[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 18030]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    THE PLIGHT OF SYRIA'S CHRISTIANS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Schiff) for 5 minutes.
  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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