Armenia’s government on Thursday condemned Turkey’s military offensive in northeastern Syria as “illegal” and discussed it at an emergency meeting chaired by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
“We are concerned about the situation because we believe that action will further deepen the humanitarian crisis in Syria,” Pashinian said at the start of the cabinet meeting in Yerevan.
“We are calling on the international community to take meaningful measures to stop that illegal action and protect Syrian citizens, including ethnic minorities, along the Turkish border,” he added before discussing the matter with government members in closed session.
Pashinian also made clear that the Armenian military will continue its small-scale “humanitarian mission” in Syria closely coordinated with Russia. Yerevan deployed more than 80 demining experts, army medics and other non-combat military personnel in and around the northern Syrian city of Aleppo in February.
Syria -- Civilians flee with their belongings during Turkish bombardment on Syria's northeastern town of Ras al-Ain in the Hasakeh province along the Turkish border
In a statement issued earlier in the day, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said the Turkish “invasion” will further destabilize the region and result in civilian casualties. It called on the international community to stop the offensive and “prevent mass atrocities.”
“The situation is becoming particularly alarming for ethnic and religious minorities,” said the statement.
Those minorities include several thousand ethnic Armenians who are thought to live in northeastern Syrian regions largely controlled by Kurdish-led forces. They are part of Syria’s broader Armenian community that has shrunk dramatically since the start of the bloody conflict in the Middle Eastern nation.
According to a senior Armenian Foreign Ministry official, Armen Melkonian, around 3,000 Syrian Armenians currently live in the northeastern city of Qamishli close to the Turkish border.
“Qamishli was shelled yesterday but most of the city is under Syrian government control,” Melkonian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). “I don’t think that the Turkish invasion will reach areas controlled by the Syrian authorities.”
“Our embassy in Damascus is in constant touch with the leadership of the [local Armenian] community and they do not want to be evacuated yet because they don’t see a danger at the moment,” said Melkonian. Nevertheless, he added, the embassy and the Armenian consulate in Aleppo are making contingency plans for a mass evacuation of local Syrian Armenians.
In Melkonian’s words, on Thursday morning 13 Armenian families fled their homes in the town of Tel Abyad, one of the reportedly four points of Turkish troops’ entry into Syria. Tel Abyad had 16 Armenian families before the Turkish incursion, said the diplomat.
SYRIA -- Smoke rises from the Syrian town of Tel Abyad after Turkish bombings, in a picture taken from the Turkish side of the border near Akcakale in the Sanliurfa province on October 9, 2019.
Armenia has no diplomatic relations with Turkey and the land border between the two countries has long been closed. Yerevan maintains a far more cordial relationship with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Turkey's ground offensive began on Wednesday after hours of shelling by warplanes and artillery over territory held by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Ankara had long threatened an attack on the Kurdish fighters whom it considers terrorists.
World governments have reacted to the Turkish operation with concern. U.S. President Donald Trump, who three days earlier said he will not interfere with the offensive, called Turkey's actions a "bad idea," while France, Germany and Britain were due issue a joint statement condemning them. Earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin urged his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to "think carefully" before launching the assault.