main battle lines.

Since the beginning of the war in Syria, CivilNet has conducted interviews with a number of leading Middle East experts, who expressed different opinions about the fate of Christians and Armenians in the Middle East. In an interview, Salman Shaikh, Director of the Brookings Doha Center told CivilNet that it is possible to establish peaceful co-existence between the different groups, while Keith Watenpaugh, a historian of the Modern Middle East Department at the University of California Davis said that the future of Armenians and Christians in the region is under threat.

The anti-government protests in 2011 during Syria’s “Arab Spring” quickly transformed to pitched battles between government and armed opposition forces. In the last two years, radical Islamist and terrorist cells have led the opposition movement -- the Islamic State among them. Over the course of the Syrian war, more than 220,000 people have been killed and according to the United Nations, almost half of the Syrian population has been displaced, with approximately four million fleeing to neighboring countries.