HATAY
Two old Syrian Armenians fleeing to Turkey amid escalating tension in a village in the coastal province of Latakia have settled in Hatay.
Two Armenian sisters Sirpuhi Titizyan, 80, and Satenik, 82, were saved from their houses in Kassab by Syrian opposition fighters and settled in a neighborhood populated largely by Armenians in Hatay's Samandag town.
Sirpuhi Titizyan told Anadolu Agency that she had no kin in Syria other than her sister Satenik and her married daughter in Aleppo, with whom she had lost contact following the escalation of the conflict in the village.
She said: "We could not walk out of the house, we were hardly walking. We could not understand what was going on outside. We used to make shopping once or more in a month for the kitchen. We were out of food when the conflicts started, but we could not walk out.
"One morning, some 10 people entered into our home who we later learned were Syrian opposition fighters. We were very scared at first, but they asked if we need anything and brought something for us to eat. They were very kind to us."
She said she and her sister asked the opposition fighters to bring them to Latakia, but they declined due to the level of insecurity on the roads, so they then asked to be taken to Turkey.
Cem Capar, the Armenian community leader of the Vakıflı neighborhood where the sisters have settled, pointed to the sufferings of the Armenian people in the Syrian war.
"We raised our voices over Sunni massacres. We wished for an urgent end to this war. Also, we did the same regarding Alawite massacres. Now Armenians are suffering, they empty their houses. We wish for the war to come to a stop and these people to find peace," Capar said.
