{"id":8302,"date":"2015-01-10T21:15:55","date_gmt":"2015-01-10T21:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/?p=8302"},"modified":"2015-01-10T21:19:02","modified_gmt":"2015-01-10T21:19:02","slug":"kessab-churches-destroyed-syrian-rebels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/kessab-churches-destroyed-syrian-rebels\/","title":{"rendered":"Kessab Churches Destroyed by Syrian Rebels"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Graffiti<\/a>
Graffiti was plastered on church walls by rebels in Kessab.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Christian churches were destroyed\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>by Syrian rebels in the town of Kessab.<\/p>\n

Ruth Sherlock reports in the Telegraph how the Holy Trinity Armenian Evangelical church was destroyed\u2014its library, pews, altar, and graveyard burned and vandalized by Syrian rebels.<\/p>\n

Before the assault on Kessab, rebel fighters were instructed to act like \u201cmoderate Muslims\u201d and \u201cnatural allies of the West.\u201d<\/p>\n

Syrian rebels tried to reassure<\/strong> <\/a>Kessab residents in March 2014 that they were not intolerant of Christians and other minority religions. They claimed that they were \u201cnon-sectarian protectors\u201d of the city.<\/p>\n

Rebels from Syria and the Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham snapped pictures of themselves guarding churches and conversing civilly with locals. Approximately 30 elderly Armenians were driven in buses to Turkey, where they received a warm reception that was covered by state television.<\/p>\n

However, the destruction of the churches disproves the above picture of good intentions. As soon as the television cameras turned away, the rebels turned on the people they were supposedly protecting and began burning and desecrating churches.<\/p>\n

Sherlock, who works as a Middle East journalist for the Telegraph stated<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The perpetrators had shown both purpose and glee in their destruction of Christian sites in the ancient Armenian town. Statues were riddled with bullets and Islamist slogans were scrawled across the walls of homes and shops.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Father Miron Avedissian, priest of the Armenian Apostolic Church related his story:<\/p>\n

\u201cThey took photographs to show they were looking after the churches, and then set them alight\u2026It all still happened in the first day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no God but Allah\u201d is now plastered on walls, doors, and shop fronts of Kessab\u2019s streets. Father Avedissian\u2019s church suffered the same fate. The crosses outside the church were peppered with bullet holes, and the interior was blackened by fire.<\/p>\n

Nothing remained of the nearby Holy Trinity Armenian Evangelical Church but a charred shell. Graffiti covered the church\u2019s walls, naming the rebel groups who participated in the vandalism.<\/p>\n

One resident, Zavinar Sargdegian, witnessed one of the churches being set on fire by rebels. She said:<\/p>\n

\u201cI was at home with my husband when they raided the house\u2026they broke down the front door. They pushed us on to the street. We were on our knees and they put a gun to our heads. From the road I saw the Angelic Church burning. Fire was coming out of the doors and windows.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Kessab was captured<\/strong> <\/a>on 24 March 2014 by Muslim and Syrian rebels there was controversy surrounding how much damage was actually done. Some reports claim<\/strong> <\/a>that much of the reports were propaganda.<\/p>\n

But some facts are not debated. With the help of Turkey, rebels did overrun the Kessab, and its 2,500 Armenian Christian inhabitants were forced to flee for their lives. Numerous photographs show the destruction of churches and other buildings.<\/p>\n

Rebels, by nature, are not moderate. Nor are they protectors of innocent people.<\/p>\n

Please continue to pray for peace and protection for our fellow Christians in Syria.<\/p>\n

Find out how to join Christian Voice and stand up for the King of kings (clicking on the link below does not commit you to join)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Please note that persons wishing to comment on this story must enter a valid email address. Comments from persons leaving fictitious email addresses will be trashed.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christian churches were destroyed\u00a0by Syrian rebels in the town of Kessab. Ruth Sherlock reports in the Telegraph how the Holy Trinity Armenian Evangelical church was destroyed\u2014its library, pews, altar, and graveyard burned and vandalized by Syrian rebels. Before the assault on Kessab, rebel fighters were instructed to act like \u201cmoderate Muslims\u201d and \u201cnatural allies of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,184],"tags":[1392,390],"class_list":["post-8302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-freedom","category-uk-christian-constitution","tag-kessab","tag-syria"],"aioseo_notices":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Robin","author_link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/author\/robin\/"},"rttpg_comment":1,"rttpg_category":"Christian freedom<\/a> UK Christian Constitution<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"Christian churches were destroyed\u00a0by Syrian rebels in the town of Kessab. Ruth Sherlock reports in the Telegraph how the Holy Trinity Armenian Evangelical church was destroyed\u2014its library, pews, altar, and graveyard burned and vandalized by Syrian rebels. Before the assault on Kessab, rebel fighters were instructed to act like \u201cmoderate Muslims\u201d and \u201cnatural allies of…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8302\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}