A delegation of Australian bishops in Aleppo on a solidarity visit

A number of Australian bishops visited Aleppo on Friday to express solidarity with the Syrian people in the face of the unfair sanctions imposed by the West on them.

They stressed their condemnation of the unjust economic blockade imposed on Syria which affects citizens’ living and the work of the state’s institutions in all sectors.

The Australian delegation comprises bishops representing the Armenian Catholic, Armenian Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox, and Melkite Greek Catholic churches.

Upon their arrival members of the delegation met with Aleppo bishops and expressed their support for the Syrian people to alleviate their suffering from the war, the earthquake and the coercive economic measures.

Spokesman of the delegation, the Deputy Patriarch of the Armenian Catholic in Australia and New Zealand Basil Sousanian said in a statement to a SANA reporter that the visit aims at voicing solidarity with Syria which suffered from the war and then from a devastating earthquake and at expressing amity to the Syrian people who believe in their steadfast country despite all challenges and difficulties.

For his part, Boutros Kassis, the Archbishop of Aleppo Diocese and Its Dependencies for the Syriac Orthodox, clarified that the church has realized the importance of communication between the Syrian society, in all its components, and the international societies through the brotherly churches in different countries of the world. He said that the Church has called on the world churches to support the Syrian people by all available humanitarian and moral means and, more importantly, to reactivate the role of churches in urging governments to lift the unilateral coercive measures imposed on Syria.

Head of the Armenian Protestant Community on Syria, Reverend Haroutune Selimian, asserted the important role the church can play, as a basic component of society, in conveying the voice of the people to the concerned parties with the aim of ending the blockade and recognizing the peoples’ right to live in peace and dignity on their land.

Hamda Mustafa