To prepare for the Armenian language’s inclusion in the curriculum of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) in the next school year, the Armenian Council of North and East Syria has held its first language training course for Armenian. The council is also planning lessons on the history and culture of the Armenian community.

Enormous challenges in recent years have driven out most of North and East Syria’s Christian community, from Assyrians, Syriacs, Chaldeans, to the Armenian community. The approximately 100,000 Christians who remain have organized within the institutions of the AANES to protect their languages, cultures, faiths, and religious traditions after facing catastrophic losses against ISIS and other terrorist groups. 

Massive numbers of the Christian peoples of North and East Syria originally came to the region fleeing the Sayfo genocide committed against them by the Ottoman Empire a century ago.