Two Armenian families from Kobani to resettle in Armenia next week

Two Armenian families from Kobani to resettle in Armenia next week –

On July 1 The Turkish newspaper Hurriet reported that the last  Armenian families left Kobani due to ISIL attack . Some of these Armenian families are currently living at the Turkish Prime Ministry Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) refugee camp in the Suruç district of Şanlıurfa province. 

Two of thre Armenian families that have moved to Turkey will arrive Armenia in the end of this week. The families expressed willingness to resettle in Armenia. They will arrive in Armenia on August 30 accompanied by Aram Ateshyan.

Kobane/Ayn al-Arab was founded as a small settlement in 1892 during the Ottoman period. It became a town in 1911 with the construction of a railway station there.  It was soon populated by Armenian refugees fleeing persecution in Turkey in 1915, although many were forcefully moved further south, scattered between Qamishli and Deir el-Zor. The Armenians were followed by Kurds from Anatolia.  By the middle of the 20th century, there were three Armenian churches and two schools in the town, but most of the Armenian population emigrated to the Soviet Union in the 1960s.  Until the start of the Syrian civil war many Armenians worked around Kobani in various fields and many Armenian families trace some roots to Ayn al-Arab.  According to political scientist Cengiz Aktar of the Istanbul Policy Center, the area surrounding Kobani is known as “‘the Armenian cemetery’ because of the thousands of Armenians who died there during the deportations of 1915.