Congressional condemnation of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria's attack on the Armenian Church and Genocide memorial in Deir Zor, Syria began rolling in Monday night amid growing concern regarding Turkey's relationship with ISIS, it's obstruction of the U.S.-led coalition operations, and its role in targeting one of the world's most prominent sites of remembrance for the still unpunished crimes against Armenians and other Christian nations, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

“This toxic act of intolerance, aimed at erasing a sacred site of remembrance of the Armenian Genocide on the eve of its centennial, has Turkey's finger prints all over it,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “Armenian Americans join with people of faith worldwide in voicing our outrage over the desecration and destruction of the Armenian Holy Martyr's Church and the Armenian Genocide Memorial at Deir Zor, Syria.”

Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) called the attack “another example of the sickening barbarity that has terrorized millions across Iraq and Syria. The fact that the church was dedicated to those lost in the genocide is both especially poignant, and a chilling foreshadowing of how ISIL would treat Syria’s Christians if it were to further expand their territorial gains.”

Michigan Congressman Sandy Levin (D-MI) tweeted: “I strongly condemn the reported desecration of an Armenian Genocide memorial in Syria by #ISIL”

 

The Armenian Church in Deir Zor was built in 1989-1990, and consecrated a year later. A genocide memorial and a museum housing remains of the victims of the genocide was subsequently constructed in the church compound. Hundreds of thousands of Armenians perished in Deir Zor and the surrounding desert during the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923. In summer of 1916 alone, more than 200,000 Armenians, mostly women and children, were brutally massacred there by Ottoman Turkish gendarmes and bands.