MIDYAT, TURKEY — The bright voices of children at play echoed off the ancient walls of Mor Hanonyo last week, breaking centuries of stillness in this 1,600-year-old Syriac Orthodox monastery outside Mardin in southeastern Turkey. Little boys skipped around the monastery courtyard zipped up in quilted winter jackets, while their elders huddled indoors and lamented the violence and mayhem that have forced them to flee their homes in Syria.
The Unbearable Lightness of Syria Policy
Supporting Assad’s non-jihadist enemies may be our least bad option.
May 9, 2013
By Clifford D. May
Free Syrian Army fighters outside Maaret al-Numan, November, 2012.
“Arming the rebels — that’s an option. You look at and rethink all options. It doesn’t mean you do or you will. . . . It doesn’t mean that the president has decided on anything.”
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, May 2, 2013
But deciding on something is what presidents get paid the big bucks to do. Obama is right to find the available options unappealing, but the problem remains. Declining to choose is no solution; it simply leaves it to others — including those most hostile to America — to call the shots.
Two years ago, Syrians fed up with Bashar Assad’s Iranian-aligned dictatorship began to peacefully protest. Assad responded with brutality. Before long, a civil war was raging. Since then, more than 75,000 men, women, and children have been killed — a catastrophe of major proportions. Curiously, this carnage is not a priority for either the Arab League or the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, as even a cursory look at their websites makes clear.About 600 days ago, Obama declared that “Assad must go.” When an American president wills ends, the best practice is also to will means. The president’s secretary of state, secretary of defense, and director of central intelligence advised him to support moderate and secular opponents of Assad. He didn’t take their advice. Would the situation have turned out differently if he had? It’s a reasonable supposition, though we’ll never know for certain. Call that the unbearable lightness of foreign policy.
Here’s where we are now: Assad — backed to the hilt by Iran’s Shia jihadists; Hezbollah, Iran’s terrorist foreign legion; and Vladimir Putin’s Russia, the autocrat’s friend — is fighting insurgents whose most lethal combatants are non-Syrian Sunni jihadists, some of them joined at the hip to al-Qaeda.
As Henry Kissinger reportedly said during the Iraq–Iran war: “It’s a pity both can’t lose.” And that is the puzzle that Obama and his advisers should be working overtime to solve. Is there a way to ensure that neither Iran nor al-Qaeda emerges from this conflict strengthened? The other day, a group of Syriacs visited my offices. Syriacs are members of an ancient ethnic group, some might say an ancient nation. They have lived in the land now called Syria — it is from them that the name derives — since before the advent of Islam and the subsequent Arab invasions. They are Christians whose native tongue is Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus and other Jews of that era.
They told me they do not support Assad, nor do they support the Sunni jihadists fighting him. They have no love for the Muslim Brothers also vying for power. What the Syriacs do want is to survive in their homeland. They favor toleration and substantial autonomy not only for themselves but for Syria’s other minorities, for example the Kurds, the Druze, the Armenians, the Turkmen, and even the Alawites, Assad’s people. My Syriac friends said they believe there are millions of urbanized Sunni Syrians who also do not want to live under the domination of an Iranian viceroy, jihadists, or Islamists.
The Syriacs are not asking that American troops intervene. They aren’t asking for sophisticated arms that could fall into terrorist hands. They would appreciate simple weapons they can use to defend themselves, their villages, and their families from Assad’s forces, jihadists, and bands of thugs. Humanitarian aid would be useful, too.
I would argue that it is in America’s interest to support such people — in Syria, in Egypt, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, pretty much everywhere. Such people should not be orphans while terrorists, totalitarians, and tyrants of all stripes receive abundant support from Iran, Russia, Gulf petro-princes and, more often than not, the United Nations. What kind of people are we if we take more pains to save snail darters than Syriacs?
If Assad survives, Iran’s rulers will pop the pomegranate juice — a battle won in a war they’ve been waging since 1979. By contrast, Assad’s fall would set back, perhaps permanently, Iranian attempts to spread their Islamic Revolution to Arab and Sunni lands. For this reason alone, “Assad must go.” A strategy to help him on his way is long overdue.
What comes after Assad is probably not peace and prosperity. So it makes sense to begin, albeit belatedly, bolstering those willing to resist the foreign jihadists, as well as those who, post-Assad, would favor a federalized Syrian government, one in which no individual or faction can dictate to the others.
I’m not saying that is a good option. I am saying that it’s less bad than the others. It’s certainly better than playing Hamlet while those who seek to diminish us (e.g. Putin), and those who seek to destroy us (e.g. Iran’s rulers and their jihadist rivals) shape the future for Syria and the Middle East.
— Clifford D. May is president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a policy institute focusing on national security.
EDITOR’S NOTE
: This piece has been amended since its original posting.
Chairman’s
Message
Dear
readers,
The
Syrian
case,
it
is resuming
to
be
crucial
issue
of the
world’s
agenda.
The
Middle
East,
in every
century
has got
through
period
of transition and
heavy
wars.
Aftermath
of
the
Lausanne
agreement in
1923,
the
Syriac
people
had
been
left
outside
of
the
change
region
and
develop ments
which
happened
in
the
Middle
East.
They
couldn’t
benefit
from
these
developments
neither
as
nation
and
nor
as
Christians.
Now
a
days, the
Arab
Spring
which
begun
in Tunisia, Libya
and Egypt,
continues
in Syria
more
than
two
years.
The
Syrian
uprising
turned
into
a bloody
war and
caused
hundreds
and
thousands
victim across
Syria.
As
ESU,
we
are
aware
of
difficulties
and
the
obscure
future
for
Syriac
people.
Neither Western powers
and
nor
the
local
powers
do
not
pro tect
them.
They
let
them
out
of
the
process.
The
representation
of
Syriac
people
in
every
level
is
weak
or
neglected.
Once
again
the
agenda is
about
the
Sunni,
the
Shia
and
the
Kurds.
We
have
already
seen
this
film
in
Iraq.
As
ESU
we
demand
from
the
Western powers
to
consider and
to
understand
the
problems
and
the
circumstances
of
the
Syriac
Christians
in
Syria.
As
ESU
we
started
a
campaign
to
help
our
people
in
Syria.
This
campaign
consists
of
collecting food,
clothes,
blanket
etc.
to
serve
the
people to
continue
their
life
in
Syria.
Our
campaign has
begun
15th
of
March and
will
continue
until
15th
of
April.
We
expect each
kind
of
help
and donations
so
that
hand
in
hand
we
can
protect and
help
the
kids,
the
women, the
elderly, the
sick
and
people
in
need.
In
this occasion,
we
would like
to congratulate
the head of
the Catholic Church his
Beatitude
Pope
Francis I.
who has
been
elected
as
the new leader
of
Vatican
and
the
whole
Catholic
in
the
world.
Our
expectation
from
the
new
Pope
Francis
I.
is
to
awake
the
Christian
world
on
the
sit uation
of
the
Christians
of
the
Middle
East.
We
call
him
to
support
spiritually
and
materially and
to
pay
attention
to
those
Christians
as
his Beatitude pay
attention
to
the
other
Catholics
faithful.
In
the
past
several
days,
the
Turkish
government
launches
a
process
with
the
Kurds
and
especially
with
the
Kurdish
Worker
Party
(PKK)
to
solve the
problems
and
the
Kurdish
issue.
In
our
opinion,
this
is
a
significant
step
towards
the
security
of
the
people
who
are
living
in
Turkey.
But on
the
other
hand,
the
Turkish
government
does
not
give
the
impression
of
being
honest
and
sincere
towards
the
Syriacs.
Because
it
takes
the Syriac
issue
as
a
religious
community
and
it
is
trying
to
solve
the
problems
with
the
religious
leaders.
That
shows
the
approaches
of
the
Turkish government
are
avoiding
the
identity
of
the
Syriacs
and
it
wants
to
accept
them
as
Turkish
Christians.
But
as
ESU
we
do
not
accept
this approach
toward our
people
and
the
denial
of
our
identity that
has
a
history
of
more than
6000
years
old.
We appeal
the
European
Union
to be
aware
of
this
richness
of
Syriac
history
and
tradition
does
not
be
vanished
from
Turkey.
As
ESU
in
last
3
months,
we
organized
activities such
as
conference
in
the
France
Senate
about
Syria.
Also
we
made
several
activities to
cele brate
the
World
Women
day
and
to
promote
the
Syriac
women
in
the
community.
Furthermore
we
held
some
presentations,
conferences
and parties
in
different
European
countries
and
we
prepared
the
activities to
commemorate
the
Sayfo
1915 martyrs in
April.
Lahdo Hobil
President of European Syriac Union
TO THE
WORLD
PUBLIC
OPINION
The
Uprising in
Syria which
started on
March 2011
continues constantly.
The regime
of Assad tries
all means
to stop and
crash this
uprising. Thus,
the country
had
turned
into
the
ruins
and hundreds
of
thousands families
fled their
country. While
the rebels
fighting against
fascist
practices of
the regime,
on the other
hand some
marginal groups
and gangs
belonging
to
the regime
terrorise people
and civilians.
With these
terror acts
all Syrian
people are
affected
as well as
Syriac people
and
their religious
institutions. Until
today hundreds
of
Syriac-Greek-Maronites
had been
killed because
of their
Christian belief.
Hundreds of
Syriacs
had
been kidnapped
for high
amounts of
ransom and
when the
ransom is
not provided
the
victims
are
killed
with
barbaric
ways.
Business
establishments
and
domiciles
had
been
priority
for the attacks
and the gangs.
The
terror attacks
reached the
tipping point
on April,
22, 2013
against Syriac
people in
Syria.
This
day, the
bishop of
Syriac Orthodox
Church in
Aleppo Hanna
Ibrahim
and
the bishop
of Greek Orthodox
Church Paolus
Elyaziji had
been kidnapped
by
unknown persons
around
Aleppo.
At the same
time their
driver Fethallah
Robin Kabud
had been
killed.
In
order to
protest against
this
inhuman
attack and
sensibilise the
world
public
opinion around
Syriac
people problems,
we are organising
protest meetings
in Brussels,
Belgium and
in
Södertalje,
Sweden on
April,
28,
2013.
We
kindly ask
the support,
sensibility
and empathy
of
world media
organs
and institutions
to the cry
of Syriac
people. The
attention of
media organisations
to
the protestations
is vital
and
fundamental
during these
difficult days
that face
Syriac people.
OUR
DEMANDS
1.
Unconditionally
immediate
release
of two
bishops.
2.
Immediate
cease of
attacks
against
the
religious
values,
properties
and
other
assets
of
Syriac
people.
3.
Immediate
release
of
Syriac
and
Christians
hostages
and
prisoners
at the
hands of
various
gangs
and of
the
regime.
4.
Immediate
cease of
bloodshed
and
finding
solution
to the
human
tragedy.
Release
of
prisoners,
stopping
torture,
exodus
and
destruction
of
the
country.
Inviting
international
community,
regional
actors
and
humanitarian
organisations
to act
immediately.
5.
Christian
Syriac-Assyrian-Chaldean-Aramean
people
in Syria
face the
same
threats
and
difficulties
as it
was in
Iraq. In
order to
avoid
and put
aside
all
threats
and
difficulties,
United
Nations,
European
Union,
Arab
Union
and
Islamic
Union
have to
act
immediately.
Addres:
Rond-Point
Robert
Schuman
1000
Brussels-BE
Date:
28-04-2013
Time:
14H00
Contact: 0032 484
54 44 36
POUR
L’OPINION PUBLIC MONDIALE
Le
soulèvement qui
a commencé
en
Mars 2011
en Syrie
continue sans
cesse. Le
régime
d’Assad
utilise tous
les moyens
pour cesser
le soulèvement.
Par
conséquent, le
pays est
en
ruines
et des milliers
de familles
ont du quitter
leur pays.
Pendant que
les rebelles
luttent
contre
les pratiques
fascistes du
régime, d’autres
groupes marginales
et
les gangs
liés au
régime
terrorise la
population.
Par
conséquent,
tous
les Syriens
sont affectés
ainsi le
peuple
Syriaque
et ses institutions
religieuses. Jusqu’à
aujourd’hui,
des
centaines de
Syriaque-
Grecque-Maronites
ont été
tué à
cause de leur
identité Chrétienne.
Des centaines
de Syriaques
ont
été kidnappé
pour des
rançons et
des sommes
très élevé
et faute
de provision
de rançon
les
ravisseurs
tuent leur
victimes. Les
établissements
commerciaux
et les domiciles
sont
prioritaires
pour les gangs.
Les
attaques terroristes
ont été élevées
à un point
très haut
ce 22 Avril
2013 contre
le peuple
Syriaque
en Syrie.
Pendant ce
jour-là, l’évêque
de l’Eglise
Syriaque Orthodoxe
d’Alep
Monseigneur
Hanna Ibrahim
et l’évêque
de l’Eglise
Grecque Orthodoxe
Monseigneur
Paolus
Elyaziji
ont été kidnappés
par des inconnus
prés de la
ville d’Alep.
Dans le même
incident,
le
conducteur
des évêques,
Fethallah Robin
Kabud, a
été tué sauvagement.
Afin
de protester
cet acte
criminelle
et
sensibiliser l’opinion
public autour
des problèmes
qui
rencontrent
les Syriaques
en Syrie,
nous organisons
des protestations
à
Bruxelles
en
Belgique
et
à Södertälje
en Suède
le 22 Avril
2013.
Nous
demandons le
soutien et
l’empathie des
medias internationales.
L’attention des
medias
pour
les protestations,
est fondamentale
et vitale
durant ces
jours difficiles
que subissent
les
Syriaques
en Syrie.
NOS DEMANDES
1.
Libération
inconditionnelle
et
immédiate
de deux
évêques.
2.
Arrêt
immédiate
des
attaques
contre
les
valeurs
religieuses,
des
biens et
d’autres
acquis
de
peuple
Syriaque.
3.
Libération
immédiate
des
otages
et
prisonniers
Chrétien
Syriaques
dans les
mains
des
gangs
ainsi du
régime.
4.
Arrêt
immédiat
de bain
du sang
et
trouver
une
solution
pour
cette
tragédie
humaine.Inviter
la
communauté
internationale,
les
pouvoirs
régionaux
et les
organisations
humanitaires
à
agir
sans
délai.
5.
Les
Chrétiens
Assyro-Chaldéen-Araméen
de la
Syrie
rencontrent
les
mêmes
menaces
et
difficultés
qu’ils
avaient
rencontrées
en Iraq.
Afin
d’éviter
toutes
les
menaces
et les
difficultés,
les
Nations
Unies,
l’Union
Européenne,
la Ligue
Arabe et
l’Organisation
de la
Coopération
Islamique
doivent
agir
sans
délai.
Adresse:
Rond-Point
Robert Schuman
1000
Bruxelles-BE
Date:
28-04-2013
Heure:
14H00
Contact: 0032 484 54 44 36
Syriac Orthodox Christians in Turkey
''This Is Simply Our Home''
February 25, 2013
Ekrem Eddy Güzeldere İ Qantara.de 2013
In recent years, around 60-100 Syriac Orthodox families have returned from central Europe to Turkey. Encouraged by changes in the political atmosphere, the minority nonetheless faces a host of problems, from the expropriation of land belonging to a monastery, to a ban on special schools and kindergartens, and also a lack of places of worship in Istanbul. By Ekrem Eddy Güzeldere
A sign in Aramaic at the side of the road defiantly bids visitors "Welcome to Kafro" next to the official Turkish sign on which the village is called "Elbeğendi". Here, some 15 kilometres south of Midyat, live 17 Syriac Orthodox families. There are no shops in the village, but there is a café that allegedly serves the only decent pizza in the area.
"German is the lingua franca amongst the children in the village," says the pizza maker in flawless German, which he learned while living close to Stuttgart. All of the families here have returned to Kafro after living in Germany and Switzerland, some of them for decades.
Among them is also the muhtar, the elected village chief, Aziz Demir, who lived with his family in Zurich and near St. Gallen. "Even if our lives there as Christians were very pleasant, something was still missing," he says on the terrace of his house, where he lives with his wife, from a neighbouring village, and their youngest son, Josef, who attends secondary school in Midyat. With a sweeping gesture beyond the newly landscaped garden out onto the plain, he says "This is simply our home."
Urgent need of restoration
The Demirs and the other 16 families all live in new houses, because the buildings of the old village, within site of the new developments, were for the most part destroyed in the clashes between the army and the PKK. As was the old church, which is in urgent need of restoration but still awaits the necessary permits.
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The inhabitants of Kafro have therefore erected a small chapel with the help of the "Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Württemberg", as the sign next to the entrance indicates. Services only take place here once in a month, however, as the village does not have its own priest. From the roof of the old church, Demir points out the surrounding villages from east to west: "One is Christian, one Arabic, one Kurdish, one Yazidi and then another one Christian: Enhil (in Turkish Yemişli), where Tuma Çelik comes from."
Celik already moved with his family to Istanbul as a ten-year old, in 1974, and then emigrated to Switzerland in 1985. There, he became an activist fighting for the interests of the Syriac Orthodox church. He wrote for Aramaic magazines and was one of the founders of "Suroyo TV", which broadcasts in Aramaic from Sweden. He has been living again mostly in Tur Abdin since 2010.
Legal proceedings against Mor Gabriel
Last summer, he founded the first Turkish-Aramaic monthly magazine, Sabro (Hope), which is published by volunteers in Midyat. Also last summer, he launched a website called "We have grown up in this world together", devoted primarily to the legal proceedings against the region's oldest monastery, Mor Gabriel.l.
![A Syriac monk walks up the stairs in the ancient Mor Gabriel Monastery. [Reuters]](images/MENEKSEphoto.jpg)
