Patriarchs in the Holy Land condemn attacks on Christians, civilians in Syria

(LifeSiteNews) — The Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem has joined other religious leaders in the Holy Land in denouncing the slaughter of innocent Christians in Syria under newly installed Islamic dictator Abu Mohammed al-Julani.

Published yesterday, Archbishop Nourhan Manougian’s statement condemns the “ongoing turmoil and devastating conflict” in the country while calling for protection of Christian “churches, schools, and homes … caught in the crossfire of an ongoing civil war.”

“We, in particular, are moved by the plight of our Armenian Christian brothers and sisters who have lived for generations in this land, a place of refuge after the horrific Armenian genocide of 1915,” it reads.

The statement comes just days after the Patriarchs of three other Christian communities in the region also spoke out against the violence.

That letter was signed by the Syriac Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, the Supreme Head of the Universal Syriac Orthodox Church, and the Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch of Antioch and All the East. It also calls for the “swift creation of conditions conducive to achieving national reconciliation among the Syrian people” while further demanding Syria’s territorial integrity be defended in the face of “attempts to divide it.”

Violence in Syria has escalated between warring factions of Muslims in recent months. More than 1,000 civilian and military deaths have occurred. The country’s historic Christian community, which comprises around ten percent of the population, has essentially been trapped by the fighting, although some have found refuge at a Russian airbase in Latakia. Today Christians in Syria total around 300,000 whereas in the 2010s they numbered more than a million.

The West sought to court Assad as a partner in the region for years after he succeeded his father in 2000. But when his suitors realized he wouldn’t align with their interests, media outlets began claiming he gassed his own people, an assertion which has yet to be proven. Then-U.S. President Barack Obama also funded “moderate rebels” to overthrow his government.

During her own run for president in 2015, Obama’s Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said removing Assad was one of her top priorities. A 2012 email sent by Clinton and released by WikiLeaks correctly predicted that “the fall of the House of Assad could well ignite a sectarian war between the Shiites and the majority Sunnis of the region drawing in Iran, which, in the view of the Israeli commanders would not be a bad thing for Israel and its Western allies.”

President Trump, meanwhile, called Obama “the founder of ISIS” in 2016.  Just one year earlier, he prophetically noted that “we have no idea who the other side are … to me, Assad looks better than the other side.”

At a press conference with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio last month, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu took credit for Assad’s fall, stating that it was “made possible by Israel’s weakening of Iran’s terror axis.” The Israeli government has indeed provided funding to anti-Assad rebels in Syria since the early 2010s.

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, former Apostolic Nuncio to the U.S., issued a statement on social media today denouncing those behind the conflict. He made special note of the silence of both European and Catholic leaders.

“The reasons for this persecution of the two minorities by the Syrian government are to be found first and foremost in the regime change desired by the previous American Administration, in agreement with NATO and the European Union,” Viganò said. “It is from the globalist deep state in the United States that this new hotbed of violence and extermination has been hatched.”

Viganò also warned that the same could happen in the West given the invasion of “hordes of fanatical Mohammedans,” which he said is designed to act as “the definitive cancellation of Christian Civilization.”

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also denounced the fighting:

The United States condemns the radical Islamist terrorists, including foreign jihadis, that murdered people in western Syria in recent days. The United States stands with Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities, including its Christian, Druze, Alawite, and Kurdish communities, and offers its condolences to the victims and their families. Syria’s interim authorities must hold the perpetrators of these massacres against Syria’s minority communities accountable.

The West has given Syria’s new leader, Abu Mohammad al-Julani, a hero’s welcome. Deemed a terrorist by the U.S. not long ago, al-Julani has already met with the U.N.’s Secretary General and is scheduled to visit EU leaders later this month. The EU has already eased sanctions on his country. Meanwhile, Al-Julani has also welcomed Germany’s Foreign Minister to Damascus. During a press conference this week, al-Julani said that violence against religious minorities must stop.

Reports earlier this week suggested that the U.S. is working with Russia to convene an emergency meeting of the U.N.’s Security Council to bring the violence in Syria to an end.