Guardian news informs that many Syrian Armenians had started to plan their escape when the first clashes began breaking out between rebels and government forces in Aleppo, and as the passengers from battle-ravaged Aleppo disembarked at Yerevan’s Zvartnots airport, tearful relatives gripped them tightly in emotional embraces.
Since fighting has gripped the city of Aleppo, where many of Syria’s ethnic Armenian community live, increasing numbers have been fleeing to their ancestral homeland over fears that Christians could suffer if President Bashar al-Assad is ousted and replaced by an Islamic regime.
According to the Diaspora Ministry of Yerevan the Armenian community in Syria is not so big – between 60 000 and 100 000 people, and more than 3 000 Syrian Armenians have already arrived since March 2011.
Current Syrian-Armenians are descendants of those Armenians who took refuge there after escaping the genocide of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey during World War I and they are long-established Syrian citizens, many of them with their own businesses.