An Open Letter to Congressman Adam Schiff

Editor’s Note: Last week Asbarez published an op-ed by Rep. Adam Schiff, who urged intensification of efforts by the international community to assist the Christian community in Syria. Zaven Khanjian, the chairman of the Syrian Armenian Relief Fund, has submitted an open letter to Rep. Schiff, which we publish today. We would like to stress again that opinions expressed by individuals do not necessarily reflect the policies of Asbarez and any organization, on which the publication reports, nor do we necessarily share the views expressed toward Rep. Schiff or any other public official.

Congressman Schiff,

With utmost pain and bewilderment, I read your article about “The Plight of Syria’s Christians” on the December 4 issue of Asbarez Post.

Finally and after nearly three years of uninterrupted and vicious covert action for a regime change in Syria, enthusiastically supported by you and your misguided colleagues on Capitol Hill, you come to plainly and accurately describe the open graveyard that my birthplace, Syria, has turned into.

Accounts of witnesses and conditions on the ground testify to the fact that

death, destruction, displacement and despair in recent wars past, fade away compared to what the perpetrators of this calamity succeeded in achieving in Syria.

And you Congressman, supported those who were intent on destroying Syria.

You supported the sanctions imposed on Syria in which the Syrian Christians were equally victimized.

You supported the funding, arming and invasion of Syria by gangs of extremist fanatics whose imported symbols of freedom and democracy were depicted in kidnapping bishops and nuns, slashing throats of Christian priests and the desecration of Christian & other houses of worship.

Through your silence and lack of condemnation you supported the repeated violations of Syrian sovereignty by Israel and its destructive air raids on targets where Syria’s Christians, proudly serving the Syrian army were naturally among the targets.

And at the threshold of the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide, do I remember a condemnation of Turkey’s role in opening the gates of HELL on “good neighbor and friendly” Syria, allowing the funding, training, arming and access of the world’s jihadists through it’s long joint border? Did I hear you condemn Turkey’s role in the destruction of the Genocide survivors’ safe haven, the heroic city of Aleppo, and the attack on the Armenian Genocide monument in Der El Zor?

You were one of the first to hail the Obama Administration’s ‘bright” decision to compound the pain and suffering of the Syrians, including Syria’s Christians, by remotely bombing Syria for an ugly crime ( a last desperate effort of the foreign criminal gangs in Syria trying in vain, to secure a foreign intervention? ) . And you only changed your mind, Mr. Schiff, after witnessing the tsunami of opposition from the American people against any kind of attack on Syria.

And when did this love of Syria’s Christians wake up in you, Mr. Schiff? And what’s so special about Syria’s Christians?

Your enthusiastic support of George Bush’s war on and occupation of Iraq resulted in the demise of hundreds, the displacement of thousands and the exodus of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Christians from their ancestral lands.

Your blank-check support of Israel’s discriminative policies, perpetual occupation, land seizure, settlement expansion, violence against the indigenous population in occupied Palestine have long ended the “continued vitality” of the two thousand year old Christian communities, including the exodus of tens of thousands of Armenians, who once called Bethlehem, Jerusalem and Palestine, the cradle of Christianity, their home.

Shall I continue with Egypt, Sudan or Lebanon?

Enough said about your care and compassion for Christians in the Middle East.

Congressman, spare us the insult of shedding crocodile tears over the Christian communities in Syria and the Middle East.

For a century indeed and the last 40 years in particular, The Christian communities in Syria lived in peace, security, prosperity and an atmosphere of cultural & religious freedom, until the allies you supported, introduced “freedom” and “democracy” to the region.

Congressman, when it comes to Syria, silence, and a hands-off policy, will be the best demonstration of respect towards the Plight of Syria’s Christians.

Respectfully,
Zaven Khanjian