The guest: Eastern Christians in turmoil

It is the end of the reign of Bashar el-Assad, the Syrian rebels carried out an impressive offensive on the night of Saturday December 7 to Sunday December 8, they took the capital, Damascus. The Syrian president and his family are said to be in Moscow. In an interview with Le Monde, Franco-Syrian analyst Jihad Yazigi sees the disintegration of Syrian institutions, particularly the army, which is underpaid and under-equipped, as the main reason for the spectacular breakthrough of the rebellion.

About 10% of the Syrian population is Christian. Christians are divided into several confessions: the Syriacs (called syrian in Arabic, or Suryoyo or souraya in modern Syriac) are by far the most numerous, followed by the Orthodox Greeks (around 250,000, Christians of the Byzantine rite), then come the Melkite Catholic Greeks (around 200,000, Christians of the Byzantine rite united in Rome since 1724) , the Maronites, the Syriacs, the Assyrians and the Chaldeans (aachouriine et kaldane in Arabic), Protestants and Roman Catholics (Latin rite).

There is also a large Armenian community living mainly in Aleppo, descended from survivors of the 1915 genocide perpetrated by the Ottomans during the First World War. There were around 250,000 Armenians in Syria at the start of the 1960s; there were 190,000 in 2010.

It has been a week since the jihadists entered Aleppo. Aleppo has been in the hands of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) for a week. They entered without encountering any resistance. With almost no fighting. […]

Fifteen years ago, Aleppo had 150,000 Christians. There were only 25,000 left, the war and the years of siege from 2012 to 2016 decimated them. Today, no one can say how many Christians remain in Aleppo. The Christian community in Syria has gone through a succession of tragedies over the last thirteen years, marked by war, bombings, exodus and shortages aggravated by international sanctions which weigh on the entire population.

The disappearance of Christians in Syria would mean the loss of an essential part of Christian civilization. However, there is no awareness of the international community to help them, only local associations trying to do their best.

Support to provide

France celebrates the reopening of Notre-Dame de Paris. A chapel dedicated to Eastern Christians will be installed in the cathedral and inaugurated on May 25, 2025 for the World Day of Eastern Christians. The Christians of Aleppo are in the news today with the Syrian conflict, there are also the Christians of Lebanon (where they still have a position of power with 50% of the seats in parliament), of Egypt (where the Copts represent more than 15% of the population), from Iraq, Jordan, Armenia, Pakistan, Ethiopia who also deserve all our support.

Iraq, for example, between the abuses of the Islamic State organization, the wars and the embargoes, is now a traumatized and wounded country. Eastern Christians are among the first victims: under Saddam Hussein, there were a million and a half in the country, but there are only 150,000 today.

It’s almost the Christmas holidays, the Christians of Europe must not forget the Christians of the East!

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