- Moderator
- #1
This is going to be really really bad. Do you trust Erdogon to "protect" civilians etc?? Hell No. It seems more like it's an ethnic cleansing so he can move Syrian refugees in and wash his hands of them.
Turkey never admitted to the Armenian genocide.
Christian Leaders Say Turkish Invasion Of Syria Raises Risk Of 'Genocide'
The airstrikes and artillery bombardments had barely begun in the Syrian city of Qamishli, just across the border from Turkey, when Bassam Ishak's cell phone began ringing.
"People were so scared," Ishak says. "They were telling me, 'They are bombing us right now!'"
Ishak, a Syriac Christian leader, was in Erbil, Iraq, monitoring developments along the Syria-Turkey border.
"The attacks are widespread," Ishak tells NPR by phone. "They are targeting residential areas in Qamishli, where people of all religious backgrounds live. We think this is a message to the Kurds and Christians there to leave, so Turkey can move refugees there. We think it's a form of ethnic cleansing."
By Thursday, Turkish ground forces had reportedly seized at least one village from Kurdish fighters in Syria, and the U.N. refugee agency reported that thousands of people were fleeing the Turkish advance.
Turkey launched its incursion into Syria three days after President Trump told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that U.S. troops stationed along the border would be withdrawn. About 40 or 50,000 Christians live in the area under attack, according to Ishak, president of the Syriac National Council of Syria, and U.S. Christian leaders have been almost unanimous in criticizing what they see as Trump's acquiescence to the Turkish move.
"What a disgrace," tweeted Russell Moore, head of the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention. "Kurdish Christians (and others among the brave Kurds) have stood up for the United States and for freedom and human dignity. ... What they are now facing from Erdogan's authoritarian Turkey is horrifying beyond words."
Turkey never admitted to the Armenian genocide.
Christian Leaders Say Turkish Invasion Of Syria Raises Risk Of 'Genocide'
The airstrikes and artillery bombardments had barely begun in the Syrian city of Qamishli, just across the border from Turkey, when Bassam Ishak's cell phone began ringing.
"People were so scared," Ishak says. "They were telling me, 'They are bombing us right now!'"
Ishak, a Syriac Christian leader, was in Erbil, Iraq, monitoring developments along the Syria-Turkey border.
"The attacks are widespread," Ishak tells NPR by phone. "They are targeting residential areas in Qamishli, where people of all religious backgrounds live. We think this is a message to the Kurds and Christians there to leave, so Turkey can move refugees there. We think it's a form of ethnic cleansing."
By Thursday, Turkish ground forces had reportedly seized at least one village from Kurdish fighters in Syria, and the U.N. refugee agency reported that thousands of people were fleeing the Turkish advance.
Turkey launched its incursion into Syria three days after President Trump told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that U.S. troops stationed along the border would be withdrawn. About 40 or 50,000 Christians live in the area under attack, according to Ishak, president of the Syriac National Council of Syria, and U.S. Christian leaders have been almost unanimous in criticizing what they see as Trump's acquiescence to the Turkish move.
"What a disgrace," tweeted Russell Moore, head of the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention. "Kurdish Christians (and others among the brave Kurds) have stood up for the United States and for freedom and human dignity. ... What they are now facing from Erdogan's authoritarian Turkey is horrifying beyond words."