Travelling to Syria at a time when the conflict was once again the top item on the news, I soon discovered that behind the headlines were stories of survival every bit as deserving of column inches. Those I met had astonishing tales of triumph over adversity, of tragedy and loss.
For the country’s dwindling Christian community these traumatic episodes – involving desperate food shortages, bomb blasts and the loss of loved ones – have posed an agonising question: should they stay in Syria or leave?
This urgent issue, with profound implications for the survival of a Church community dating back to earliest times, once again came up in conversation when I went to Aleppo and met a man called Antoine. His story of escape from ISIS after 62 days of incarceration, during which he lost almost half his body weight, had me on the edge of my seat.
Antoine explained how, early on in the war, he and his family were living in the east of the city when it was overrun by ISIS. One day, he went to the factory where he worked only to find the jihadis had turned it into a military command centre. They kidnapped Antoine and held him there. He was then told he had been selected for a suicide mission to government-controlled west Aleppo. He said that as the day drew near, he was lying half-awake early one morning when he felt Our Lady tap him on the shoulder. She told him to get up and make his escape.
He described tip-toeing to the main door of the factory. To his surprise, the chain and the lock fell open and he was able to slip out. He found a ladder, clambered over a high wall and ran through the high-security barrier between east and west Aleppo. He then made his way to a relative’s house and there was reunited with his family.
Antoine described how Aid to the Church in Need had then provided them with a home, food, medicine, all thanks to ACN project partner Sister Annie Demerjian. He said the support had given the family the breathing space needed to decide whether to stay in Syria. Antoine himself was for leaving. But his wife said: “We should stay in Syria. This is where we belong.”
Many Christians I met were divided on the topic of their future presence in the country. What unites them is their awareness of the ancient history of the Church in Syria, which for many clinches the argument in favour of staying. Benjamin, a 21-year-old Greek Orthodox student in Aleppo, told me: “I want to remain in Syria. Christians in Syria want to stay in the country of their forefathers.”
Bishops in Syria have repeatedly said this history places a moral obligation on the faithful to stay, if at all possible. Shaping the bishops’ approach are dire indications that the numbers of Christians in Syria have plummeted. Christians were about 1.5 million before the war broke out in 2011; now they could be as few as 450,000.
The bishops are painfully aware of what emigration means. When I met Chaldean Bishop Antoine Audo of Aleppo, he recalled how the Turkish genocide of 1915 decimated the local Christian population. Chillingly, he added: “The dramatic end of the Christian presence in what is now Turkey is at risk of being replicated in Syria.”
His words reminded me of how in Homs I had spoken to a Christian man named Nisar. He had lived in Grenada for 20 years only to return to Syria to build a new life in his old city. Within a few years the war broke out, and he lost everything. He explained he was only staying in Syria to see his daughter through university.
“Men in the Middle East never cry,” he told me, “but when I saw what had happened to my home and my shop, I cried. I couldn’t believe people would do this to us.”
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Others feel differently about their prospects. Elsewhere in Homs Old City I met Raneem Ibrahem and her 18-month-old daughter Taleen. They had recently returned to Homs where she had got a job as a science teacher at a local primary school.
She said: “During the war here in Homs, we didn’t just sit at home and worry. I had a child during the war. I finished my studies during the war. I now teach. We carry on. Christians should stay in Syria.”
Last year, ACN carried out more than 140 projects in Syria – 80 per cent were emergency help – food, medicine, schooling and shelter. As part of its commitment to helping people in acute suffering, the charity is giving support to those Christians who want to build a future in the country.
Before I said farewell to Raneem and her young daughter, she pointed to the homes ACN is repairing and the cathedral the charity is helping to restore. Then she said: “If we are to find a future in our country, we won’t be able to do it alone. It needs people like you to help us.”
John Pontifex is head of press and information at Aid to the Church in Need (UK)
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