ASIA/SYRIA – Syrian-Orthodox priest and laity arrested by Kurd military

Thursday, 19 February 2015

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Hassakè (Agenzia Fides) – Members of the Kurd armed forces connected with Pyd (Kurdish Democratic Union Party, Syrian section of Pkk) since Monday 16 February have been holding, Syrian-Orthodox priest Abba Gabriel Daoud with other leading members of Syrian Christian associations in the area of Hassakè. Reported by local sources the news was redirected by the Iraqi information website ankawa.com. The detained persons, at least 12, were arrested for moving without permission in areas under Kurd control. The sources add that Abba Gabriel, who had just returned from a transfer to Damascus, refused an offer to be released alone while the others remained detained.
In January 2014 Syrian Kurds had taken a step towards the creation of an autonomous political entity in the north-east of the country, announcing the formation of an autonomous government comprising 20 ministers. In that self-proclaimed government group, three Syrian Christians had been enrolled as ministers. Even before this, Syrian Catholic Archbishop Behnam Hindo warned that autonomist drives of militant Kurd nature, could not be considered the expression of prevailing sentiments among the local population.
“The only ones who want to create a Kurd led autonomous region in northern Syria ” the Archbishop titular of the Hassakè-Nisibi Eparchy explained, “are militant Pkk, the party of Abdullah Ocalan. However that project has not even the consensus of the rest of the Kurds, not to mention that of Muslim tribes or we Christians” (see Fides 11/10/2013). (GV) (Agenzia Fides 19/2/2015).