Kurdish Christian IDPs of Afrin are fearful of reprisals and pray to return
Aleppo – North-Press Agency
Zain al-Abidin Hussein
The region of Afrin was home to civilians of all religious components and sects of Sunni Muslims, Alawites, Yazidis and Christians, but after the Turkish military invasion and the control of Turkey’s backed armed opposition groups on the region, all the sects were scattered, especially the Christian component who were displaced fearing of revenge operations due to their religious beliefs.
Displacement from Afrin
Some of Afrin IDPs fled to the city of Aleppo and settled in the neighborhoods of Sheikh Maksoud and Ashrafiya that numbered about 200 IDP families, where Pastor Hanan in charge of the Christian Kurds in the Evangelical Kurdish Union Church told North-Press: "We were 425 families and a week after the displacement, we gathered in tents that we had taken from Sardam camp administration in Tal-Susin area, and installed them in a place known as the Armenian fields, later we almost had a constant site there and we did not encounter any problems nor obstacles.”
The pastor said that when they were in Afrin during the war, they were providing some services to those fleeing the villages, such as distributing relief baskets worth of 30 million Syrian pounds, but they were unable to distribute the full relief aid because they were forced to move towards al-Shahba and Aleppo areas, where all the remaining aid was stolen by the armed opposition groups that controlled the region. He noted that as a result of issuing a statement as Christian people of Afrin condemning the Turkish invasion and its affiliated armed groups, they became wanted by those armed groups.
Kurdish Christians in Aleppo
As for the Christian Kurds in Aleppo, Pastor Hanan said that as a result of the increase in the number of Christian believers in Aleppo, we guided them to our main church (the Evangelical Christian Union) after taking the approval of the Church to set a special day for the Christian Kurds. He continued: "Because some of them are required for the compulsory service at the Syrian Army and because the church is located within the government controlled zone, they converted a house in the neighborhood of Sheikh Maksoud, after one of the Christian sisters donated it and it was made a place to perform the religious rituals and prayers.” But they closed it when they were harassed by what he called "weak souls.”
Regarding the aid they sometimes provide, Pastor Hanan said that there is aid that reach the church, but as a Kurdish church they rely more on tithes and donations that are placed in the church box, and sometimes the main church in Damascus supports them when someone needs, for example, to perform an expensive surgery, so they help him.
Regarding the other services, the preaching which is recited in Kurdish and Arabic languages according to the present people and their knowledge of the Bible in the Old and New Testaments.
Insulting the Christians of Afrin
Pastor Hanan confirmed that they did not have any family left in Afrin where there were only two families, but they fled to Turkey because one of the armed groups broke into one house of them and searched the house where they found a Bible in the house; they insulted the owner of the house and beat him for being a Christian and as "infidel", so they had to leave the city.
The pastor said that their church in Afrin was controlled by Jaysh al-Sharqiya militia ; however, the armed groups broke and excavated the church in search for gold, according to news that they received. He noted that they had no contacts with Afrin because no Christians were left in the city.
He pointed to the idea of not encouraging them to emigrate despite receiving offers from churches to emigrate to the countries that opened their doors for them, but they always pray to return to Afrin, indicating that the idea is rejected by them because they belong to this country and if the Christian Kurds migrated, they will be facing a big problem.
Siege and fear
Omar, the young Christian, who was displaced from Afrin residing in the city of Aleppo, said that he fled Afrin fearing of religious persecution by the armed groups, "We used to live in Afrin before the war and we did not want to leave the village at first, but as the armed groups approached, we feared of ourselves so we fled towards Deir Jamal, being a Kurd is the same accusation, so how about if you were a Kurdish Christian?”
Regarding his arrival to Aleppo, Omar continued that the poor situation forced him to move with his family into Aleppo by the help of a smuggler for 100 thousand Syrian pounds per person, and when he arrived, he was shocked by the high costs of living on one hand, and feeling inferior because there is no church in his area of residence in Sheikh Maqsoud, on the other hand.
Mitana Sheikho, a Kurdish-Christian girl from Afrin said that they are praying to return to Afrin, and the woes leave the country and everyone lives with love and peace.
The number of Christian IDPs from Afrin who are residing in the neighborhoods of Sheikh Maksoud and Ashrafiya in Aleppo reached about 200 families and about 350 families in al-Shahba area, northern Aleppo.