"War is God's Way of Teaching Americans Geography"

My mom in Syria 1967

My mother in Deir al-Zur

 All the current news regarding Syria, ISIS, the terrorist attacks in France, has our attention.  But it's not a very good attention.  This article gives a clear picture of the demographics of Syria - a safe haven for my grandparents and my mother during the Armenian massacres/genocide in Turkey circa 1915.  It is heartbreaking for me to see what has been happening there and particularly to the Armenian population, largely ignored by Western media.

Michael Izady's Detailed Map of Ethnicity in Syria and the Syrian Armenians

In 1915 my grandparents were forced to leave their ancestral home in Eastern Turkey and sent into the direction of the desert.  At some point they were able to find safe haven in Syria, but not without great cost in human lives, including several of their children and my grandfather's parents.  Whole families were lost on what they called the death march.

The author of the article says this about the Armenians that eventually built thriving communities in Syria:

  As Izady’s maps show, Armenian communities are scattered through several parts of Syria. One of the largest Armenian communities is found in the eastern Syrian city of Deir al-Zur (alternatively Deir ez-Zor, Deir Ezzor, Deir Al-Zor, Dayr Al-Zawr, Der Ezzor), a settlement of more than 200,000 inhabitants that is noted for its oil-refineries and other industries. Deir al-Zur is particularly important in Armenian history, as it was one of the main destinations of Armenians expelled by the Ottoman Empire during World War I, a deadly process regarded by most historians of the issue as genocidal in nature. Deir al-Zur is also located near the core power-base of the so-called Islamic State (or ISIS). As a result, the Armenian communities of the region are highly threatened.

Source: http://www.geocurrents.info/cultural-geography/michael-izadys-amazingly-detailed-map-ethnicity-syria-syrian-armenians#ixzz3sQotzDiG

This has been on an ongoing tragedy for several years now.  I have been watching from my comfortable seat while my heart breaks and I feel helpless.  The world watches as journalists are beheaded, Israel is bombed from Syria, governments break down, Christians are beheaded in Egypt and we sit silent while the Jihadists' plans unfold accordingly.

The article goes on to lament the attacks on the Christian Armenians in Syria:

The city of Deir al-Zur did gain brief attention in late September after ISIS militants destroyed a prominent Armenian Church as well as an Armenian Memorial to the ethnic expulsions of the early twentieth century, prompting widespread international condemnation. Armenian sources, however, expressed disappointment that the official response from the United States “failed to either mention the very reason for this holy site’s existence, the Armenian Genocide…”

Source: http://www.geocurrents.info/cultural-geography/michael-izadys-amazingly-detailed-map-ethnicity-syria-syrian-armenians#ixzz3sQqUsMWx

I'm not sure, but I believe my mother visited this church on a pilgrimage she took in 1967 to visit relatives in Syria and other countries of the region where Armenians had been scattered.

http://www.armenia.com.au/news/Armenia-News/English/46918/Forty-Martyrs-Armenian-church-in-Aleppo-destroyed

This article is from last year - I hoped that we would wake up, but I'm not sure we will:

http://www.armradio.am/en/2014/11/11/destruction-of-armenian-church-in-deir-el-zour-a-savage-blow-that-echoes-through-armenian-history/

If you have time, read the articles, they are an eye opener.