SAINT PETERSBURG. – Hrayr Karapetyan, Armenia’s Consul General in Saint Petersburg, Russia, made a request.   
At Karapetyan’s request, talks were held with Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the CIS Council Secretary General Alexey Sergeev, CSTO Parliamentary Assembly Executive Secretary Pyotr Ryabukhin, and Consul General of Greece in Saint Petersburg Teodoros Bizakis—as representative of the EU chairing country.

Karapetyan presented to the parties the Armenian President’s statement on, and the motives for, the ongoing events in Syria’s predominantly Armenian-populated town of Kessab, the Consulate General of Armenia in Saint Petersburg informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.   

The foreign officials were informed that as a result of the Turkey-supported operations by terrorist groups, around 670 families residing in Kessab were forced to leave their ancestral lands, their homes were looted, and the churches were desecrated.  

Armenia’s consul added that especially troubling is the fact that these events are occurring on the threshold of the centennial of the Armenian Genocide.   

For their part, the foreign representatives noted that they are also concerned about the events in Syria and, sharing the unease of the Armenians, they will inform about this to the institutions and countries that are a part of their organizations.

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. A group of Armenia parliament members recently visited Syria to assess the situation in the region.