YEREVAN. – The raising of the Kessab issue plays a restraining role; there already are appropriate signals, and this saves the Syrian Armenians from annihilation.

Armenia National Assembly independent MP Edmon Marukyan, who recently returned from Syria, stated the aforesaid at a discussion on Tuesday.

In his words, the role of Turkey is very important in the events unrolling in and around Syria’s predominantly Armenian-populated town of Kessab. According to him, Turkey’s respective actions prove yet again that solely the Turkish methods have changed, whereas the idea has remained the same on the threshold of the centennial of the Armenian Genocide.

“From the perspective of international law, Turkey’s operations in the Armenian-populated Kessab are a violation of the sovereignty of another state. The international humanitarian law likewise has been broken, the militants are not treating the captives accordingly, they are not adhering to the rules of war,” Marukyan noted.

He added that this is the reason why the countries that have turned a blind eye to, or secretly assisted in, these events must also be held accountable.

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.