YEREVAN. – The ARF Dashnaktsutyun Party Nikol Aghbalyan Student Union on Thursday held a demonstration in front of the UN Office in Armenia (PHOTOS).

In addition, they handed a letter to the office, and demanded the UN condemn Turkey’s operations in Syria’s predominantly Armenian-populated town of Kessab, and enable the Kessab Armenians to return to their homes. 

Despite the pouring rain, the protesters stated that they will not leave the premises unless a UN office representative responded to them.

A few minutes later, Sergey Shipilov, United Nations Department of Safety and Security’s Security Advisor in Armenia, came down and listened to the protestors’ demand.

Subsequently, the demonstrators sang patriotic songs and left. 

A group of Syrian Armenians, and the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party’s student-youth union members also were on hand at the demonstration.

In the early morning on March 21, armed militants from the Jabhat al-Nusra Islamic terrorist group infiltrated into northern Syria’s Latakia Governorate, which is predominantly inhabited by Armenians and Alawites, from four directions. Two large groups of terrorists had launched the attack from Turkey. About 600 Kessab-Armenian families are currently sheltered in Latakia city. On March 23, Turkish fighter planes downed a Syrian military aircraft that was conducting a mission against the Islamic terrorists in Kessab. On Monday, a group of Armenia parliament members headed to Syria to assess the situation in the country.

Photo by Arsen Sargsyan/NEWS.am