Yerevan concerned by situation in Armenian-populated Syrian town of Kesab
YEREVAN. March 24 (Interfax) - The Armenian Foreign Ministry is watching the situation in the mostly Armenian-populated Syrian town of Kesab on the border with Turkey.
"We are concerned by the current situation there. The Armenian population of Kesab has been moved to Latakia. The Foreign Ministry is watching the situation and trying to find possible ways of assistance," Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman Tigran Balaian said.
The country's president, Serzh Sargsian, who is currently in the Hague, is due to make a statement on the events in Kesab shortly, his press secretary Arman Sagatelian wrote on Twitter.
On Monday, members of the Armenian parliament called on the Syrian and Turkish authorities to investigate the events in Kesab and demanded that United Nations observers be sent there.
"We are calling on the government of the Republic of Armenia to take whatever steps necessary, and the Armenian diaspora to unite their efforts to protect the rights of the Syrian Armenians. The Armenians from across the world are shocked by the events in the Kesab province, where the actions of the Turkish Army forced local Armenians to leave their houses. We, as members of the National Assembly of Armenia, regard what happened not as the internal affair of Syria or Turkey but as an extraordinary case of mass violation of human rights and most strongly condemn the actions of the Turkish Armed Forces which in effect constitute a new challenge for the genocide-hit Armenian community in the Middle East," Armenian parliamentarians said.
The Syrian Army will do whatever they can to restore peace in the region, the Syrian ambassador to Lebanon said during his visit to Aram I, the Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, at the behest of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad last Sunday.