Kessab
|
كسب Kasab Kessab |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
|
|||
| Coordinates | 35 ° 56 ' N , 35 ° 59' E | ||
| Basic data | |||
| Country | Syria | ||
| Latakia | |||
| ISO 3166-2 | SY-LA | ||
| height | 750 m | ||
| Residents | 3500 | ||
 View of Kessab with the Armenian Apostolic Church of the Holy Mother of God
|
|||
Kessab ( Arabic كسب Kasab , Armenian Քեսապ Kesab ) is asmall Syrian town in the Latakia Governorate in the northwest of the country with a population of around 3500. The majority of the population has been Armenian for more than a thousand years. Alawites also live there. The city was sparedfrom the civil war in Syria for a long time, but after a Turkish- backed attack by the al-Nusra Front , Ansar al-Din and Ansar asch-Scham , it was captured and looted on March 24, 2014 after a large part of the population fled was. After the liberation of the place by the Syrian army on June 15, 2014, some of the Armenians who had fled returned. The inhabitants are also known as Kessabtzi .
Location and climate
Kessab is 3 km south of the Turkish border and 17 km from the Mediterranean Sea on the slopes of Mount Kasios or Jabal al-Aqra at an altitude of 750 m. The port city of Latakia is 59 km away. According to the 2004 census, Kessab had 1,754 inhabitants, but including the surrounding villages there were 2,500.
Surrounding, also Armenian-influenced villages are Duzaghaj (Nab 'al-Murr), Esguran, Sev Aghpyur (as-Sachra), Chinar (al-Dilbeh), Chakaljek, Keorkeuna, Ekizolukh (Nab'ain), Baghjaghaz (al-Mushrifeh) , Karadouran (al-Samra), Karadash and the abandoned village of Bashord, whose 65 inhabitants left the country for Soviet Armenia in 1947 .
In the vicinity of the small town are the Merge Bashord (857 m), Dyunag (1008 m), Dapasa (1006 m), Chalma (995 m) and Sildran (1105 m) in the west and al-Nisr (851 m) in the south . By far the highest mountain in the region, the Kasios Mountain ( Armenian Կասիոս լեռը ), Arabic Jabal al-Aqra (جبل الأقرع'Kahler Berg') in the north, lies on the border with Turkey , whereby the 1709 m high summit is entirely on the Turkish side. In ancient times it was worshiped as the sanctuary of Zeus .
The town has a dry climate and is surrounded by pine forests, which is why Syrians from neighboring cities, especially from Aleppo and Latakia, appreciate it as a summer resort.
history
Kessab has been an Armenian settlement since the Middle Ages, dating back to the time of the Kingdom of Lesser Armenia . The place was mentioned during the First Crusade , when Duke Belmont I gave the area of Kasbisi to the Peters family of the Hermit . The place name Kasab or Kessab is derived from the old Kasbisi , Cassembella or the vulgar Latin name Casa Bella ("beautiful house").
From the beginning to 1900
Research by the Armenian linguist Hagop Cholakian from 2009 on the historical Armenian dialects suggests that the Armenian settlers who founded the village of Kasbisi on the southern border of the Kingdom of Lesser Armenia , as well as the Armenians in Alexandretta and Seleukia Pieria from the area of Antioch on the Orontes came from. In order to avoid persecution by the Mamluks and Ottomans , Armenians increasingly immigrated to the mountainous region of Kessab and the north-lying Moses Mountain (Musa Dagh) in the 14th and 15th centuries . The first Armenian refugees came to the Esguran area , from where they moved uphill and founded today's Kessab, which thus became a regional center and attracted more refugees.
In the 1850s, missionaries from the Evangelical and Catholic Churches came to Kessab , which caused anger among the representatives of the local Armenian Apostolic Church . Protestants and Catholics founded their own primary and secondary schools with which they could raise the level of education of the population. By 1900, Kessab had an all-Armenian population of 6,000 with more than 20 schools run by three rival churches.
20th century
In the April 1909 massacres in Adana , which killed 20,000 to 30,000 Armenians in Vilayet Adana , 161 people were murdered and many property destroyed in Kessab, part of Vilayet Aleppo . The Catholicos Sahak I. Khabaian then visited Kessab.
The Armenian genocide began in the Kessab area on July 26, 1915, when the order was given to deport the residents within 5 days. Although there were plans to put up resistance and to hide in the mountains of Dounag near Karadouran - with partial backing of the Karadouran priest Bedros Papoujian-Aprahamian - their implementation failed. The Armenians were driven from Karadouran into two desert regions: one in the direction of Deir ez-Zor (The Zor) and the other southwards to Jordan . Almost 5,000 Armenians died in the process. Some died in Jisr al-Shughur , others in Hama or Homs , and others on the way to Damascus or Jordan. Most of the deportees died in the desert of Der Zor . After the armistice of 1918, the survivors from Kessab returned to their homeland, which lasted until 1920. The inhabitants of the eastern and northern areas of the Kessab region continued to live in fear, as there were raids by bandits from neighboring Turkish villages. A militia of 40 Armenian volunteers from Kessab repulsed several attacks by bandits. With the French invasion of Kessab in 1922, the situation calmed down.
On July 5, 1938, the Turkish army marched into the Sanjak Alexandrette including Kessab in agreement with the French mandate and established the state of Hatay . About 50,000 refugees from the area, including 22,000 Armenians and 8,000 Orthodox Christians, found shelter in the remaining Syria and Lebanon. On June 23, 1939, the Hatay government was dissolved and the territory of Turkey annexed. Representatives of the Armenians in Paris , the Cardinal Gregorio Pietro Agagianian and the papal representative in Syria and Lebanon Remi Leprert managed , however, that a large part of the municipality of Kessab with Armenian population, including the city itself, was separated from the Turkish territory and remained with Syria. The annexation of the Sanjak of Alexandretta by Turkey turned out to be an economic disaster for the Armenians of Kessab: The Kasios mountain with the fields, pastures and laurel plantations of many residents of Kessab was left to the Turks. The Barlum monastery was also lost, where the feast of the Holy Mother of God ( Surp Asdvadzadzin ) was traditionally celebrated every year in August and of which only a ruin remains today. The loss of the land meant that in the following years a number of Armenians - especially farmers and shepherds from the area around Kessab - moved away. In 1947, numerous villagers took advantage of the invitation from the government of the Armenian SSR to emigrate to Soviet Armenia . From the village of Karadouran alone, where 45 families lived in 2011, there were 800 people.
Syrian civil war
On the morning of March 21, 2014, Kessab and the surrounding villages were attacked by units of the Islamist al-Nusra Front - an offshoot of al-Qaeda -, Harakat Sham al-Islam and Ansar al-Sham . Members of the Armenian vigilante group in Kessab reported that the Turkish border units made room for the attackers to allow them to advance directly from Turkish territory and that wounded Islamist fighters were being cared for in Turkish hospitals . Mehmet Ali Ediboğlu , Turkish MP for the CHP , visited the area a few days later and reported that villagers on the Turkish side had told him that thousands of Islamist fighters had crossed the border from Turkey at five points to attack Kessab, taking from Turkish border town of Gözlekçiler . Journalists were prevented from looking at Gözlekçiler. Ediboğlu was also not allowed to the border by the Turkish soldiers, but he reports that he saw dozens of cars with Syrian license plates that were continuously transporting terrorists from the military road between Gözlekçiler and the Turkish army base of Kayapinar. The civilian population of Kessab and its surrounding villages fled or was evacuated, most of which were brought to Latakia . Many were accommodated in the premises of the Church of Our Lady and the associated school. On March 23, Turkish jet fighters shot down a Syrian jet fighter that crashed in the Kessab area. While the Turkish side claimed that the plane violated Turkish airspace, the Syrian government denied it; Turkish CHP MP and opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said the Syrian plane was used for reconnaissance and that the shooting down was part of a plan by the Turkish government to provoke war with Syria in order to draw attention to corruption scandals involving Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Divert party AKP . The journalist Amberin Zaman reported on sound recordings made public by the Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu , in which he discussed possibilities of how a war with Syria could be provoked.
When asked by US Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff during a parliamentary questionnaire on April 2, 2014, US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power said that Kessab was a "matter of greatest concern." MP Schiff noted that many of those affected were descendants of victims of the Armenian genocide and that it was particularly painful that they had now been targeted again in this way.
On April 3, 2014, the Armenian Diaspora Minister Hranush Hakobyan announced that 38 Armenians who had stayed behind in Kessab had been captured by the Islamists. Of these, 24 were later released, but 3 were deported to Turkey and are in Vakıflı on Mount Moses , the last predominantly Armenian village on Turkish territory. 670 Armenian families fled Kessab in time, of which around 400 found shelter in Latakia. The Armenian churches in Kessab had been desecrated and their crosses removed; the village was also looted. Also on April 3, Ruben Melkonyan , Vice Dean of the Faculty of Oriental Studies at Yerevan State University , described the events as genocide and said that the Armenian community of Kessab would hardly recover from it.
Although Kessab only makes up a small proportion of the Syrian Armenians with around 4,000 inhabitants, it has great symbolic significance for the Armenian diaspora as a place of continuous Armenian settlement since the Middle Ages, which had already experienced two massacres and genocide by Turks. The occupation of the town by Islamists sparked a major campaign on social media and demonstrations to save the town (Save Kessab) .
On June 15, 2014, the Syrian army succeeded in retaking Kessab and the surrounding area and thus regaining control of the border with Turkey, supported by members of a 17,000-strong Armenian militia set up in Aleppo and Hezbollah units. The following day, around 250 of the 670 families who had fled returned to Kessab. Journalists and residents of Kessab reported that the Armenian Catholic Church, Evangelical Churches and Misakyan Evangelical Cultural Center had been burned down by the Islamists. On July 25, 2014, the Church of Our Lady in Karadouran was consecrated again, and on July 27, 2014, Vardavar Day, the first service since the Islamist occupation took place with very large participation.
According to the mayor, Sebukh Kurkcuyan, the number of residents in Kessab fell from 4,000 in 2011 to 2,500 in 2016. Some of the Kessabtzis currently still live in Latakia or Damascus , some in one of the neighboring countries. Kurkcuyan believes that most of them have only temporarily left their homes to earn a living elsewhere to rebuild their homes and businesses in Kessab. It would also take at least ten years to restore the agricultural areas that were burned down to a quarter. A number of buildings in the city, including several churches, have already been reconstructed; others are currently under construction.
Economy and culture
The population of Kessab and the surrounding villages largely live from agriculture. The Armenians in this area speak their own dialect of Western Armenian , which is still used by the younger generation.
Traditionally, the population in Kessab usually grows considerably in summer, especially in August, when many Armenians celebrate the Assumption here . Armenian scouts also traditionally visit Kessab frequently in summer.
In the 1990s, the city experienced a construction boom, in the course of which several hotels and luxury houses were built. In addition, the churches were renovated during that time.
The city is known for its high quality laurel soap as well as its apples .
Educational institutions
In 2017 there were the following schools in Kessab:
- Armenian National High School Ousumnasirats Miatsyal , founded in 1933 as a primary school. In 1962 the school of the Armenian Apostolic Church, founded in 1848, was merged with the Ousumnasirats School. In 2002 the Ousumnasirats Miatsyal was expanded to include a secondary school that offers education up to the 12th grade (state Syrian Baccalaureat).
- Armenian Evangelical School Nahadagats Miatsyal , in operation since 1849 with several interruptions, especially during the years of genocide.
- Armenian Catholic School of Good Hope, in operation since 1864 with several interruptions, especially during the genocide years.
- Kessab Public School, State High School, opened in 1960.
population
The population of the sub-district ( nhayiah ) Kessab is estimated to be around 2500 in 2017, of which around 80% are Armenians and around 20% Arab Alawis .
Houses of worship
There are 3 Armenian churches in the city of Kessab:
- Armenian Apostolic Church of Our Lady, the year of construction and time of consecration are unknown. According to tradition, the church was built during the Kingdom of Lesser Armenia , which existed from 1080 to 1375. An inscription in the church mentions a renovation that took place in 1880.
- Armenian Evangelical Church of the Holy Trinity, opened in 1909 and renovated in 1997. It was badly damaged in the attack by the Islamist Jabhat al-Nusra. In July 2017 the church was reopened after lengthy reconstruction work.
- Armenian Catholic Church Archangel Saint Michael, opened in 1925.
There is also an Alawite mosque in the city, which was built in the early 1970s.
The following churches can be found in the neighboring Armenian villages:
- Armenian Apostolic Church of Saint Stephen (Surp Stepanos) in Karadouran, built in 909. It is the oldest surviving Armenian church in Syria. It was renovated in 1987 by the Armenian-French organization "Yergir yev Mshaguyt" ("Land and Culture").
- Armenian Apostolic Church of the Holy Mother of God (Surp Astvatsatsin) in Karadouran, opened on October 18, 2009 by Catholicos Aram I of Cilicia . The new church is a replacement for a previous building, which was built in 1890, destroyed in 1942 and renovated in 1950, but threatened to collapse at the beginning of the 21st century.
- Armenian Evangelical Church in Keorkeuna, opened in 1899.
- Armenian Evangelical Church in Karadouran, opened in 1908 and renovated in 1986.
- Armenian Evangelical Church Emmanuel in Ekizolukh, opened in 1911 as a small chapel and renovated in 1956.
- Armenian Catholic Church and Convent of Our Lady of the Assumption in Baghjaghaz, opened in 1890 and renovated in 2003.
- Greek Orthodox Church of Our Lady in Esguran, built between 1990 and 2002 to replace an old Greek chapel that was destroyed by the Turkish army in the early 1980s.
- Greek Catholic monastery complex of Karadash.
sons and daughters of the town
- Karekin Sarkissian (1932–1999), Supreme Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church
- Vartan Kechichian (1933–2017), Armenian Catholic Coadjutor Bishop of Eastern Europe
Web links
- Kessabtsiner Kessabi Hamar ( Memento from October 11, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) ( Kessab )
Individual evidence
- ↑ General Census of Population and Housing 2004 . Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Latakia Governorate. Arabic
- ↑ Kessab nahiyah population. (No longer available online.) Cbssyr.org, archived from the original on January 12, 2013 ; Retrieved June 20, 2012 .
- ↑ Guide Arabe Pour Le Commerce, L'industrie & Les Professions Libérales Dans Les Pays Arabes in the Google book search . (1972). Page 12.
- ↑ Ivan Mannheim: Syria and Lebanon Handbook: The Travel Guide . Footprint Travel Guides, 2001, ISBN 1-900949-90-3 , pp. 299 .
- ↑ Kessab in our Hearts
- ↑ One of Syria's “magnificent” forests is abolished… Who should we blame?
- ^ Armenian dialects after the Genocide
- ↑ Research on Kessab Armenian dialect published by Hagop Cholakian, Armenian National Academy of Sciences
- ↑ History of Kessab by Vahe Apelian
- ↑ Kessab population. Kessabi Armenians for Kessab, accessed November 26, 2017 .
- ↑ أرمن قرى كسب. August 8, 2012, accessed July 17, 2016 .
- ^ Fall of Kassab will be costly for Turkey. ( Memento of the original from December 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Al-Monitor, March 2014.
- ↑ Kessab Targeted by Al-Qaeda Front Groups in Cross-Border Attack from Turkey . The Armenian Weekly , March 23, 2014.
- ↑ Rebels reassure Christians after capturing key Syrian Border Town. In: Time Magazine . April 28, 2014, accessed March 24, 2014 .
- ↑ Armenian Lawmakers Meet Kessab Armenians in Latakia. Asbarez, March 26, 2014.
- ↑ Fear of war grips Turkish border province. ( Memento of the original from December 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Al-Monitor, March 2013.
- ^ Turkish opposition leader says Erdogan wants war with Syria. ( Memento of the original from December 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Al-Monitor, March 2013.
- ↑ Samantha Power Questioned About Kessab, Syria by Rep. Schiff
- ↑ Minister Of Diaspora: Armenian Churches Were Defaced In Kessab .
- ^ Armenian expert in Turkish affairs accuses West of inaction over Kessab Armenians. Retrieved July 17, 2016 .
- ↑ Gerrit Hoekman: Rubbed on all fronts. Syria: Al-Nusra Front increasingly weakened. Hasty retreat from the small town of Kassab. Young World , June 21, 2014.
- ^ Syria recaptures border crossing. In: Irish Independent . Retrieved June 16, 2014 .
- ↑ Photos of ruined Armenian churches of Kessab appear in internet. Retrieved July 17, 2016 .
- ↑ Syrian Armenians: Terrorists burnt all Armenian churches in Kessab. Retrieved July 17, 2016 .
- ^ Armenia - Rebels Robbing Homes, Desecrating Churches in Kessab, Syria - SHOAH. Carpenter Says, accessed July 17, 2016 .
- ↑ Armenian Church of Kessab Was Re-consecrated. Lragir.am, July 28, 2014.
- ^ Valeriy Melnikov: Les Arméniens de Syrie survivent en défiant le terrorisme. Sputnik News , January 16, 2016.
- ↑ Kessab Villages. Kessabi Armenian's website, accessed November 26, 2017 .
- ↑ CONSECRATION OF ST. MARY'S CHURCH IN KARADURAN. (No longer available online.) Holy See of Cilicia, archived from the original on August 28, 2008 ; Retrieved November 26, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Pontifical visit of Catholicos Aram I to Syria. (No longer available online.) Azad Hye Middle East Armenian Portal, archived from the original ; Retrieved July 5, 2011 .
