Bombs in Aleppo Rattle Syria’s Christian Community
Mar Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim, the Archbishop of Aleppo, Syria. (Photo: Dipu George)
BY JOYCE HACKEL
15/2/2012
Tensions remain high in Syria’s largest city Aleppo, where car bombs killed at least 28 people Friday. Syria’s government has deployed snipers and armoured vehicles in restive Aleppo neighborhoods.
Aleppo has not been a focus of the current conflict. But dozens of students at Aleppo University held a protest Monday. They carried placards in support of the Free Syrian Army, and condemned the government shelling of the northern city of Homs.
Aleppo is one of Syria’s most diverse cities. Its quarter of a million Christians have lived alongside Muslims for generations. Now relations between the city’s religious and ethnic communities are fraying, according to Mar Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim, the Archbishop of Aleppo.
Although he expresses some reservations about the current administration, the archbishop, for the most part, supports the Syrian regime.
“After Bashar, we don’t know who’s coming. Therefore we support the president,” he said.
“You have the whole world against Bashar al-Assad as a president. And you have some people inside also against him. So how he can move?” the archbishop added.
