The Syrian Armenian Crisis: Will You Be the First to Call?

By Zaven Khanjian

“Nearly a century after the Armenian Genocide, these people are still being slaughtered in Syria”
British Journalist
Robert Fisk

No one would foresee it coming.
With the flash of the first bullet they were terror-struck.
They all lost their means of survival.
Some lost their homes.
Many lost their lives.
They have no power most of the time.
No heating oil, no cooking oil.
They have no running water.
Bread is a scarce commodity, if one has the means to afford it.
Their schools have been bombarded, damaged, destroyed.
Some have been closed.
School children are dispersed all over.
Kindergartners are killed on their way to school.
Their places of worship are desecrated.
Some are not serviceable.
Some have been abandoned.
Others are occupied by vicious mercenary bandits.
Families are broken.
Families are dispersed in a geographic maze.
A community is under siege.
Some have been kidnapped or killed because of their faith.
Some have been kidnapped or killed because of their identity.
Dozens have been killed.
Those left are struggling to hold on, resist, endure and survive.
I am not talking about the Genocide.
I am not talking about what the Young Turks perpetrated in 1915.
I am talking about the crimes that current day Turkey and it’s financiers in the West and the Arab Gulf are committing every day in Syria.
I am talking about Syria today, in the year of our Lord 2013.
And yet we seem to be in a deep coma.
Yes, it’s thousands of miles away.
Our TV stations do not disseminate pictures of the sufferings.
Our mainstream media does not cover the crime.
They don’t talk about it.
Some think it’s surreal.
But we know what’s going on.
And we know who the culprits are.
Do we share the guilt?
Do we realize our role in it?
Do we raise our voice and condemn?
What’s wrong with us?
The mother of the Diaspora communities is suffocating.
The mother of the Diaspora communities is moribund.
Here’s how a community leader recently described Aleppo, Syria.

“Syria and specially Aleppo is the cradle of the Western Armenian Diaspora. The name Aleppo is indelibly etched in the psyche of the post genocide generation because Aleppo means survival, rebirth and safety from the bloody sword of the Ottoman Turk. Aleppo means revival of the Armenian spirit. Losing Syria and Aleppo to the destructive machine of war will mean losing very vibrant Armenian