Paul KeenanThe failed ceasefire bodes ill for remaining Christians, writes Paul Keenan
Since the failure of the latest peace initiative in the nearly six-year-long Syrian conflict, the predictions for the situation there have been nothing short of dire.
Estimates of a war that will drag through a bloody mire to the 10-year mark have been too frequently made now to ignore. And with such predictions comes the realisation that what we have witnessed to date is as nothing compared to the depths that will be plumbed by sides with no faith in dialogue and the surge in refugee numbers that must surely come by a people watching aid convoys burning on the distant horizon.
In the immediate aftermath of the collapse of the ceasefire and the bombing of aid warehouses and convoys, the voices of ordinary Syrians were all but lost amid the clamouring of big powers to blame and allege, deny and prevaricate.
Public spats
Presidents and ambassadors engaged in public spats and agenda-laden speeches as civilians were relegated to their ‘normal’ place amid the rubble of Aleppo, crying for help that is not coming.
Sandra Awad, communications manager for Caritas Syria was on the button when she described the situation (in a letter to AsiaNews) as “a football game between the big powers of the world on the Syrian land and using [as the] ball the Syrian people”.
It is an obscenity.
It is one that can only grow much worse in the coming weeks and months. And while it is somewhat unfair to separate one grouping from another for what is now a growing collective suffering, there are enough dispatches emanating from various parts of the war zone to hint at even greater woes for the shrinking Christian community.
Simultaneous to Sandra Awad’s letter, a message from Maronite Archbishop Samir Nassar of Damascus was publicised by the recipient Aid to the Church in Need. The message was a lament for the rapidly fading Maronite Church in the region.
Explaining that “six years of war have finally shaken the Syrian society’s safeguard: the family”, Archbishop Nassar lamented how a military mobilisation order of October 2015 has sparked an “exodus of youth”, setting in train a mass movement of Christians who have chosen to follow sons earmarked for conscription on the refugee trail to Turkey and beyond.
“Insecurity, intolerance, violence and chaotic destructions have uprooted more than two million families,” the prelate wrote. “Deprived of shelter and spread all over, how can said families possibly endure such a heavy Calvary?”
The consequence is heavy for the Maronite Church. Pointing out that “one in three priests has chosen to leave Damascus towards more peaceful countries”, his despair is clear in the question “what will our Church become without priests?” Worse yet, he speculates, “the ghost towns in the north of Syria are a source of inspiration for what we might become… How can we avoid becoming guardians of rocks, pebbles and stones?”
Concern
As if this were not depressing enough, sinister reports from the north east of Syria offer more cause for concern.
While Iraqi territory seized in 2014-15 in the name of the Kurdish people offered a safe haven for Christians fleeing so-called Islamic State (ISIS), the Kurdish expansion east across great swathes of northern Syria has not brought further good news for beleaguered Christians.
In fact, it now appears Christians are viewed as an impediment to Kurdish designs on the territory.
Thus, just over a week ago, Syrian Catholic Archbishop Jacques Behnan Hindo complained about the heavy-handed tactics employed on the Christians of Hassake in the region of Jizira by advancing Kurds.
“Whenever the Kurdish militia enters in action to reaffirm its military hegemony over the city” he explained, “the epicentre of their raids and acts of force is always the area of the six churches, where most of the Christians live. In many cases they expelled the Christians from their homes under the threat of Kalashnikovs. And where they enter, they loot everything.”
It is Archbishop Hindo’s opinion that the raids are a determined strategy to force the Christians from the territory altogether.
Such realities unfold behind the headline-grabbing moves now afoot by the ‘competitors’ for Syria and its future.
The alliance of President Bashar al Assad, Russia and Iran has alrready launched another massive assault on Aleppo, the one urban stronghold still in the grip of the various rebel groupings (at the time of writing, Aleppo was burning under the heaviest air raids in months).
Those same groupings, meanwhile, are said to be close to a merger agreement with Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, the militant grouping formerly known as the al Nusra Front which may or may not have severed its links to al Qaeda.
And America, repeatedly urging peace, is simply ignored by the other parties to the conflict who are resentful of the superpower and distrustful of its intentions in the region.
But the last word here should not be with those driving their agendas with bullets and bombs, but those who will suffer the greatest hardships in the months and years ahead.
In her letter, Sandra Awad of Caritas wrote of all Syrians: “After almost six years of war, we as Syrians are exhausted. This war is not only destroying our country, but it is destroying our souls from inside. The war knocked every door in Syria, entered every house, and left behind its traces everywhere, and in every heart.
“Unfortunately, without our support as Caritas, and the other active NGOs in Syria, a lot of families cannot survive anymore.
“A lot of families are depending on us, and we always feel that our support is like a drop of water in front of all this thirst.
“We offer food, medication, rent allowance, clothes, education support, elderly support and psycho-social support through our projects, but when we ask our beneficiaries about their most urgent need, we mostly will hear this word: PEACE!”