Middle East believers say the enemies of their enemies are not necessarily their friends.
As reports circulated that Turkey had violated its five-day pause in operations against the Kurds on the Syrian border, President Recep Tayyip Erdoan’s rhetoric intensified. If Kurdish fighters did not withdraw from their positions, as agreed between Erdogan and President Donald Trump, Turkey would “crush their heads.”
The front now appears quiet as Turkey has secured its “safe zone” in cooperation with Russia.
In America, as reported in the press, Christian opinion has been almost universal in its condemnation. But the Christian landscape in the Middle East, home to the oldest and some of the most enduring persecuted traditions in the faith, offers a complex array of responses.
CT has previously covered anti-Turkish sentiment from the Syriac, Assyrian, and Protestant communities of the region.
But there is an underreported—and contested—pro-Turkey and anti-Kurdish contingent as well.
Arameans:
“President Trump is right on Syria!” stated Johny Messo, president of the World Council of Arameans, in a press release. “These ‘heroes’ have oppressed vulnerable Arameans, taken their innocent lives, Kurdified their lands, and still use a tiny Christian group as their mouthpiece.”
The Arameans, though an ancient expression of Christianity, represent a 20th-century revival of identity tied to the ancient biblical land of Aram. Communities exist in Syria, Turkey, and elsewhere in the region, and have been recognized by Israel.
While the West has rallied behind the democratic Syrian enclave that permits religious freedom, Messo says what it commonly called Kurdistan is actually ancient Christian territory, taken over.
When Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces enter ...
from Christianity Today Magazine https://ift.tt/2JiUKVO
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