YEREVAN. – The Armenian National Assembly (NA) delegation, which has traveled to Syria, on Thursday will meet with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

NA deputy and ruling Republican Party member Samvel Farmanyan, who is in Syria at present, informed the above-said in his Facebook account.

“We already are in [the Syrian capital city] Damascus. We will meet with Syria President Bashar al-Assad shortly, to discuss the problems of Syrian Armenians and the future of [Syria’s predominantly Armenian-populated town of] Kessab.

“We are grateful to the friendly Syrian people for standing with our sister and brothers—in the most difficult moments in history—for whom Syria is their home and fatherland.

“And we hope that it will be possible to achieve peace and return life [in Syria] back to normal by way of a nationwide political dialogue,” Farmanyan specifically wrote.

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