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    Categories: 2018

Turkish Press: Armenian Patriarchate of Turkey expresses support for Afrin operation

Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
Jan 23 2018

Turkey’s Armenian Patriarchate has expressed support for the Turkish military’s operation in Syria’s Afrin district, which is currently being controlled by the People’s Protection Units (YPG).

“We wish the Turkish Armed Forces success in ‘Operation Olive Branch,’” the Istanbul-based patriarchate said in a written statement on Jan. 22.

“We pray for the end of terrorist activities and the establishment of peace and common sense in the region,” the statement added.

Moris Levi, the deputy leader of the Turkish Jewish community and a representative of the religious community foundations in Turkey, also expressed support for the operation in a tweet on Jan. 21.

“As the community foundations, we wish success to our armed forces in ‘Operation Olive Branch,’ and wish that common sense, peace, constructive cooperation, and peace will prevail in our region and in the world,” he said.

“The community foundations, the Turkish Armenian Patriarchate and the Turkish Jewish Community are standing by our army. We thank them all,” Presidential Spokesperson İbrahim Kalın said on his Twitter account on Jan. 23.

Kalın added that unity was “Turkey’s biggest strength.”

Turkey on Jan. 20 launched “Operation Olive Branch” to remove the YPG militia from Afrin.

According to the Turkish General Staff, the operation aims to establish security and stability along Turkish borders and in the region.

Emil Lazarian: “I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS