The massacres of the Alawite and Christian minorities in Syria are a
"terrible crime" and a "genocide", Archbishop Jacques Mourad of Homs
said during a recent visit to Germany, AsiaNews.it reported (March 11).
Archbishop Mourad himself was held hostage by the Islamic State for four months in 2015.
Reports put the death toll at 1,500, including more than 1,000 civilians, women, children.
The current government, led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, is responsible, Monsignor Mourad said.
He believes that neighboring Turkey is also responsible for the excesses of violence:
"Turkey shares the responsibility because the borders with Syria are
open at the level of Idlib. That's where the military, these fanatical
groups, come through to carry out these massacres."
He appeals to the "international community" and out of all the UN as an alleged "peacekeeping force" for help.
For
Archbishop Mourad, all agreements, including the recent one with the
Kurds, are "theoretical; what matters is to evaluate their application.
The priority remains to meet the basic needs of the people: drinking water, electricity, wages.
Among
the critical factors, two in particular are of great concern:
international sanctions and Israeli interference through air raids and
incursions into Syrian territory:
"There are internal and external factors that hinder the recovery, especially the daily attacks by Israel. All this is happening without any intervention from the international community, neither the UN nor the European Union."
"On
the contrary, it is crucial to stop these attacks on Syria. Because the
question is whether the international community wants peace for Syria,
or whether it wants to fuel escalation and war and complicate the lives
of Syrians. From this perspective, a destroyed and divided Syria seems
useful. But if we ask the people, they all say they want a single and
united nation, which can live in peace."
Picture: Jacques Mourad © wikicommons, CC BY-SA, #newsFtexoaifpc