Turkey's Involvement In The Attack On Syrian-Armenians In Kassab
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Rebels in Kassab, Syria (Screen Shot from Youtube)
The groups' attack was aided by the downing of a Syrian jet by the Turkish Military. Eyewitnesses claim that the jet was over Syrian territory and that the shooting of the jet is part of a Turkish military offensive against Syrians in the Kassab area.
The attack on the predominantly Armenian town in the province of Latakia resulted in a mass exodus of the entire Armenian community. An amateur video posted online showed two opposition rebels walking though Kassab, raising their arms in celebration. "The video appeared genuine and corresponded with The Associated Press reporting," states the Sacramento Bee.
The opposition is now in control of the Kassab border crossing to Turkey, and the Armenian town of the same name.
Syrian rebels killed at least 190 civilians in the same region and seized over 200 as hostages during an attack in Latakia last August, an act labeled a war crime by Human Rights Watch and other international observers.
SEE ALSO: Syria's Civil War In Australian Suburbs
The Turkish government allows rebels to use Turkish territory as a "logistical and support base," reports the Boston Globe. Turkey also provides weapons and allows fighters to move freely across the border.
The participation of Turkey in the destruction of the Armenian populated town in Syria cannot be reflected upon without remembering the murder of 1.5 million Armenians during the Genocide in 1915 perpetrated by the Turkish Ottoman government in the same region.
For Armenians across the world, memories of atrocities and injustice gloom over this week's events as survivors of the genocide in Kassab are once more refugees in a perennial plight for survival.
SEE ALSO: Turkey Covers Up The Armenian Genocide
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