The Plight of Syria's Christians

Floor Speech

Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, as winter descends upon the Middle East, the plight of Syria's people who have endured nearly 3 years of savage civil war grows more desperate with each passing day.

Fighting rages on throughout much of the country, and with the government forces making headway in recent months, many of the rebel groups have splintered, turning on each other. As in wars throughout history, it is civilians, especially children, who have borne much of the suffering.

More than 9 million Syrians are in need of humanitarian assistance, and a quarter of these, 2.2 million, have fled the country, mostly to neighboring Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey. Half of those refugees, more than a million people, are children.

Another 6.5 million Syrians are internally displaced, having fled their homes, but remaining inside the country, often in parts of Syria that have changed hands on multiple occasions and with attendant civilian suffering.

While all of Syria's people have been affected by fighting, it is Christians, who make up about 10 percent of the country's population, who are at greatest risk, given their small numbers and the increasingly religious nature of a war that started out as a broad-based secular movement that sought to change the character of the Syrian regime but not the regime itself.

For two millennia, Syria has been home to one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, a population dominated by the eastern churches, but also including smaller numbers of Catholics and Protestants. Syria's Christians have been comfortably and fully integrated into the economic, political, and cultural life of modern Syria and, despite their small numbers, are well represented among the country's elite. Tragically, this long, peaceful coexistence has been shattered, and half a million Syrian Christians, nearly one in four, have fled the country since the fighting began.

Like minorities the world over, Syrian Christians have tried to avoid getting dragged into the fighting that has gripped their homeland; but with their top two population centers, Aleppo and Homs, having seen some of the most savage fighting in the war, Christians have been unable to avoid being drawn into the conflict.

While the uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad did not start out as a sectarian conflict, it has increasingly taken on a religious tone, as many of the rebels have wrapped themselves in the mantle of fundamentalist Islam.

Initially, the Free Syrian Army and other large rebel groupings distanced themselves from the more religious rebel factions, some of whom are linked to al Qaeda, but even they have adopted an increasingly Islamist tone in recent months. This has exacerbated the plight of the Christians who are increasingly targeted simply because they are Christian and because they are seen by many Muslims as having backed the government.

The truth is that Syrian Christians, many of whom have family members among my Armenian American constituents, did not rally to the regime. Syrian Christians, like most other Syrians, simply wanted a freer, more open society and a greater voice in their own government. It is a testament to the depth of Christian desperation that atrocities perpetrated by radical Islamists have done more to test Christian neutrality than the use of chemical weapons and war crimes by the Assad regime.

Ending the Civil War through a negotiated solution represents the best prospect for peace, and the international community must insist that any agreement reached at the upcoming peace talks in Geneva or thereafter will guarantee the safety of Syria's minority populations.

In the meantime, America can do more to help those seeking refuge. That is why I have been working for much of the past year to convince the administration to allow humanitarian parole for the nearly 6,000 Syrians with approved immigrant petitions to the United States.

As hundreds of millions around the world prepare to celebrate the most joyful day of the Christian calendar, the international community must intensify its efforts to end this terrible war, and also to protect Syria's Christians and ensure the continued vitality of this 2,000-year-old community.

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