World must stand against tyranny in Syria

Orthodox Easter has passed, and a lot of Christians visited Israel and its holy sites.

Israel is the only country in the Middle East where Christians are not being persecuted.

The Middle East, once the cradle of Christianity, is gradually being emptied of Christians.

The situation is especially grave in Syria and in several regions of Iraq, both of which are occupied by a group of violent savages that call themselves the “Islamic State” (IS).

An Assyrians genocide is underway, and the world’s developed countries have done practically nothing to stop the massacre.

IS warriors methodically behead and torture Syrians, and take their women as sex slaves.

Taking a page from Hollywood, they make slick, professional recordings of their murderous deeds (beheadings, burning people alive, shooting people execution-style), and release the gory footage on the internet and social media as a propaganda/recruiting tool.

Up to 4,000 Assyrians live in Georgia, 2,000 live in the village of Kanda, in Kartli region.

They settled in Georgia in the 19th century, and have their language without an alphabet. They speak the Assyrian language at home in order to preserve it, and communicate with their compatriots on social networks.

“They kill children for their beliefs. The Muslim religion does not read such cruelty. This is terrorism. This is the genocide of Christians,” Father Seraphim says.

Assyrians living in Georgia ask people to pay more attention to the horrific developments taking place in Syria and Iraq.

A demonstration was recently held before the parliament building in Tbilisi, demanding the suspension of religious persecution.

“120,000 Assyrians have fled their homes and are refugees in other countries just because of their religion, it is unacceptable,” said the people gathered at the rally.

The demonstrators moved to the Trinity Cathedral, where Patriarch Ilia II blessed them.

Georgia can do little about the gruesome events in Syria and Iraq. However, the Georgian authorities can somehow hamper the flow of Georgian Muslims to these battlegrounds.

Eleven Georgians from Muslim-inhabited Pankisi gorge have already been killed while fighting for IS. According to locals, about 100 young Georgian men have managed to cross the border into Syria and join the extremists.

The locals have asked the government to pay close attention to this dangerous tendency. They claim that the government should introduce tough control at the Georgia-Turkey border through which the people leave for Syria. They also ask the government to address Pankisi’s severe socioeconomic troubles.

The locals stress that there are even some groups within the Pankisi gorge that recruit young men for the Islamic State.