Today, many people are concerned about the converted Armenians, especially people who have had the opportunity to communicate with them. Syrian-Armenian doctor, member of the Emergency Committee in Jezireh District, Chairman of the AGBU Qamishli Chapter Zareh Simonian is one of those people who agreed to share his concerns in an interview with “«hayernaysor.am».

Zareh Simonian: The first time I came across the issue of converted Armenians was in 1988 when I had several meetings with writer Sero Khanzadyan, who was involved in the issues of Hamshen-Armenians. Sero Khanzadyan really wanted to help them and always said that the important thing is to have the spirit of an Armenian. Until then, I had no idea about the Hamshen-Armenians.

We’ve been discussing the issue of converted Armenians at different levels for the past decade. We’ve also discussed the matter with Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan and Director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute Hayk Demoyan.

In Syria there are converted Kurds and Arabs who aren’t afraid to speak out about their Armenian identity anymore and want to return to their roots. Those people need our help. They are people who have put their lives at risk and want to become Armenian, become baptized, and we have to do something to help them.

I haven’t been to Sasun or any other part of Western Armenia, but I consider myself an Armenian from Sasun and take pride in that. Those people are like that too. They believe in Islam, but take pride in their roots and national identity. It comes from the inside. After a couple of generations, there won’t be so much motivation.

Many of us have provided assistance, but we need to solve this issue together. Taking the opportunity, I would like to thank leader of the Catholic Community of Hasakeh Antranik Aivazian, who supports everyone and has already baptized nearly 50 Islamized Armenians.

There are many young Kurds in Qamishli who consider themselves Armenian. They want to learn Armenian. We organized Armenian language lessons before the Syrian war, but we weren’t able to continue because of the incidents.

Those Kurds confess their Armenian identity by their will and conscience, not to take advantage of “being Armenian”, like some people tend to think. They are mainly well-educated doctors and engineers. There is a new “I Am Armenian” Movement on the Internet that is aimed at bringing converted Armenians together.

Another important fact is that those converted people could be eyewitnesses of the Armenian Genocide for the triumph of the Armenian Cause.

I can share some stories. One time, an Arab approached me and said her grandmother living in Del Ahmad was Armenian and would be very happy to see me. We visited her. She was a 107-year old woman with wrinkles, but you could feel that there was “Armenianness” in her. She was six or seven years old when the Turks killed her family members. She was raised by an Arab family, which later married her to an Arab man. That woman had 250 inheritors and was still living last year.

We visited a house and saw old men watching a program on an Armenian television channel. We asked them if they understood the language. They said they didn’t, but the important thing was that they were listening to the language of their ancestors.

In 1995-96, I met two Arabs at a hospital and was surprised to see that they were speaking in Armenian with each other, talking about how expensive the service is and how they had to pay. I felt like I was in a dream, seeing Arabs speak in Armenian. I approached them and became more surprised when I found out that the brothers’ names were Tigran and Suren. I found out that their mother, who was at the hospital, was Armenian and had taught them Armenian. They said they started speaking in Armenian because they thought nobody would understand them. I visited their mother, and even though we were only providing free assistance to Armenian patients, I told her that we would cover her expenses at the hospital. I kept in touch with that family for a long time, but I got disconnected when they moved to Saudi Arabia.

There are a lot of people like them in Syria today. If we can’t take advantage of them the right way, we can lose them as well. The Armenians who don’t become Christians will become a more radical follower of Islam.

Therefore, we have to take care of them. To this day, we haven’t done anything, but it’s still not too late. We have to find a way to help them. Of course, we have to be careful, but we shouldn’t be afraid of raising this issue.

By Lusine Abrahamyan